January 29, 2012: Not LYEing, I made soap!

If you are planning to make soap, I would suggest some serious studying and planning... but minimal planning and haphazard trial and error is kinda fun too.

To begin, I went to an online soap calculator, gathered some materials from around the house, and made trip to the local Health Food Co-op.

My first soap recipe contained beeswax, coconut oil, shea butter, sweet almond oil, sunflower oil, lye (sodium hydroxide), water, cedar wood essential oil, lavender essential oil and a green pigment. The video below explains how I made it (literally... I had this video on and paused it... played it... paused it... etc.)



The most interesting thing during this process was the extreme heat that the lye solution reached. I know, from teaching science, that a chemical reaction that gives off heat is referred to as "exothermic"- (exo meaning out and thermic meaning heat). So, it was clear that this was an exothermic reaction. However I was not sure why. It seemed to me that the ions Na+ and OH- should just separate from each other in the water and dissolve, creating the lye solution. Well, when I looked up WHY this would give off so much heat... I was surprised to find very little explanation (in layman's terms). I will translate (to the best of my ability).... The Na+ and OH- are clinging together in the solid sodium hydroxide in a certain crystalized shape. When put in water, a little bit of energy is needed to get the solvation process started. This was why it has to be stirred initially. When the ions start to break apart into the water, it is actually the part where the water molecules surround the individual Na+ and OH- ions that releases all of the energy. Hmmm. To visualize this, picture a piñata at a very large birthday party. The kids are like the water molecules and the candy inside the piñata is like the sodium and hydroxide ions. Everything remains relatively chill until the piñata breaks! Then all hell breaks loose and kids pounce on the candy and form clusters around candy piles... yelling, screaming, crying, fighting for candy. That is like the energy that is given off while water molecules surround the ions. Haha... after reading these silly elaborate explanations on all sciencey websites... that is what I get out of it. 
Regardless, it gets freakin' hot! So be careful :) and do not get any on your body!

My soap is still "curing" - as the soap lady says - but here it is :)