So, we have been making our own laundry soap for at least the last 10 years. It works well and is EXTREMELY cheap. Highly recommended. If you have skin allergies, it is a pretty mild soap too. Our son’s nurse uses it and has had no issues from it and she has a lot of allergies. Which brings me to my next point.

I have started making bar/bath soap. I have wanted to do it for years and have made some glycerine soaps before, but from a soap base that already exists. I am talking about the bare bones, down to the nitty-grity, homemade bath soap now. It is lye soap, that I am making, which brings up questions of it’s own.

Isn’t lye hazardous? Isn’t it harsh? The answer to both of those is yes…

BUT NOT if it is measured out appropriately and prepared properly. The lye causes the fats (animal or vegetable) to become soap and then the lye evaporates, leaving behind the natural glycerine (yes…natural, not added) and fats which are, in and of themselves, moisturizing.

When making it, I have learned two VERY important things…first of all that you add the lye to the water while stirring constantly. NEVER add the water to the lye or it will explode. Also, the stirring…very important too, because if it clumps in the bottom of the mixing container, it too can explode. This is why being able to follow rules is a really good idea…follow the rules and nobody gets hurt. The second very important thing is to mix this outside, on a non-windy day. I did it outside the first time. No problem. The second time I did it, it was inside…in my sewing room with lots of windows (one that was open because it was windy and bad weather)…NOT a good idea…the feeling of choking to death became real. We QUICKLY opened the room, but WOW. This is ONLY an outside activity from now on.

From the first two batches of soap, I now have 22 bars ready for use. This can be used as bath soap, and even better, laundry soap…so my cheap homemade laundry soap just became cheaper and even gentler on our skin. We have used Fels-Naptha (which I still love) all this time, but if your skin is still sensitive to that, the homemade soap is the answer.