Make Your Own Soap Without Lye (You’ll See What I Mean)
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If you've always wanted to make soap but are worried about working with lye, here's your answer. This homemade lye-free soap is truly the “I'm scared to work with lye” version of How to Make Homemade Soap.
Homemade soap is great for many reasons, but it can be a bit daunting to make. One of the reasons is the need to work with lye. It's definitely not something you want to be working with when you have little ones running around.
Thankfully there's an answer for that and I'm sure you'll be surprised at how easy it is and how gorgeous the results can be.
I Was a Lye Scaredy Cat
For years, I've wanted to make my own soap, but I've never done it.
I've drooled over others' homemade soap creations and felt deficient in my thriftiness, craftiness, and domestic skills, simply because I'd never. made. soap.
I have fond memories of a dear friend in the Chicago area who made HUGE batches of olive oil soap that was TO DIE FOR. She had enough money to buy whatever soap she wanted, but she just LOVED making soap and well, her soap was skin nourishing gorgeous.
She gifted me this soap when I was pregnant with our first child, but I wrote off making it because no way was I going to use lye in a kitchen where I'd have to time things so I didn't have a busy and inquisitive infant or toddler underfoot.
So I basically gave up all the soap-making dreams, and they never really came to be.
I even found the very book that my friend's soap recipe came from at a second hand store (and bought it), but I STILL never made soap.
So when a friend approached me about sharing a recipe for melt and pour soap that was easily made into “homemade soap” style, I was thrilled.
I assumed many other busy “lye scaredy cat” moms would love the chance to be crafty without being around something that might be a problem for their children's safety.
Lye-free Soap. Is It Possible?
Would you like to create an all natural product, free of harsh chemicals, that radiates your personality and taste? Consider hand-milled soap!
Also known as melt and pour soap, this method allows you to forgo the hazards of working with caustic lye, while enjoying the creativity of soap making.
This is why the title of the post includes the words “you'll see what I mean.” The lye work has been done for you already in making the melt and pour soap base.
Why You'll Love This Soap
There are simply so many reasons to love this soap. Let's count the ways, shall we?
No Toxic Additives
So many soaps on the market are loaded with artificial colors, artificial fragrances, and preservatives. If you make your own melt-and-pour soaps, you can use quality ingredients without the toxins.
Saves Lots of Money
Of course, if you make your own melt and pour soap, you will save a bunch of money over store-bought fancy soaps. With all the great melt-and-pour bases, you can make exquisite soaps to rival any “artisan” type of homemade soap.
Avoids Allergens
More and more people have sensitivities these days. Making your own soap allows you to customize ingredients to your needs.
Directions
Grate the soap base.
Add oil to soap, if desired.
Heat on low setting in a double boiler or crock pot. Stir frequently.
When liquefied, remove from heat.
Add desired ingredients.
Stir to desired consistency. Pour (or spoon) the soap mixture into molds. I placed some dried rose petals on the bottom of this flower mold.
Cool and remove from the mold. Cut into desired sizes and shapes using a soap cutter or a food scraper/shovel if needed.
Allow soap to dry.
Important Ingredient Information
1. Soap Bases, Including One That Really Stands Out
First of all, look for soap that is free of chemicals and fragrances. The simpler the better when it comes to hand milling. White or cream-colored work best.
Some of the more trusted online sources include:
- Brambleberry
- Bulk Apothecary
- Amazon
Here are some options for melt-and-pour soap bases with my favorite highlighted at the end.
- Goat's Milk Soap Base – this is a pretty nice base
- Glycerin Soap Base – makes a traditional clear melt-and-pour soap
- Cocoa Butter Soap Base
- Shea Butter Soap Base – this one seems to perform very well and has great reviews and the ingredients are really clean for a melt-and-pour base. If you want an artisan-type soap that's easy to make, this is a great way to go.
Shea Butter - 2 Pound Melt and Pour Soap Base
This Shea Butter Melt and Pour Soap Base is one of the cleanest soap bases out there. Plus it helps you create soaps that look very close to artisan soaps -- all without handling lye!
It's made from 5% refined shea butter, and is soy free, lathers well and is made in the USA.
2. Molds
A simple bread loaf pan will work depending on how much soap you're melting. Line the mold with parchment paper for easy removal.
Silicone molds work really well too. These come in fun shapes and sizes like this flower mold (similar to the one used for the soaps in this post).
Note that you'll need parchment paper if you choose the bread mold pan option.
3. Herbs and Plants
Do you love lavender? Dried lavender or fresh lavender makes a perfect addition.
Roses? Dried rose petals or even fresh rose petals work beautifully.
Plant powders can add not only skin benefits but double as natural colorants. Turmeric, for example, turns the soap a lovely orange while adding nourishing anti-inflammatory qualities. Spirulina powder makes a lovely green. Beet powder adds a nice pink color.
4. Pure Fragrances
Forgo the petroleum-based fragrances and add scent using 100% natural essential oils. Essential oils carry through the hand milling process quite well – so pick a scent you enjoy and have fun!
Herb/essential oil combinations that work well include:
- Thyme Oil with turmeric powder
- Plumeria Oil with dried lavender
- Peppermint Oil with activated charcoal for a deep cleansing experience.
How Much Essential Oil Should You Add to Soap?
How much essential oils you use in homemade soap depends on several things including how strong of a scent you would like, and the oil you are using.
For a strong scent, 0.7 ounces of essential oil per pound of cold process soap is a good amount. For melt and pour, you can typically add 0.3 ounces per pound.
Cold process soap is more of a harsh process and there are a number of chemical changes that occur when making the soap, so you can use more oils.
To avoid skin irritation it's important to not use too much of an essential oil in your soap. This fragrance calculator can help you choose the right amount of essential oils to use.
5. Liquids
You'll need to add a slight amount of liquid to keep the soap from burning during the melting process. While water works fine, possible liquids that add some nice benefits and make your soap special include coffee, green tea, kombucha, infused herbs, coconut milk, and floral hydrosol.
6. Fun Add-Ins
Besides things like herbs and plants, there are so many other fun add-ins. The sky is truly the limit!
How about:
- coffee beans
- cacao nibs
- coffee grounds—smell great and are great for exfoliating too
- citrus peels
- seeds (chia, poppy, apricot, flax)
- matcha powder—adds a lovely green color
- Himalayan salt—adds a nice pink hue
- tea leaves
Ingredients
- 8 ounces Natural Soap Base
- Molds (I love these flower molds, circular molds, or these simple bar molds)
- Herbs or flowers (like these lavender flowers), rose petals
- .15 ounces Essential Oils (about 90 drops)
- Parchment Paper (depending on what mold you use)
- Grater (a cheese grater, salad shooter, or food processor are good choices)
- 1/2 teaspoon oil (optional)
Instructions
- Grate 8 ounces of the soap base (two regular size bars.) A cheese grater works well, as does a salad shooter. A food processor also works.
- Add the oil, if desired, to thin the soap.
- Heat on low in a double boiler or crock pot. You can also place in oven-safe pot and heat in the oven at lowest setting. Stir frequently to avoid burning. This can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.
- When soap is liquefied, remove from heat. It will be somewhat lumpy and translucent.
- Add desired ingredients.(For the main photos here, I used Pink Himalayan salt and dried rose petals from my daughter's wedding. I added Rose Geranium essential oil which created a lovely rose scent.)
- Stir to desired consistency. Pour (or spoon) soap mixture into molds. I placed some dried rose petals on the bottom of this flower mold.
- Cool the soap and remove from mold (place mold into freezer for up to 1 hour to make this easier). Cut into desired sizes and shapes using a soap cutter or a food scraper/shovel.
- Allow soap to dry for several days or more.
- Dry the soap thoroughly between uses to extend its life.
More Easy DIY Personal Care Products You'll Love
How about trying out the following DIY Personal Care Products too? These are great ways to take more steps towards clean living.
- Nourishing Sugar Scrub
- Homemade Lip Scrub – your lips will love this!
- Homemade Moisturizing Foaming Soap– a super frugal alternative to store-bought foaming soap
- Homemade Body Wash – smells and works great
I'd love to hear how this goes for you!
Andrea is a former journalist and the mother of nine children ranging in age from 28 to 12. Following a toxic mold exposure, Andrea and her family discovered the wonders of natural living. Andrea is the founder and president of momsAWARE, an educational organization designed to empower others to live healthy in a toxic world. You can follow her family’s journey at It Takes Time.
Hi Adrienne,
I appreciate this post. I’m going to be “crafting” soap with help from your article for my girlfriend. She LOVES the smell of rose — and, really, anything that has to do with roses. So I’m using the pink salt for color and the dried rose petals. I’m also using essential rose oil, which I understand to be pretty potent stuff. Do you have a recommendation of how much of the essential oil to use? It comes in a 1oz bottle and is pretty expensive. I read comments that a couple drops permeate the whole room. Do you think a drop or two in each soap mold would be sufficient?
Thanks so much.
-Alex
You are so welcome. It would depend on the oil as there are pure ones and diluted ones, plus on the size of the bar–what size are you thinking about making?
i dont understand how to make soap when you are grating soap to make soap doesnt make sense how do you make soap to grate to make soap what are the ingredients in the soap before you add the ingredients ?
Hi there–this is just a basic DIY recipe for taking pre made soap base and making it special. The ingredients would depend on the soap base that you choose.
Hi,
so I was wandering if I could add honey to a melt and pour or would that mess up the consistency? I know you can buy MP in a honey base but if I wanted to use a milk base and add honey for the extra moisturizing and anti-microbial aspects.
Hi there. I don’t know! Sorry. Maybe try a little and see.
thanks for the tutorial, I appreciate.my question is this;is plantain peel/skin and cocoa pod a foaming agent in soap making? please I need an answer.thanks
You are welcome! I don’t think they are foaming agents – do you see that information somewhere?
Recently came across your article and noticed you referred to the soap you used as Melt and Pour. However, after reading the rest of the article and reviewing your pictures, I noticed that what you were actually using is rebatch (sometimes called hand milled). This is definitely not the same as Melt and Pour. Just wanted to let you know.
TITLE IS SOMEWHAT MISLEADING, EVEN TO THE POINT OF BEING CONSIDERED CLICK BAIT… YOU SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO ALOT OF THESE PEOPLE THAT WERE LOOKING FOR A GENUINE SOLUTION TO NOT USE LYE AT ALL. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR “RECIPE” IS ONLY AN IDEA TO BE CHEAP AND ADD TO A PRE EXISTING ALREADY MADE SOAP….AN ALTERATION BUT HARDLY A MODIFICATION JUDGING BY THE REOCCURRENCES OF THE MIX NOT RETURNING TO ITS ORIGINAL SOAP BAR CONSISTENCY (FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING IM TALKING ABOUT THE SOLID FORM OF THE SOAP AND NOT THE SHAPE). I DO LIKE THE IDEA AND I WILL TRY TO CREATE A BETTER PRODUCT THROUGH THIS METHOD. SO TRY NOT TO BE SO MISLEADING, YOU ARE ONE OF THE TOP “WITHOUT LYE” RECIPES THAT GOOGLE PULLS UP…..KEY WORDS “WITHOUT LYE”….THANKS FOR SHOWING ME HOW TO CAPITALIZE ON SOMEONE ELSES SOAP!!!! AM I GONNA GET A FAKE RESPONSE OR ONE FROM THE ACTUAL “CREATOR”
Hi Sam. Sorry you feel this way. Perhaps you should write to the author of the post and tell her your thoughts directly. She’s a black mold survivor. It wasn’t an idea to be cheap but to make soap crafting easier for someone who doesn’t want to mess w/ lye. As many commenters have mentioned, there is no soap without lye so anyone who is saying you can really make soap without lye isn’t telling the whole story.
Do you suggest that there is a way to make soap without lye? If so, please do share.
I can’t say that Andrea will be responding as she is very busy but you can contact her on her blog if you like. Thanks for reading.
Your reply comes across as unprofessional. I didn’t know there it was not possible to make soap without Lye hence searching the internet) so that’s not a fact everyone knows.
Why would the person write directly to the author? That makes no sense when the article is posted on this blog which has a commenting function.
How is the fact that Andrea is a black mold survivor relevant to the commenters critiques? Is that suppose to somehow negate the fact this article was crap?
I’m annoyed that this “recipe” is actually just melting down random soap and adding scents. That’s not actually making soap…
Anyways this article was disappointing. I suggest changing the title because it’s misleading.
Hello Sam. First of all, thanks for reading. I’ll address each of your concerns in line.
1. What do you think was unprofessional about my response?
2. I’m sorry you didn’t know about needing lye to make soap.
3. This article is on my blog but there isn’t a way that I know of for the author to have easy ongoing access to comments. So you can comment here but she is heavily involved in other things now and I don’t think she will respond to ongoing comments. So that’s not my fault. Do you have another solution that you would like to recommend?
4. As for the black mold survivor reference, the other commenter was talking about some fake account response so I was assuring that person that neither I nor the author are fake.
5. I don’t think it’s crap but that’s your opinion if you wish to maintain it.
6. Sorry you are annoyed. I made it clear in the title (I thought) that there was a twist to it and that information is in the post as well.
7. If you have a suggested different title I will entertain it but no promises that I will take your advice. Thanks again and I hope that is helpful.
Chill out! Use your brain, you can NOT make soap without lye ever! you can’t make bar soap, liquid soap, laundry detergent, dish soap, etc without lye. Lye is what makes oils soaponify and change from oil to soap. You are being a bit hard on her. She was simply letting people know that you can make soap without working with lye yourself. If you are disappointed by this fact, youve obviously not taken 20 seconds to research how soap is made. It doesn’t take a chemistry degree (which I have) or being a professional soap maker ( which I am) to know what she was talking about. Be nice!
https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/how-to-make-soap-from-ashes-zmaz72jfzfre
Very easy to find on google….it’s just how to make lye, but at least it’s more natural,,,just saying. I still am looking for a bar soap recipe without lye, ashes, or wood, or whatever, lol. For my daughters baby shower this weekend.
Thanks
Lisa
As Kristi said, you need lye to make soap, and what you linked is just an article about how to make soap with lye that you’ve also made. This is like someone saying you can’t make a baking soda volcano without vinegar, and you linking to someone making a volcano with homemade apple cider vinegar bc “at least it’s more natural”. It’s a total non sequitur. Just because you can make your own lye doesn’t mean lye is somehow not required anymore.
You will never find a recipe on how to truly make soap without lye because it’s impossible. By definition soap is the stuff that results from saponification, which is the process that occurs when oils/fats are mixed with lye water. Any “soap without lye” recipe is either a recipe on how to remix soap that’s already been made (like melt-and-pour or rebatching) or the end product is not technically soap.
Hello Kat. Thanks for reading. I think I made it pretty clear that this wasn’t exactly making soap without lye and that it was simply a post for someone who wanted to make a homemade soap without handling lye.
I hope that helps :).
Just made this today! Lovely thank you. At the start of my soap journey ?
So glad to hear it! Thanks for sharing!
I used 2 lbs of shea butter base soap and added coconut milk for liquid in amount the recipe states. It melted and is the consistency of coconut milk. I’m letting it now boil to get rid of the liquid. This was a disappointing recipe.
I’m so sorry – not sure what went wrong.
I have a little advice for you. You can only add a small percentage of additives. Such as milk, extra oils, etc. it’s usually under 5%. Also, you don’t ever want to boil melt and pour soap. The best way to handle this is to re-melt your base and add enough base to bring the additive below 5%. Or start over. Try melting in 15-20 second bursts in the microwave storing in between. Or in a double broiler. Boiling it will ruin the base. Next time you might want to try powdered milk instead of liquid. Their are tons of great tutorials on melt and pour soap making. Soap queen tv on YouTube is a great resource for all things soap. Don’t give up! Melt and pour is a fun way to make your own soap without having to handle lye yourself.
dont add liquid milk to a melt and pour base only powder form liquid milk is best for cold pressed soap and as for other oils and butters only use 3 teapsoons per 2/2 pounds of base other wise it wil effect your lather
If i make a homemade soap by melt and pour does its still need a lye
This process doesn’t need lye as the lye was already used. Is that what you mean?
Hi,
Is there a way to may transparent (clear) soap without lye? Would Melt and Pour work for that? Thanksl
There are some links in the post to clear ones – I think it’s the glycerine ones. Let me know if you don’t see them!
I couldn’t find any. None of the ones I saw were clear liquid. I did see several ones that turned them into bars but none for liquid.
Melt and pour isn’t liquid so I’m confused.
Just get unscented uncolored liquid soap and add your scent/color to that, keeping in mind that anything perishable may reduce the shelf life of the soap. “Melt-and-pour soap” only needs to be melted to add colors/scents because it’s solid, and the colors/scents can only mix into the soap while the soap is liquid. Soap that is liquid at room temperature is effectively already “melted” so you are good to go. “Melt-and-pour base” is also just a very expensive way to say unscented, uncolored bar soap, there’s nothing special about it that makes the coloring or scents stick.
We can make a soap without using lye instead of using beeswax?
I’m sorry I don’t understand your question.
Hi Manasa,
I dont think using beeswax is a substitute for Lye. Lye is used for blending process which gives lather and to mix ingredients to come together.
Yeah you definitely can’t replace lye with beeswax. It’s technically possible to make beeswax soap, but it’s a replacement for the oils, not the lye. It also makes terrible soap if it’s used in any noticeable quantity. Save it for salves and lip balms.