Q&A for How to Make Organic Soap

If store bought, it will say on the bottle. If you are not sure, ask a store clerk for assistance.

While lye is non-organic, it is allowed in organic soaps according to the USDA's rules on organic soaps, since bar soaps require lye for their successful production.

You can sometimes get lye in the supermarket or hardware store, but make sure that it is 100% sodium hydroxide; do NOT buy it if it is otherwise. The best place to buy lye is online, from candle and soap-making supply shops. You will also be able to find other soap-making supplies in those shops, including molds, fragrances, dyes, etc.

No. Sodium bicarbonate is baking soda. Sodium hydroxide is lye, and lye is required to make soap.

Yes, essentials oils are good for the skin.

Castor oil is nice to have in your soap but its definitely not a must have, as its a somewhat luxury oil and can be hard to find. If you don't end up using it, certainly replace it with olive oil and run the ingredients through a lye calculator such as mms or soap calc - as the required lye amounts will now have changed as you have used a different oil.

Yes, there is. Some substitutes for lye can include: Goat's milk soap base; shea butter soap base; glycerin soap base; and cocoa butter soap base. The shea butter usually works best but any of these should work well.

Lye is sodium hydroxide, a caustic alkali that is one of the main ingredients used in making bar soap. Lye can also be used to refer to potassium hydroxide, used to make liquid soap as it is much more reactive (not to mention more expensive too.) You can usually buy sodium hydroxide from the supermarket or hardware store, just so long as you avoid drain cleaners with the lye label - as these usually have added in chemicals not suitable for soapmaking.

Castor oil, coconut oil, and palm oil are perhaps the 3 most popular natural bubble enhancing ingredients in soapmaking. Most commercial soapmaking companies use a controversial chemical known as sodium laureth sulfate (SLS/SLES) as it is considered a safe, inexpensive, and effective bubble/foam producing ingredient, however these have been many various concerns over the years over its safety and alleged claims of triggering skin reactions in some people.

Too much sodium lactate can cause the soap to become hard and crumbly. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oil in a soap recipe. Add to the lye solution once it has cooled.