Homemade Lye Soap

Homemade Lye soap is one of the great homemade soap recipes, it's fantastic for people with sensitive skin and is an excellent cleanser for people suffering with acne.

Lye soap is made using the cold soap making process , and is a great pre-wash for getting dirt and grime out of the laundry. After you make lye soap, scrape the sides of the pan and put the scraping outside to keep ants away.

Making Lye Soap

Be very careful when you make lye soap as you could find the chemicals in them are quite caustic.

Always use protective goggles and gloves. If you do get any on your skin during your soap-making, don't use water - pour vinegar over the affected area.

Ingredients

12oz (340g) lye crystals
21oz (620ml) ice cold distilled water
5lb (2.48kg) vegetable shortening (or lard)

Method

Prepare a box made from cardboard, plastic, wood or glass and line it with plastic wrap or waxed paper. This will become your soap mold.

Pour the water into a mixing bowl and carefully add the lye into the water, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the lye has dissolved. Cover with a light cloth and leave to cool to around 110F while you prepare your shortening.

Melt the shortening in a pan. Stir a little to make sure it's melted entirely. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool a little. When it's cooled to around 95F (35C), begin to stir it. While you're stirring, slowly pour the lye/water mixture into the shortening in a thin stream. The key to a good soap mixture it constant, slow stirring.

When you've poured all the lye into the shortening, you should find that the soap is quite thick, almost like a thickened pudding texture.

Pour your homemade lye soap into a plastic-lined box or mold. Cover the top with a lid or card, then wrap it in a towel and allow it to set for a couple of hours in a nice warm area. The soap should still be soft enough to cut into bars with a table knife. Don't use anything that will be sharp enough to cut through the plastic lining and continue to handle with gloves for the first 48 hours . Once you've cut your bars, leave the soap to set for a further week before you remove it from the mold. You will then need to leave your soap in a dry placed to cure for around a month before it's ready for use.