Project 3.1, Making soap

I crave hands-on learning so I am taking full advantage of it through this portfolio. Originally, I was interested in making soap for personal purposes but then had a discussion with Susan to which she revealed that I could turn it into a learning experience. With the knowledge that some plants create a lather and cleaning-like property when wet, I decided to read up on the ingredients of typical, non-plant based, soaps from the grocery store. I learned that this type of soap has two general components, and a lot of materials.

- The one ingredient that seems essential to standard soap-making is lye, or sodium hydroxide. Lye began use after discovering the former method of soap-making was harmful to human skin. Unlike lye, the combination of potash (wood ashes and animal fats) is constantly changing which causes adverse affects to the chemical composition of soaps, therefore damaging human skin. Lye is more concrete which makes it preferred. Well, that and the measurements can be reliable for all formulas.

- Many people believe that lye is also a harmful chemical, which is partially true. It can be harmful while used in soap if the proportions are wrong to oil and water (which need to be measured by weight and not volume). When you mix oil, water and lye, the lye bonds perfectly to the weights of oil and water which is why it doesn't react with your skin. Another word for this process is saponification.

​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KahqPaxVSyE