10. Thou shalt not covet thy fellow soaper’s soaps. I’m sure they would be happy to sell you some, in the event that you do not wish to make your own.

9. Thou shalt not give false testimony concerning thy fellow soaper’s soaps. Let’s be fair- all handcrafted soap is made with Lye. But if made properly, your competitor’s soap doesn’t have any lye in it, just like yours! And, contrary to a posting I saw last night by a soaper trying to make her product look more safe than another’s, Coconut Oil IS NOT the same thing as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. There are SO many instances on the net where uninformed people are attempting to inform…  But, that’s a topic for another blog.

8. Thou shalt not steal thy neighbor’s beautiful handcrafted soap that they bought from the Natural Bar Soap Company. Please visit www.barsoapnatural or www.thenaturalbarsoapcompany.com to purchase your own!

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery against your handcrafted soap. Once you use it, you can never go back!! Any attempts to purchase or use commercial soaps will  be punished!

6. Thou shalt not kill your ugly batches of soap. Chunk them. Shave them. Rebatch them. An ugly batch can be remade into a thing of beauty!

5. Honor thy Mother and thy Father… on their birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Veteran’s Day, Groundhog’s Day, etc., by giving them handcrafted soap!

4.  Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy (and unstinky!)-  Take a bath Saturday night, with handcrafted, Natural Soap! You’ll be squeaky clean for Sunday morning.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of a fellow soaper in vain. Even if they sell more than you, even if their soaps are prettier and smell better, even if you secretly (or publicly) wish theirs was yours.

2. Thou shalt not make soap an idol. Even if the soap really is that good, it would not be proper. Although, allowing it to be part of your daily routine is perfectly acceptable, and your skin will love you for it!

1. Thou Shalt have no other soaps, besides The Natural Bar Soap Company’s soaps!

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Dermathetics are so abundant that artisan soapcrafters should never have a need to use synthetic exfoliants, colorants or lab-synthesized additives in their handmade soaps. Dermathetics not only add wonderful, skin-benefitting qualities to your soaps, but can also provide natural colors, fragrances and exfoliating ability. By definition, a dermathetic is a soap additive used to contribute skin-sympathetic attributes. For the natural soapmaker, the most commonly used dermathetics are herbs.

Herbs can be added to soap in many ways. If you do not wish to contribute any exfoliating properties to your soap, but are only interested in the active compounds in your herbs, or in the color the herb will lend to the soap, use an infusion of the plant in oil.

Select one of the oils that will be used in your soap recipe. Weigh out the appropriate amount in a mason jar. I generally add about 1 t. to 1 T. herbs per pound of oils in the total recipe, depending on the depth of color I’m aiming for. Allow the mixture to sit for a week or more. The resulting herb-infused oil can be mixed with the other oils in your recipe when you’re ready to make soap. Try using tomato powder to lend powerful antioxidants and a reddish/orange color to your soap. Rosemary powder also adds antioxidants, but yields a light beige to camel color.

Herbs can also be used in powdered form and added at trace during the soapmaking process. Some powdered herbs, such as pulverized thyme, are notorious for clumping in soap batter. For herbs that are prone to this, first make a slurry of the powder with glycerin or a bit of an oil you’ve already weighed out for your recipe. Make your slurry with about a 1 to 1 ratio, adding more liquid as necessary to break up the clumps into a homogenous mixture. Then, simply add the slurry at trace.

Another fun way to use herbal dermathetics is for their exfoliating ability. In this case, you’ll be adding crushed dried leaves, flowers or seeds at trace. The only real considerations here are aesthetic, and how much exfoliating power you’re interested in. Blueberry seeds are wonderful little natural exfoliators, and can be added with no preparation, during trace. Try a rate of 1t-1T. per 5 lb. batch of soap. Course flakes of herbs, on the other hand, do not always feel good rubbing against the skin, and for that reason, I like to grind most dried herb leaves in my food processor to reduce the size a bit. It’s really a matter of personal preference. I like to be able to see the herbs in my soap, but I don’t want them to give me splinters! Be particularly careful if your dried herbs contain stems, as these can be especially sharp and hard.

For a pretty touch, whole flowers can be added to soap batter in the same way. While the colors and fragrances won’t necessarily survive saponification, I’ve found that lavender buds and chopped chamomile flowers, can impart a bit of their natural fragrance to my finished soap, along with muted variations of their original colors. Natural Bar Soap Company’s Eucalyptus and Chamomile Soap, and Lavender and Olive Oil Soap both use whole flowers for a bit of natural scent and color, as well as a fun, scrubby texture.

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I have definitely had my share of college chemistry classes and labs. For four years, I donned safety goggles and a lab coat, and delighted in mixing, measuring… using dangerous chemicals that were capable of eating my skin and making me blind. Funny, looking back on it, how similar chemistry lab in college is to soap making in our Soap-Shop!

Sodium Hydroxide and Potassium Hydroxide are strong bases, or alkalis. Each has been referred to as Lye, although in modern times, the name is more often used for Sodium Hydroxide. Lye is a powerful caustic used in drain-cleaning products like Drano. But, it’s also the primary chemical needed to make soap.

Our ancestors made soap using lye, but they obtained it from wood ashes. Now, thanks to the industrial revolution and advances in chemistry, we can purchase lye in granular form, and forget dirty old wood ash. But, it’s essentially the same caustic chemical, just purified and mass produced. You can be assured though, in a properly formulated and prepared batch of soap, highly corrosive lye will become completely harmless. In fact, lye can be used to craft a beautifully gentle bar of soap.

To make soap, Lye is first mixed with water, and then poured into a melted mixture of natural oils. The lye causes the chemical structure of the esters in each oil to break, which releases fatty acids and glycerol. The lye is completely gone once reacted with enough oil. Most recipes even include excess oil, a step known as “Superfatting.” This ensures there is more than enough oil necessary to “use up” the lye, and leaves additional, non-reacted oil in the soap for more moisturizing qualities.

The Lye Soap we hear of our ancestors using was made with lye, just as soap is made today. Believe it or not, Lye Soap is actually more conditioning, moisturizing and cleansing than many commercially made soaps you’ll find in your local grocery store. In our time, the name Lye Soap has fallen from favor, and become replaced with the more gentle term, “Natural Soap.”

In our ancestors time, the primary oils used to make soap would likely have been lard, animal fats and shortenings. Modern day soaps, on the other hand, more often use vegetable-based ingredients like coconut oil and luxurious ingredients such as Shea Butter to create richly conditioning soaps. But, one ingredient remains the same. Lye.

Can’t soap be made without the use of Lye? Not real soap. Real soap is “saponified” oil. To make real soap, strong bases must break oils into fatty acids and glycerol (or glycerin). This process is called Saponification, and it requires the use of lye.  So, Lye=Soap.  No Lye=No soap.

Naturally made Soap can leave your skin not only clean, but moisturized, conditioned and soft. Natural soaps don’t contain overly cleansing and drying detergents, or synthetic cleaners. Natural Soaps can be formulated to help with acne, sunburn, or sensitive skin. Natural Soaps can be custom made to have the scents, colors and qualities you desire. Pretty amazing, considering that it all happens because of a caustic chemical known as Lye.

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