I’ve let go of liquid soaps in the last few years and opted to used classic solid soaps for my hygiene but between trendy scents or seasonal supply I haven’t been able to find a soap I can stay with.

This led me to consider making my own soap but is it worth it?

Artisanal soaps are expensive and hard to find in my country and mostly pass the notion they are targetting luxury customers and not making something for everyone to use and enjoy and trying to make an effort to create change.

I am aware initial costs have to be considered and that there is a learning to it.

  • theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world
    10·
    22 days ago

    I make my own soap from 3 ingredients: lard that I process from bacon grease, lye, and water. It is extremely cheap and easy to make, and cleans really effectively. And no, the soap does not smell like bacon at all, it just smells like soap.

    • qyron@sopuli.xyzOP
      4·
      22 days ago

      Isn’t that what is considered hard soap? A bit like Marseille soap.

      You use it for general cleaning or personal hygiene?

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      22 days ago

      Cool stuff.

      Sidebar:

      I remember reading about soaps at one time, and there was this trend on websites to demonize sodium lauryl sulfate, the key chemical ingredient in soap, in order to sell their own soap.

      There was complaint that always bothered me: exposure to sodium lauryl sulfate was used as a measure of skin irritability. This, they showed was an example of how HARSH SLS was.

      I hated that, and kept thinking, maybe SLS is the measure because it’s, cheap, easy to produce, and has a mild effect that ramps up slowly for more precise measurement.

      And that I saw Fight Club and saw what lye actually does to skin and started wondered what the hell these people thought soap actually DOES to get you clean if they were so worried about “harsh chemicals.”

      • theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world
        2·
        22 days ago

        The lye reacts with the fat to chemically change into soap. The ratio of fat to lye in the recipe should ensure that all of the lye chemically reacts, leaving none left in the final product.

        And this is what soap actually does:

        One end of the soap molecule loves water, the other end hates water. Tons of the soap molecules end up sticking to dirts and oils, completely surrounding them and pulling them away into the water.