Aesthetically Pure

A little dark. A little moody. A little spooky. 🖤 🥀
Stamping my all-natural soap bars, colored naturally with clays and scented with essential oils like black pepper, geranium and patchouli ♥️

This is the part of soapmaking you don’t see. 🧼

Before I can make a beautiful bar of cold-process soap, I have to make the lye solution.

I carefully combine sodium hydroxide (lye) with distilled water, always measuring by weight and using proper safety equipment.

Lye is what makes saponification possible. When the lye reacts with the oils and butters in the recipe, they transform into soap and glycerin.

So yes, lye is an essential part of making cold-process soap but properly formulated and fully cured soap does not contain active lye.

There’s a lot more science behind handmade soap than most people realize. 🤍

Handmade soap isn’t just an art, it’s chemistry, too.

A little farm day , a basket of strawberries, and a reminder to slow down and enjoy the season. 🍓🌿

These beautiful strawberries might inspire what’s next hmm 🤔 😃 🫧