I am much more concerned about melt and pour soap because of all the chemicals that are in it. Melt and pour starts life as ordinary soap (made with lye like any other soap). Then a variety of chemicals are added to this soap to make it melt easily, be pourable, etc., resulting in a far-from-natural product. The law does not require soap ingredients to be listed, and many melt and pour soap bases do not list the chemicals they contain. Some manufacturers claim that their bases contain only vegetable oils and glycerin, with no mention of other ingredients like the chemicals Sodium Laurate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, and Propylene Glycol (the same chemical that is in antifreeze).

Recently jumped into soap making, but I’m still at the melt and pour phase. I really want to eventually make my own soap, but I have mixed feelings about working with and using lye. What are your thoughts on it? Have you ever tried making soap without it?

I buy the olive oil at grocery stores when it is on sale. I do not use pomace olive oil because of the chemical solvents used in its manufacture.

I buy the lye at local hardware stores in the small plastic cans because I can shake the can and be sure the crystals inside have not caked. Be very careful about buying lye in bulk… it is often lumpy because it has been exposed to moisture, and lye that has “lumped” will not work the same as lye that hasn’t, even though the supplier may tell you that it will.