How To Make Soap Without Using Lye or NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide) Malaysia?

Hi all,
Today ill be sharing with you a way to make soap without using Lye or NaOH. Ive been getting this questions almost daily and so i would like to take up this post to explain a little bit of soap chemistry to those who are unaware of this:-)
Salam Sejahtera semua. Hari ini saya akan menerangkan kepada anda bagaimana membuat sabun tanpa menggunakan lye/ Sodium Hydroxide. 

What is Soap? 
Apakah itu Sabun?
Soap is basically the salt of fatty acids. Its usually produced by combining Triglycerides that contains these fatty acids (in lay man term Oils) with a really strong alkali (in this case lye/ NaOH) to go through a special soap making chemical reaction called saponification to produce soap and a byproduct called glycerin.
Sabun adalah garam kepada fatty acids. Ia selalunya dibuat dengan menggunakan trigliserida (lemak seperti minyak) yang di campur dengan bes yang kuat (seperti NaOH/ lye) untuk membentuk sabun. Proses kimia pembentukkan sabun dipanggil 'saponifikasi'. Dalam proses saponifikasi ini apabila lemak bercampur dengan bes yang kuat, akan membentuk sabun dan glycerin. (seperti dalam rajah dibawah)


So as you can see, you Cannot make soap without lye. You need these NaOH/ Lye to make soap. Without it, what you will get is just Oils. Here is how the soap reaction happens:
Oleh itu, seperti yang diterangkan, sebenarnya lye amat diperlukan dalam pembentukkan sabun. Jika lye tidak digunakan, sabun tidak akan terbentuk dan anda hanya akan dapat lemak. Lye diperlukan untuk menukar lemak kepada sabun. 

But i read somewhere Lye/ NaOH is very harmful and i don't want them in my soap! 

Tetapi saya pernah baca bahawa lye/ NaOH ini anat bahaya dan saya tidak mahunya dal am sabun saya!

Technically once the saponification process is completed, there isn't any lye left in the soap. As you can see on the diagram above, each triglyceride (oils) will react 100% with the NaOH producing fatty acid salts and glycerin. There isn't any NaOH left in the end product (on the right side of the chemical reaction). Each triglyceride requires different amount of NaOH to be converted into soap. 

Example a 100g of Olive Oil requires 13.4g of Lye to be converted into soap, while 100g Coconut Oil requires 19g of Lye to become soap. Every oil needs different quantity of lye therefore if you are making an attempt to make soap, do run it once using Soap Calculator just to be safe. 

Jika anda melihat diagram diatas, apabila proses saponikasi tamat, tiada satu pun lye yang tertinggal dalam sabun tersebut. Jika anda menggunakan resipi yang betul, kesemua lye/ NaOH akan bertindak dengan lemak untuk menghasilkan sabun dan gliserin. Setiap lemak memerlukan kuantiti NaOH yang berlainan. 

Contohnya 100g Olive Oil (Minyak Zaitun) memerlukan 13.4g lye, manakala 100g Minyak kelapa memerlukan 19g Lye untuk dijadikan sabun. Setiap minyak/lemak memerlukan kuantiti NaOH yang berlainan oleh itu jika anda sedang mengira bagaimana membuat sabun, adalah selamat jika anda menggunakan soap kalkulator yang telah disediakan oleh Soap Lab disini (Percuma!. Asalkan selamat!) 

But i'm scared to handle lye/ NaOH! 

Tapi saya takut nak gunakkan NaOH/ Lye.

Well don't worry. As long as you take all the safety precautions such as wearing gloves, goggles, mixing them in well ventilated area (outside the house if its your first time will be good), have the correct recipe, you will be ok:-) you can always start by looking through our free tutorials here. We have many easy beginner tutorials that you can follow. Or if you are still not comfortable and interested to learn more, and are able to come to klang valley area, you can also enrol for our all in soap workshop here:-)

Anda tidak perlu risau apabila menggunakan lye/NaOH. Asalkan anda memakai sarung tangan, anda melindungi mata dan muka anda, membuat sabun di tempat berudara dan mengikuti resipi yang betul,   dah ok untuk membuat sabun. Pastikan resipi yang anda ada adalah betul. Jika tidak pasti, kami di Soap Lab mempunyai banyak tutorial percuma yang anda bole ikuti disini. Jika masih tak pasti tapi mahu belajar, kita juga ada class membuat sabun disini.

Is there really no way to make Soap without Lye? 

Betulke tiada langsung cara membuat sabun tanpa menggunakan lye/ Sodium Hydroxide?

As stated above, there isn't anyway to make soap without lye. However, if you do not want to handle lye, another easier way to make soap is by getting the ready made soap base. Lye is still used in the making of these soap bases, however its already handled by somebody else (the manufacturer) so you  won't be exposing yourself with the danger of lye. 

There are many soap bases available in the market but we in Soap Lab suggest that you use our handmade soap base as besides making it with you in mind and a lot of love :-) we also know that our quality is much superior compared to other factory made ones. Also its 100% Vegetarian therefore for those who is unsure of the Halal status of the factory made ones can be assured that all ours is 100% animal product free:-)

Seperti yang dinyatakan diatas, lye amat diperlukan untuk membuat sabun. Namun demikian, jika anda tidak mahu menggunakan Lye, anda boleh membeli sabun separa siap (Soap Base). Lye masih digunakkan didalam sabun separa siap ini namun demikian ianya telah dimasukkan oleh pengilang dan sudah dijadikan sabun, oleh itu anda tidak lagi perlu mengendalikan lye ini. 

Terdapat banyak jenis soap base di dalam pasaran tetapi kami di Soap Lab syorkan anda menggunakan Soap Base Handmade Soap Lab. Ini adalah kerana selain dibuat dengan penuh kasih sayang untuk anda (:-) kami juga pasti bahawa barangan yang digunakkan didalam soap base ini berkualiti tinggi. Soap Lab juga pasti yang semua bahan yang digunakkan didalam soap base kami adalah 100% Vegetarian dan langsung tidak mempunyai lemak haiwan jadi anda boleh menggunakannya tanpa was-was:-) 

If you would like to check out tutorials on how to make soap using lye from scratch, click here.

Jika anda ingin melihat tutorial membuat sabun menggunakan lye, klik disini

If you would like to checkout tutorial on how to make soap without using lye, click here.

Jika anda ingin melihat tutorial membuat sabun tanpa menggunakan lye, klik disini

If you are a total newbie and have no idea whats the difference, click here

Jika anda tak pernah membuat sabun dan tak pasti apakah bezanya, click disini. 

Thank you for reading Soap Lab Malaysia.

If you are one of those who wants to understand why certain ingredient is in your skincare/ cosmetics, learn how to make and formulate your own cosmetics, do contact us on our next class. We also have business courses for those interested to start a business in handmade cosmetics.