So our wood ash lye soap has been curing for many weeks now and it’s time to give our experiment a test and see what the results are! So exciting!
First I tried to rub the soap between my hands like a bar of soap, but it is much too soft for using like that, so I placed the soap in a small antique what-not container I keep in the bathroom as decoration… to use like one would to dip some lotion out of a jar using your fingers. That seems to work best.
Now for the feel of the soap. It goes on very greasy as you may suspect. The homemade lye soap I’ve used before was made using commercial lye and thus acted and felt more like commercial soap, but I wanted to attempt replication of making soap with only what I could get from nature like early pioneers would have done, hence the making of the wood ash lye using what little information I could find on how to produce it. Honestly there isn’t much info out there! I’d love to find some more info on that topic alone!
Washing my hands in cold water just created a mess like coating my hands with cooking shortening and trying to wash it off in cold water, so I turned on the hot tap and that worked much better. While it didn’t feel like soap that I’m used to it did have one really surprising effect! After rinsing thoroughly my hands feel nice and clean but also super moisturized! There is absolutely no residual greasy feeling, just super soft and clean feeling skin!
The closest I can describe the feeling is… I was once treated to a hot wax hand and foot treatment at a spa and this is a similar feeling I had on my skin after the wax treatment… but much nicer! So the final results…
1. It does not feel or act like soap we are used to. There are no suds. It is not a hard cake. Must use hot water and rinse well, which is probably enough to technically cleanse the hands with or without the soap lol unless your hands a really filthy !
2. It is rather pleasant to use as a moisturizing hand treatment. For that alone it is worth using!
3. There is no residual smell on my hands from the herbs or tallow etc (which is nice not to have smelly scented soaps because I’m usually allergic to the scents).
4. My hands do feel clean, but I can’t confirm how well it works as an actual cleansing agent from a bacterial perspective etc. without scientific consultation of a much smarter and better equipped lab than just my kitchen lol
Will I keep the soap and use it? I do believe I will! But more as a moisturizing treatment and special treat than a regular hand soap. Which is super nice and soothing in these cold and dry Montana winters! Lol… I may just have found a nice homemade beauty product formula by accident ! I bet it would work great on any dry skin patch like elbows or feet as well! Moisturize lotions are a big seller in Montana because of the dry air and cold weather and it’s almost impossible to find a product without scent that honestly does a nice a job as this soap has done! So yes I will be keeping the experiment and using it as a special treat for dry skin 🙂 rather than a daily regular soap.
What a fun experiment!
Conestoga Chuck 