Ash soap based on lye is the safest and most famous detergent from ancient times. Natural ingredients added to this soap soften its properties and make it suitable for both household use and personal hygiene. Let's find out how to make ash soap at home.
The basis of ash soap is an aqueous infusion of ash, called lye. This infusion is strongly alkaline and contains sodium and potassium carbonates. In ancient times, this infusion was used instead of the usual soap for washing and washing.
How to make lye
There are 2 ways: hot and cold.
hot way: put 12 tablespoons in a 5 liter container. (about 4 handfuls) of ash and pour 2.5 liters of water. Boil over low heat, stirring. The water will gradually evaporate. Let it brew for 8-10 hours. The ashes will settle to the bottom, and the fat-free liquid lye will remain at the top. Drain it carefully. The result should be about 1.5 liters of lye.
cold way: in a glass jar for 3/4 of the volume, put the ashes and add 1/4 of the water. Stir regularly during the first day. On the second and third days, do not touch. After that, carefully pour into a clean jar through a filter.
How to use lye
- for washing hair and personal hygiene you can use lye prepared in a simpler way. To do this, skip the water through one portion of the ash. This lye has a slight concentration and does not dry the skin.
- for dish washing you can use the recipe above, but with increased concentration. To do this, skip one part of the water through several new portions of ash. Get a strong and thick lye.
- for washing and cleaning lye prepared according to the cold method is suitable.
When washing and cleaning, concentrated lye is used, so it can dry out the skin. If desired, you can use gloves or other means to protect the skin.
Interesting: the concentration of lye also depends on the ash of which plant it was prepared from. For example, sunflower ash contains the most potassium carbonates - 30-35%, birch ash - 12%, buckwheat straw - 35%.
How to store prepared lye?
It is best to store lye in a glass container. It corrodes plastic cans, which will begin to leak over time.
Ash soap - natural detergent
A more convenient way to use lye is soap based on it. The technology of making ash soap has survived to this day. To make soap from ash, you will need a pot-type container. An important condition: it should not be aluminum!
Ash Soap Ingredients:
- 2 parts concentrated lye (prepared using the hot method, see above);
- 1 part melted pork fat;
- table salt (the exact amount depends on many factors, including the concentration of lye).
Ash soap preparation
1. Add pork fat to the lye and slowly heat over a fire. When the saponification process begins, the liquid will first acquire a milky color, then the solution will brighten. Gradually, the fat from the surface will turn into an emulsion, and the mass will thicken.
2. To continue the saponification process, add lye in parts of 100 g. Gradually, the mass will become transparent. The mass must be stirred regularly. The foam that forms is best removed.
3. When the mass begins to thicken, the so-called. soapy glue, similar in consistency to thick jelly. Such a mass will flow from the spatula not in drops, like an emulsion, but in a trickle.
4. When the soap glue is ready, you need to make a peeling. Slightly reduce the heat and scatter the first portion of salt over the surface and mix without touching the bottom. Gradually continue to add salt until the mass becomes like cottage cheese and floats.
5. Remove from heat, leave the container overnight to exfoliate the brine.
6. Carefully separate the soap and brine, then add a new portion of lye from a 1: 1 ratio. And repeat the process. The second brew will be faster.
7. This time continue to salt until the soap floats. In this case, there will be no curdled mass, instead it will turn out just a thick mass. For its upholding, 1.5-2 hours are enough. Using a colander covered with a cloth, filter the mass. Soap and brine will separate.
8. Leave the mass for 1.5-2 hours, and then decompose into molds for a day, then remove and dry.
The more boiling-salting processes the soap has passed, the better it is. To improve the properties of soap, you can melt it and add your favorite base or essential oils: for example, olive and lavender.
See for laundry, cleaning and hygiene
There are two ways to make soap from scratch (without using a soap base) - cold and hot.
With the hot method, oils and alkali are heated to a temperature of 60-80 degrees, with a cold one - no more than 40. Hot soap matures faster, while cold soap needs 1.5-2 months, or even more. And from the point of view of convenience, it is better to cook hot. But if you look from the point of view of quality, then the oils that we initially take for soap contain vitamins and other useful substances that decompose when heated. Perhaps that is why, in many cases, vitamins A, E, etc. are added separately to soap. If we want to preserve these vitamins for our skin, then we choose the cold method.
Now we need lye. There is a lot of discussion around the question “What kind of alkali to make soap from” among lovers of everything that is most environmentally friendly. Some believe that only soap made from ash is completely natural. However, “naturalness” is a relative concept. We can say that coconut oil, which is used in soap making, is also of unknown quality. Therefore, it would be more natural to plant palm trees ourselves and squeeze out coconut oil ourselves, as well as other oils - olive, cocoa beans, palm. 
In addition, if you prepare lye from ash, then certain questions arise. For example, where can I get natural lime, which is needed for this method of preparation? Or how to measure the concentration of lye so as not to harm the skin with the resulting "natural" soap? This question has been little studied, and we would be glad for any practical information in this direction. It is still too early to talk about the results of our experiments.
So, for now, we use regular sodium hydroxide (NaOH), which is sold in chemical laboratories. In addition to it, you need to purchase medical masks and rubber gloves, since if it gets on your skin, you can get a burn, and a hole on your clothes. It is also good to prepare soap in an apron.
In addition to alkali, we need oils. What oils to take: vegetable or animal? Everyone decides for himself, but we use only vegetable. First, the animal was killed, and its fat carries information about it. Secondly, soap made from animal fats emits a specific smell that makes the process less pleasant. Thirdly, such soap is stored less.
So, what vegetable oils are suitable for making soap? It depends primarily on their structure and properties. For example, coconut oil soap turns out to be very hard and does not swell much (it takes longer to be consumed), but due to the high content of lauric acid, it can irritate the skin, so it should be taken in small quantities. Palmitic acid, which is found in significant amounts in palm oil, hardens the soap and gives a good lather. And linolenic soap gives the soap an unpleasant odor and makes it unsuitable for long-term storage (there is a lot of it in beef and lard).
The oils most suitable for fatty acid composition and common in soap making are olive, coconut, palm and some others. Based on them, the soap turns out to be solid, has good washing properties, and foams well.
Of course, neither coconuts, nor palm trees, nor olives grow in our Siberian lands. This is a pity, because again we have to buy, but we would like the production to be self-sufficient. Perhaps there are some local substitutes for these oils, but so far we have not found such information anywhere. In addition to these oils, others can be added in smaller quantities: cedar, sea buckthorn, castor, cocoa butter, etc.
Water. In our area, pure spring water flows, which we take for soap making. This is living water, carrying the power of the earth and sunlight, rich in trace elements and other beneficial substances. Instead of just water, you can cook decoctions. We need decoctions of herbs and flowers for special wishes. If you need something soothing, chamomile is suitable, if invigorating, golden root. A decoction of the golden root has a strong rich odor that lingers in the soap.
You can also add other natural ingredients to the soap, such as wax, salt, ground herbs, clay, etc. Their choice again depends on our preferences, what we want: a scrub or a gentle soap for children's skin.
Essential oils. On many forums on the Internet, there was an opinion that it is not necessary to use natural essential oils for soap. That synthetic ones will be cheaper, but there is no difference - the smell is almost the same. However, on the same forums, some write that they do not add essential oils at all, since they cause allergies. Perhaps this is just the question of naturalness. We use only high-quality essential oils from trusted companies.
The soap making process.
Step 1. First you need to imagine what kind of soap you want to get, what properties it will have, smell, color, etc. What will you make it from, what oils will you use. We offer a recipe that we have tested more than once. But you can find another on the Internet that is most suitable for you.
Step 2. You need to calculate the amount of ingredients in grams (not milliliters!).
Approximately 1.5 kg per bar of soap. our recipe requires:
Water - 396.2 g.
Alkali - 169.8 g.
Olive oil - 586 g.
Coconut oil - 339.6 g.
Palm oil - 226.4 g.Step 3. Prepare everything for the process. Buy oils and lye, a pair of rubber gloves and a medical mask, a thermometer, and preferably two. Soap mold. Weigh the ingredients (preferably on an electronic scale, as the recipe needs maximum accuracy).
Step 4. Mix the oils and put in a water bath. This is done so that the oils do not overheat. It is desirable to use enameled dishes, not aluminum. Monitor the temperature - it should be 37-40 degrees.
Step 5. At the same time, the second person puts on a mask, gloves and pours alkali into cold water (not vice versa!), Stirring it until completely dissolved. In this case, the solution heats up, you need to cool it to 37-40 degrees.
Step 6. When the temperatures of the oils and lye are the same, pour the lye into the oil (not vice versa!), while stirring with a wooden stick. You can mix with a mixer, it will take 15-20 minutes, and if with chopsticks, then an hour and a half. The solution begins to thicken slightly. As soon as it begins to thicken, you can add essential oil, the amount is determined by the smell, but approximately 1 ml per 100 ml of oils. As soon as the mixture becomes thick enough that the mixer (or stick) begins to leave non-blurring marks on the mixture, it's time to spread the mass into a mold.
Step 7. Pour the mass into a pre-oiled mold, leave for a couple of days in a warm place (30-40 degrees). The soap will go through a gel stage where it liquefies, gets very hot, then hardens again and cools down. If the soap is in a cold place, or its quantity is very small, then the gel stage may not occur. It's not so scary, it's just that such soap will ripen 2-4 weeks longer.
In order for the gel stage to still come, it is better to make soap in an amount of more than a kilogram. Then it needs to be pulled out of the mold, allowed to dry for a day, cut into pieces and left for one and a half, preferably two months for ripening. At this time, the process of alkalization takes place, and the lye itself does not remain in the soap. Such soap only becomes better with time, its shelf life is from one to several years. It can also be used as a soap base.
In principle, there are a great many options for making soaps, and even more opportunities for the appearance and filling of soap. We have proposed the simplest option (this is Snow soap), and on this basis, you yourself connect your creative thought.
Just 50 years ago, soap was made by hand from natural materials. People didn't know about dandruff, bacteria, and the consequences of chemical soap making.
Household soap is a natural product that is easy to obtain using improvised materials.
It is enough to have on hand ash, ashes, residues of fat from cooking and you get an environmentally friendly detergent.
Previously, the device for making soap looked like this. 
To get alkali, boil the ashes (mix softwood too resinous with fat) in a small amount of soft water, preferably rain, for about half an hour. Allow the ashes to settle to the bottom of the pot, and then collect the fat-free liquid lye.
Attention! DO NOT use aluminum dishes or pots! 
Next, an appropriate amount of various fatty wastes is added to the lye and boiled, adding weaker lye, until the sample taken on a glass plate solidifies into a transparent sticky mass.
This method produces liquid potash soap, commonly called soap glue. To turn the soft mass into a solid, dense soap, salt is added to the soap glue. In this case, the so-called soap core is released, which is a solid, soda soap.
After adding table salt, the resulting heart soap is scooped out, as well as lye, after which the soap is placed again in the cauldron, boiled again with thicker lye, salted again, scooped out and placed in boxes lined with linen; when the excess lye adhering to the soap collects drop by drop to the bottom of the box, the latter is turned over, the soap is taken out, cut into pieces and dried in air.
For the manufacture of soap, it is better, of course, not to take ash and lime, but directly caustic soda, which is commercially called soapstone. 
You should have on hand a wooden box 5cm high, 7.5cm wide and 15cm. This is a single block form. If you're making more soap, use a larger box and cut the hardened end product into manageable chunks. Cover the bottom of the box with wax paper or grease to keep the soap from sticking, pour in the soft mixture and let it cool.
There are several items that it would not be easy to live without. Facial soap is definitely one of those things. Do-it-yourself soap is not only useful, but also interesting!
This article describes a recipe for making a natural, environmentally friendly detergent from scratch from the rubric - DIY soap 151 ideas.
It only requires three main ingredients to make it:
- Ash.
- Water.
The type of fat doesn't really matter, you can use any, including coconut oil. This kind of detergent that you make from scratch will not be exactly the same as store bought. It will softer and slightly fatter.
Will not bubble, commercial ones have additives such as sodium lauryl sulfate which are foaming agents. Even though it doesn't lather, it's still a great cleanser. And also some people can get irritated by SLS, so this natural remedy is a must.
You will also need:
- stainless steel pot;
- glass measuring cup;
- long spoon for processing;
- molds (pour soap to harden).
You can use plastic trays as a form or any container if it is at least 3 centimeters deep.
Recipe to make lye from ashes
Ash soap has been known to mankind since ancient times: even in ancient Greece, the inhabitants sprinkled ashes on their heads as a sign of sorrow, and apparently at the same time they noticed that when washed off, the ash was able to lather and cleanse the skin. Later, people learned to extract lye from the ashes and use it for various purposes - from washing to dyeing fabrics, and, of course, they began to make soap from it. Making this substance at home and making soap from scratch from natural ingredients is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. The instructions in our article will help you with this.
To do concentrated alkaline water, you need to pour cold water through the chilled ash. You need a plastic bucket or clay pot with a hole in the bottom. Cover the hole with a layer of pine needles to keep ash from falling.
Pack the ashes tightly on top needles. About 4.5 liters of alkaline water come out of ten cups of ashes. Next, you need to set up a bucket so that water can drip down through the ash, from the hole at the bottom, and into your stainless steel pot.
Heat alkaline water
if you have rainwater heat it up to a boil. You can also use distilled water, as ordinary tap water contains too much chlorine and minerals. Pour 2 liters of boiling water over the ashes. As soon as it seeps down, pour another 2.5 liters and wait 30 minutes.
You pour until you have 4.5 liters of brown water left in the pot below your ash bucket. Used ashes should be discarded. If you need more lye water, repeat the process with water and ash. The finished soap will vary slightly in strength, but you can use a strong laundry soap and a slightly weaker bath soap.
Recipe for concentrated lye
After extraction brown alkaline liquid, the next step is to boil until it becomes more concentrated.
The output should be a liter of concentrated alkaline water in a pot.
Be very careful with lye!
Wear gloves and be extra careful not to spill it!
Recipe: do-it-yourself bath soap
Creation own homemade detergent making an ash bath from scratch is a very easy task when you have a concentrated brown liquid. Start making soap from scratch using the ratios below.
Stir gently for one minute at a time, leaving to rest for 10-15 minutes.
Make sure the soap is creamy or light brown with no streaks before mixing. Check it out by drawing a line with your spoon. If you see a line, the soap is done.
Pour into molds and cover with a towel to keep warm. Remove the towel after the first day and let the soap rest for six days. Next, remove your product from the molds and cut to the desired size.
Store finished soap in an airtight container or wrap in plastic.
Troubleshooting homemade bath soap
It is important to remember that in this recipe you need to use ashes from hard wood, and not soft, then the manufacturing process and the soap itself will delight you. Do not hesitate, this is one of the best face care products.
Lye (lye, potash) is a consistency of ash infused with water. The lye is used for bathing and washing. Unlike various detergents sold in stores, this is a completely natural substance!
Previously, birch lye was used instead of soap: they washed their hair, washed themselves. It is useful for oral administration in various diseases, such as flatulence, colic in the stomach, increased acidity of gastric juice, and especially in poisoning with berries and bacterial toxins, and also contributes to the accelerated elimination of radioactive isotopes from the body.
Lye is a solution of wood ash in water. It mainly consists of potassium and sodium carbonates. Possesses strongly alkaline reactions. Therefore, it used to be used for washing and washing instead of soap, for leather dressing. From this word came the name of the class of alkali chemical compounds. Until now, some alkalis are called alkalis, for example, potassium hydroxide is potassium lye, and sodium hydroxide is soda lye. This word is now out of use.
By boiling the lye, they get a shadrik, which is cleaned and heated to potash.
Lye is a decoction of ash, an infusion of boiling water on ash, potash, ash extract. This is any solution of alkali or caustic salts in water. Sayings: Linen floats in lye. Skins, when cured, are wetted in lye. Dirty floors are washed with lye.
To make the soap completely natural, the lye obtained industrially and bought in the store can be replaced with lye made by oneself.
Lye is a solution of ash in water. To make everything right, it is recommended to use wood ash. And only deciduous trees. Conifers contain resins in their composition and are not suitable for making soap.
In principle, it is not so difficult to prepare lye, or rather, it is not at all difficult to say. There are two ways to obtain this substance: cold and hot. The most hassle-free, of course, the cold way. But lye is obtained faster if it is mined in a hot way.
How to make lye from ashes? To do this, the ashes should be sieved to rid it of dirt, large pieces of debris and excess impurities. The proportion will be 2/3 of ash + 1/3 of water.
Pour the ashes into a bucket and fill with water. This mixture should not be touched (interfered) for 3 days. During this time, the mixture will delaminate and lye will appear on top, and the ash will settle to the bottom. Then suck out the lye with a pear and pour it into a container. The lye will be highly concentrated. It will be necessary to adapt to dilute it with water (about 1/10). If you wash with a highly concentrated lye, then the clothes will wear out quickly. Properly diluted lye can wash your head (hair, body).
With the hot method, a mixture of water and ash is boiled for 2-3 hours, and then defended and also filtered. But safer!!! still cold way
Lye soap recipe. Often many people ask the question: can you make soap without using lye? You can if you use lye.
This will require 2 liters of lye per 1 kg of pork fat (other fat can be used). All this is mixed and boiled for at least 8 hours, stirring constantly. First, liquid soap will appear - “potash”. And to get our usual solid soap, you should add salt, a good handful. All the dirt will float to the surface, and the soap will separate. Get the so-called sound soap. It must be caught and put into shape. After hardening - cut into pieces - and laundry soap is ready.
If before laying out in forms, add useful components: caring oils, glycerin, esters, etc. Toilet soap is also available.
To be honest, I myself have not tried to cook just such a soap. It may be worth doing this for the purity of the experiment.
Unfortunately, the preparation of soap from the ashes has not been done yet.
Source http://soapidea.ru/kak-sdelat-shhelok-iz-zolyi/
