I am a delicate flower, who needs careful tending. Good thing I found Michael, the Renaissance Boy (or junior chemist). My skin and commercial scents haven't gotten along for ages, so Michael learned how to make soap about 20 years ago.

Soap is fundamentally fat or oil mixed with a base. The type of base will affect the character of the soap. Lye (sodium hydroxide) mixed with water ( add bases to water as you oughta---otherwise it explodes!) will make harder soap. Potassium hydroxide (the stuff you get from wood ash) will make a soft soap. There is a hot process and cold process. Michael prefers cold process.

The process keeps working for a couple of weeks.

The saponification process yields glycerin. In commercial processes, they separate the glycerin and use it in moisturizers and other products. Home made soap retains the glycerin and helps keep my skin from getting dry.

Our soap aging box. It's the same box (lined with plastic) the original oil/fat/lye mixture spends its first day or two while hardening. The trick is slicing it before it gets too hard.

Good clean fun.