• Wear goggles, gloves and a mask! Be fully clothed! See Safety Precautions in Soap Making
  

How To Make Lye Water

• Make your lye water prefferably outdoors, or at least, near an open window.
  
• Weight the lye/potash and water according to each recipe. Don't make errors above 1 gram.
  
• Pour the lye/potash in the water. NEVER pour the water into the lye/potash, you may get a "volcano" effect or lye spilling.
  
• Mix well with a silicone spatula or spoon. Don't breathe the vapours, they are very irritating.
  
• When using potash, the reaction potash-water is even stronger than lye-water. Be ready for cracklings and a very slight volcano.
  
• Be careful as the jug will get a really high temperature (near 90ºC - 100ºC or 194ºF - 212 ºF).
  
• For cold process, it is important to check temperature, in order to mix it with oils at a good temperature.
  

Variants

• Basic lye water only uses lye/potash and distilled water. But you can make lye water replacing the water with any water-based liquid: herbal infusions, vegetable pureés, fruit juice, milk, coffee, even beer.
  
• Some addictives to improve soap properties are also added to the lye water, especially ones that will react with lye or potash: sodium lactate, fine salt, citric acid, vinegar.
  
• You can also add the ingredients we will be using as natural colorants: clays, spices, dried herbs in powder form.