DriftAwaySoap

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            photo by Nickleen Faucher

BUT FIRST....

A LITTLE ABOUT LYE

           You can not make real soap without lye.   Oils + Lye = SOAP.   It is a chemical reaction called saponification.   I liken the process to baking a cake.   All the ingredients start out as themselves but when combined with the inherent heat the process creates,  a brand new molecule is born - SOAP!    A cake isn't  flour and eggs and butter and sugar.... and there is no lye in the finished soap.   So if my ingredients say olive oil and lye what you are getting is soap made from olive oil and lye,  AKA saponified olive oil.   To further insure that no excess lye lingers after saponification is complete,  I use a common practice called  "superfatting".    After calculating the required amount of lye needed to transform the oils in my recipe into soap, I subtract 5% - 8% of total amount of lye needed.   This not only insures that no lye is left untransformed it also makes for a milder and creamier finished soap.   As artificial as lye (sodium hydroxide)  sounds,  it has been historically produced by filtering water through the ashes from hardwood fires.   This caustic substance has been used for the purpose of soap making for thousands of years.  Today it is manufactured in controlled scientific laboratories.   There are various grades of lye that can be produced.   I use Food Grade lye rather than common Tech Grade as it is "purer" and less likely to contain unnecessary contaminates.   Also to note: the manufacturer's label says that it is kosher. 

AND...

THE HISTORY OF SOAP

          It is believed that as early as 4000 BC, Babylonian hunters discovered that fat from their game could be mixed with the ashes from their cooking fires to create a cleaning substance.  A  formula for soap was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2800 BC.  The recipe called for water, ashes, and cassia oil.  In later times, a  system of extracting liquid lye using water poured into wooden casks full of ash was used for as more uniform methods of production were needed.  Throughout history in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Arabic world people were combining animal fats and/or vegetable oils with water and wood ashes to make soap.  In the medieval Kingdom of Castile during the 15th & 16th centuries, people began mass producing and exporting soap made with the more locally abundant olive oil, rather than using animal remains.  Although olive oil only soap was traditionally popular in Northern Italy and Israel, the Kingdom of Castile had dominated the trade market for it.  Thus the story of our now familiar Castile soap, made with 100% olive oil, begins.  Soon after, soap makers in France gained popularity with olive oil based soaps that included blends of other vegetable oils with unique contributing properties.  DriftAwaySoap's  recipes are inspired by the traditional craftsmanship of these times.

If this sort of thing interests you,  take a look at my Soap Box the Blog at  www.driftawaysoap.wrdpress.com