Soap is created by a chemical reaction of oils and alkali. (In other words, you can’t make soap without oils and alkali—commonly referred to as lye; water helps facilitate the process, though technically you don’t have to have it to produce the chemical reaction that creates soap.) The method we use to make our soap at Barcelona Bath & Body is called cold-process and some people refer to this type of soap as natural soap or lye soap.
Some people are concerned when they hear the word lye due to some misinformation that has circulated on the internet or even flashbacks to their Granny’s lye soap that reportedly took their hide off; but all true soap is made with lye. I have to believe that my grandmother made a nice bar of soap as no lore like this exists in my family. I suppose that soapmaking is like cooking, where neither recipes nor cooks are all created equal. (more…)
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