I am often asked the question... “How can soap be good for your skin when it's made with a chemical that cleans your drains?” That sodium hydroxide is so harsh!

And you are right, it IS harsh. It will strip the skin off your bones, leave you with burns, when you add it to water the temperature reaches over 100 degrees (F). And TRUST me when I tell you it hurts like crazy when you get a grain of it stuck under your finger nail! (That's what happens when I don't wear my gloves when making soap!

So, it doesn't seem right, that when using this component to make my soaps, they are gentle, cleansing, not harsh, in fact they are even safe to use on babies...

When I was trying to think of a way to explain how this is possible, it struck me that the role of Sodium Hydroxide is much like having a cleaning company come in and clean your house for you. I would love a housekeeper... but, that's not going to happen... sigh, but I digress...

When you have a housekeeper, they come in, normally while you are away for the day, they take all the stuff that is already in your house, and rearrange it, put everything in its place, room by room, they organize, and clean, dust, wash the floors etc... and by the time you come home, your house is ready for you, beautiful and clean, everything in its place... and (here's the thing...) no sign of the cleaners... not a trace and THAT is exactly like Sodium Hydroxide in soap making.

We need to re-organize the structure of the base oils, you can't feel clean if you just use oil in its normal state, you would feel greasy and slimy and yuck! So in re-organising the properties of the oils we use to make soap, we end up with glycerine, a natural moisturiser and the remaining fatty acids.

Wickipedia explains that vegetable oils are 'fatty esters' in the form of triglycerides and that adding the alkali solution (sodium hydroxide and water) breaks what is called the ester bond and releases the fatty acid salt and glycerol.

It takes a bit longer for the sodium hydroxide to organize the oils in the soap than it does for a cleaner to look after your house, but, after several weeks “curing” and drying, you have a bar of soap, slightly higher ph than your skin, but with no trace of the sodium hydroxide... it has done its job, organized your oil to give you soap, and, just like the cleaners, it's gone.

So, I hope that helps you understand the reason we use Sodium Hydroxide.

Thanks!


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