Granny Good's Naturals hand-made Lye soap is just like your Granny used to make - same old fashioned recipe with all the wonderful benefits that Lye soap is famous for. Each bar is hand cut, so expect  a bit of imperfection in the size of the bars but we know you will love it! Each bar is approx. 4-5 ounces in weight, white in color and unscented. 

A little Lye Soap history:

Technically, all cold processed natural soap is Lye Soap. When someone speaks specifically of Lye Soap they are describing a soap similar to one their Grandmother may have produced. That is why you often hear of it referred to as "old fashioned" or "Grandma's soap" Before the mid 1800s, most Americans made their own soap. It was made from hog fat in the Fall or from saved drippings from either pork or beef. The process was gruelling and inexact. Ash from the hearth was saved in a dry place until soap-making time. Potash and pearlash were lixiviated from the wood ash. They are the forms of the potassium based alkali present in plant and wood material. Water was then poured over the ash and allowed to seep through and collect at the bottom of a container, typically a barrel which had small holes in it that allowed the water to be collected. To test to see if enough lye had leached into the water, an egg was placed into the water mix. If it sank to the bottom the water would be poured through the ash mix again. A floating egg was said to make for an ideal lye-water combination! Fat was then boiled in the back yard, the lye water mix was added and the boiling process could last for up to 24 hours. Eventually a salt was formed (Lye Soap is chemically a salt) and the mix was allowed to cool and harden into old fashioned Lye Soap.

There is so much misinformation about Lye Soap. The qualities that made it so attractive to our ancestors still apply today. However, nowadays we can take the basic idea of mixing the lye/water solution with lard and make a spectacular bar of soap that is neither harsh to touch nor pungent to smell and we are able to keep all of the soothing properties that make for such an extraordinary bar of natural soap. Amazing! Our process is not nearly as gruelling or complex today though Granny Good's Naturals Lye Soap is still made with lard just like Granny's recipe! These days, we incorporate vegetable oils to help with the lathering process but this is not a vegan soap bar!

Some of the Uses for Lye Soap:

Remove grass & blood stains, Remove & prevent Poison Ivy, Remove Carpet Stains, Grease hinges & drawer slides, Remove hat band sweat stains, Condition leather, Best laundry soap - remove tough stains and brighten whites & colors, Soothe sunburn, Eliminate head lice, Cut grease on dirty dishes, Help soothe and heal eczema and psoriasis, Oven cleaner, Clean greasy mechanic’s hands, Clean dirty dogs, Clean jewelry, Get rid of dandruff & dry scalp, Get rid of beavers in streams, Remove onion & fish odor from hands, Unclog drains, Remove all scent before hunting, Grease axles, Best catfish bait!