There’s lye in your handmade soaps?! Should I be scared?

If there wasn’t lye, it wouldn’t be soap! In fact, a lot of us have been buying detergents instead of real, cleansing soap from mass-produced brands. That’s not terrible, some are quite good. But many dry you out, leave a gross film on your skin, or just leave you paying for water, packaging and marketing. Handmade lye soaps are carefully crafted and cured so the lye has gone through a process called saponification – the reaction that turns the oils into soap – and it’s safe to use on your skin. Much to our disappointment, lye doesn’t actually behave the way you’d think if you saw Fight Club.