Soap without Lye?!

I spend a good deal of time in front of customers. I do this because I genuinely really like people. I enjoy interactions and exchanging ideas. Many of my customers are a great source of inspiration and seeds of current and future products have come from our conversations. These public events are also a great place for me to interact with those who are not currently customers of Très Spa. They too are a great source of inspiration. It was a recent event that gave me the inspiration for this post. But then it really doesn’t take much of a nudge to get me to talk about soap! If you have seen my soap, I think it is easy to see that it is one of my passions.

A curious browser came by to sniff and sample some of the delicious Très Spa products. While she was visiting we struck up a conversation. She was looking for soap that had not been made using lye of any kind. Her search was genuine and she wanted to understand how soap is made. Well, give me half a chance and I am happy to share what I know.

Of course with my background and schooling in Engineering partnered with my background and schooling in Psychology scientific explanations take on a whole new color. I tend to tell stories and paint pictures for people. Molecules have personalities and reactions can have emotional significance. It’s been that way for me all my life. For as long as I can remember I had always seen a psychology in science. So we talked about NaOH and the excitement that happens when it’s awash with water and then how the lye meets the fat molecules and they join to create something wondrous, something neither could do without the other, something that was a true gift = Saponification. To the best of my knowledge this is the only way it could ever happen, the only way to create Soap.

Fascinated, I asked her where she had ever seen such a soap? Can it be done? Can true soap be created without lye? Had this passer-by found a soap that had never met NaOH (sodium hydroxide)or KOH (potassium hydroxide)? Inquiring minds want to know! So I asked. She told me the name of this natural cosmetic company and said she wasn’t sure if it was bar soap or liquid soap. No problem, I’ll search for both! I could not wait to look at this wondrous product! I searched the web and was genuinely pleased to see they are public with their list of ingredients (a key trust factor for me). But then my excitement faded as I read the list of ingredients. Toping the list of ingredients: Sodium cocoate, Sodium palmate, and Sodium kernalate. Well some may list this as Saponified coconut and Palm or Palm Kernal oils and others of use simply spell it out in the full list as sodium hydroxide (common in bar soap) or potassium hydroxide (common in liquid soaps). All of the variations are allowed for correct product labeling, just seems that one is more plain than the others. They all started the same way, Oil mixed with water and either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.

Not stopping there, I took a gander at the liquid soap. Topping the list in this product; Soap. OK and we know where soap comes from so…..

Now there well may be a way to make soap without using the ingredients I know. But how that is done and what is used? I have not discovered yet but I’ll be sure to keep looking. If you know of soap, real soap, that is made differently, I would love to hear from you!

There really is a great deal of science that goes into soap making and if you are really interested in the subject, I highly recommend my favorite soap scientist Kevin Dunn. You can purchase his book, The Science of Soap Making. He often is a presenter at the HSMG conferences and has always been my favorite. But I am goofy that way. I see the art and beauty in the science of nature. I would never profess to know it all. In fact, I like to think my gift is making the complex simple and the complicated easier to understand.

To learn more about Très Spa Products, visit us on-line at www.tresspa.com