Tree Ash Lye
Happy Soapy Soap day Soapers!! So today let's talk about natural lye. We all know soap making is a very ancient art and necessity. Before soap was actually created through different components it was extracted from plants like horesetail, soapwort and yucca root. I believe the oldest known recording of soap making recipes was with the Ancient Kemetics (Egyptians) which was recorded on a medical papyrus. The recipe stated Egyptians bathed regularly combining animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap like substance for washing.
100% Natural African Black Soap
All over Africa especially West Africa/Ghana they are famous for Black Soap which is raved for healing skin issues such as acne, eczema, rashes, odor etc. They create Their soap with ashes from fired plantain & shea tree bark. They use rain water as well & local oils and magically you have a world prized soap/Black soap. Manufacturers have tried to reproduce the recipe but have definitely failed due to using commercialized lye. The healing properties are in the natural elements.
Old Fashioned Lye Soap
The most famous story for soapers comes from Europe on Sappo Hill where they would carry out rituals and animal sacrifices at night which included ash from the fire, flowing down the stream, carrying the animal fat. The women would always wash their cloths in the stream in the morning but noticed after a ritual their water would sud up and get the clothes cleaner. They figured out the chemical reaction thus creating more of the modern day Grandmas Lye Soap.
With that said let's get into the simple ways of creating our own lye!
This process should be done outside from start to finish. A lot of first timers (like me!) want to know how do we know if it is finished. Having Ph strips to test the finished product is cool but there are also some old school ways to test to make sure it is complete. Old ways of telling if you lye was ready for soap making was it could dissolve a chicken feather, or if a egg is placed in water it would float above the water like a bobber.
Follow this link for detailed instructions, let me know how it turns out! We learn from trial and error as well as shared knowledge.
Happy Soaping!
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