Lye Soaps Have No Lye

If you fell into a vat of lye
Yes, it’s is assumed that you would fry
Lye is caustic when making a soap
Soap makers take caution, at least, we hope
Once the soap is stirred and set to cure
The lye is gone, the soap is pure.

Are you afraid of lye soaps?  Have you been told they are caustic?  Are you led to believe that other cleansers are better?  While some other cleansers than the ‘lye soap’ do really clean well and perhaps require less work, they can also contain toxic substances that are not desirable.

Do not be afraid of a real soap made with lye. 

Soap? Detergent? They are NOT the same thing.  Any ’soap’ NOT made with lye SHOULD really be referred to as a ‘detergent’, as the process is different.  But confusion reigns. The term ‘soap’ is inter- swapped between the real soap and the detergent bars or liquids. It’s like Kleenex.  We say. ‘Hand me a Kleenex please’ when it’s a Scottie.  'Hand me the soap, please' and we receive the Dove bar.

Since real soap is made with lye, the fear spread is that lye soaps are bad, as lye itself is caustic. Since the lye is all used up by the time the soap is made there is NO lye in the final product. So, they are NOT caustic at all. They are actually AMAZING.

Earth to Body makes real soaps. When we make soap, we start off with the lye, a.k.a., sodium hydroxide   When this lye water mixes with an oil (e.g. olive, coconut) the saponification process begins. Takes 24-28 hours for the ‘magic’ to happen. Once done, no more lye is present. Thus, while we start off with lye, we end up no lye.

Since the lye is no longer there, the ingredient does not appear on the soap label. Instead, you may read the term ‘saponified oil’ on the label.

Real soaps are safe, non-toxic. We have sold our saponified oil soap bars for over 20 years and only get accolades. It is an extremely rare occurrence for one to be sensitive to a real soap made with pure ingredients, and much more common for one to have allergic reactions to detergent bars, which are made differently. 

Both soaps and or detergent bars can have synthetic dyes and fragrances added.  This can sometimes be the cause of a sensitivity if there is one. 

We do NOT add dyes or fragrance. 

Our saponified soaps colour ranges from black (our charcoal) to almost white (our simplistic organic baby soap), through earthy shades in between.  Off white, greenish, beige. We sometimes add therapeutic grade essential oils to enhance certain properties of the soap, often with specific goals in mind.  These EO’s not only add to the lovely natural scent of the carrier oils, but also enhance the soap’s properties. For those of you with sensitivities to any ‘scent’ we make some soaps with only the carrier oils. Lots of choices.

Real soaps not only clean, but they also nourish. And that’s no lye!