In this video, I am answering the question: can you make soap without lye?
Sources:
Can you make soap without Lye?
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Without lye, the oils in your recipe would stay oils. Nothing would happen to them. A chemical change involving lye must happen in order to create soap.
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What is Lye?
Lye is a very-alkaline product that is used to make soap, but it is also used in the food and cleaning industries. There are several types of lye, the most known and most commonly used being NaOH, sodium hydroxide, and KOH, potassium hydroxide. All are metal hydroxides and are very basic (alkaline), meaning they have a very high pH. That makes them very caustic, meaning they can give you a chemical burn if you touch them with unprotected skin.
FDA Definition:
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According to the FDA a true soap is:
1. Composed mainly of "alkali salts of fatty acids". In other words, combining vegetable oils or animal fats with sodium hydroxide (lye).
2. Those alkali salts of fatty acids must be the only material that results in the product's cleaning action.
www.cpsc.gov/Soap
The FDA’s regulations address three conditions:
1. What it’s made of: To be regulated as “soap,” the product must be composed mainly of the “alkali salts of fatty acids,” that is, the material you get when you combine fats or oils with an alkali, such as lye.
2. What ingredients cause its cleaning action: To be regulated as “soap,” those “alkali salts of fatty acids” must be the only material that results in the product’s cleaning action. If the product contains synthetic detergents, it’s a cosmetic, not a soap. However, the word “soap” can be used on the label.
3. How it’s intended to be used: To be regulated as soap, the product must be labeled and marketed for use as soap only. If it is intended for purposes such as moisturizing the skin, making the user smell nice, or deodorizing the user’s body, it’s a cosmetic. Or, if the product is intended to treat or prevent disease, such as kill germs, or treat skin conditions, such as acne or eczema, it’s a drug. Again, the word “soap” can be used on the label.
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What’s the regulatory definition of soap?
Whether a product is a “soap” in the traditional sense, or is really a synthetic detergent, helps determine how the product is regulated. So, let’s take a look at how “soap” is defined in FDA’s regulations;
To meet the definition of soap in FDA’s regulations, a product has to meet three conditions:
1. What it’s made of: To be regulated as “soap,” the product must be composed mainly of the “alkali salts of fatty acids,” that is, the material you get when you combine fats or oils with an alkali, such as lye.
2. What ingredients cause its cleaning action: To be regulated as “soap,” those “alkali salts of fatty acids” must be the only material that results in the product’s cleaning action. If the product contains synthetic detergents, it’s a cosmetic, not a soap. You still can use the word “soap” on the label.
3. How it's intended to be used: To be regulated as soap, it must be labeled and marketed only for use as soap. If it is intended for purposes such as moisturizing the skin, making the user smell nice, or deodorizing the user’s body, it’s a cosmetic. Or, if the product is intended to treat or prevent disease, such as by killing germs, or treating skin conditions, such as acne or eczema, it’s a drug. You still can use the word “soap” on the label.
Saponification (Soap Making Process)
Saponification is at the heart of soap-making. It is the chemical reaction in which the building blocks of fats and oils (triglycerides) react with lye to form soap. Saponification literally means "turning into soap" from the root word, sapo, which is Latin for soap. The products of the saponification reaction are glycerin and soap. Chemically, soap is a fatty acid salt.