Can you use baking soda instead of lye to make soap?

It is certainly possible to make an acceptable cold process soap using baking soda or washing soda, but lather performance suffers compared to the same soap formula without them.

What can I use instead of lye in soap making?

The main way that you can make soap without handling lye is by using melt-and-pour soap. It’s already been through saponification (oils reacting with lye) and is safe to use and handle straight out of the package. All you do with it is melt it, add your scent, color, and other additives, then pour it into molds.

Can I use baking soda to make soap?

Like vinegar and citric acid, baking soda works to reverse the saponification process that cold process soap goes through to make soap. This can lead to a failed soap batch or a really soft soap that never actually hardens.

Can you use baking soda instead of lye in soap making?

In cold process soap, we did a few tests of adding baking soda to lye water and soap batter. … Fortunately, we found that adding baking soda to rebatch worked wonderfully. In the Soothing Baking Soda Oatmeal Bath Bar, baking soda creates a scrubby bar that gives gentle exfoliation.

Can you make lye from baking soda?

Just spread a layer of soda on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake it at 250 to 300 degrees for an hour. You’ll lose about a third of the soda’s weight in water and carbon dioxide, but you gain a stronger alkali. … Baked soda is also strong enough to make a good lye substitute for pretzels.

What can I substitute for lye?

Baked Baking Soda!

A common home alternative to lye when making pretzels or bagels is to use a baking soda solution.

What is a natural substitute for lye?

The bulk oils I keep on hand for soap making (and general cooking and use) are:
  • Coconut Oil.
  • Olive Oil.
  • Shea Butter.
  • Cocoa Butter.
  • Castor Oil.
  • Avocado Oil.
  • Mango Butter.

Why is my homemade soap turning white?

If you make cold process soap, there’s a good chance you’ve gotten soda ash. It creates an uneven, white, ashy film on the bars. … Soda ash forms when unsaponified lye reacts with naturally-occurring carbon dioxide in the air. It doesn’t affect the final bars and the soap is safe to use.

Is lye the same as baking soda?

Lye is a stronger alkaline than baking soda or sodium bicarbonate, with a pH reading ranging from around 13 to 14. Its base of sodium hydroxide is created commercially by the electrolysis of sodium chloride solution, as well as reacting calcium hydroxide with sodium carbonate, according to the FDA.

How do you make soap for beginners?

Soap making science and ingredients for beginners
  1. Mix water and lye, set aside to cool.
  2. Melt oils, set aside to cool.
  3. Blend lye water and oils to form a soap “batter”
  4. Pour into mold and let harden for a day.
  5. Turn out of mold, cut into bars and let cure for 2-3 weeks.

What ingredients do you need to make homemade soap?

The basic ingredients of soap are:
  1. animal fat or vegetable oil.
  2. 100 percent pure lye.
  3. distilled water.
  4. essential or skin-safe fragrance oils (optional)
  5. colorants (optional)

Is making homemade soap worth it?

homemade soap allows you to control it. You can research the fragrances and colors you are comfortable with, you can leave them out, you can search for organic oils. It is entirely in your control. Conclusion: homemade soap is a superior product to store bought detergent bars.


How do you make soap with 3 ingredients?

And just tear it out and it’ll start back over at zero. So we’re gonna measure out the oil first and

How do you make homemade lye?

To make lye in the kitchen, boil the ashes from a hardwood fire (soft woods are too resinous to mix with fat) in a little soft water, rain water is best, for about half an hour. Allow the ashes to settle to the bottom of the pan and then skim the liquid lye off the top.

What is a good substitute for sodium hydroxide?

In summary, magnesium hydroxide is a safe alternative alkali to use as a replacement for sodium hydroxide and is readily available as both a powder and as 63% solids slurry.

What is the pH of lye?

When the pH of a substance is above 7, it is a basic substance. When the pH of a substance is below 7, it is an acid substance. The further the pH lies above or below 7, the more basic or acid a solution is.

Acids and bases.
pH product
14 sodium hydroxide
13 lye
12.4 lyme
11 ammonia