Howes began her soap-making ventures when she saw a recipe for soap on a can of old lye. "I didn't know any better the first time I made soap.... So I was pretty lucky," she says, and she has kept her luck in the 20 years she has been creating soap to sell.

Some of her fellow soap makers haven't been so fortunate. One soap maker's husband mistook a lye and water mixture for regular water and burned his throat and stomach while the son of another woman in the business poured the water and lye solution on himself, burning his skin.

The true risk in the soap making process lies in the lye (sodium hydroxide), which is a caustic chemical. "You cannot make soap without using lye somewhere in the process," Howes says, and when lye is poured into water, as needed in making soap, the solution becomes very hot as a result of the chemical reaction. While the mixture remains hot, soap makers add it to the rest of the ingredients, including lard and oils.

"The way that soap is created is that the molecules of lye, which are the caustic molecules, seek out the molecules of the fatty acids, which are in the oil, and the two of them go through a chemical process called saponification," Howes says. "But what they do is that those molecules marry, and what you get from that, the product of that marriage is soap."

In addition to the lye and oils needed to make the soap, Howes adds other ingredients to enhance the sensual experience of the soap. To create an attractive scent, Howes adds various botanical butters, emu oil, essential oils or other soap-approved fragrances, but she tries to keep a more toned-down scent.

"I've chosen to keep the scent on the light side, for the most part, because we have so many chemicals in our society that I can't in good conscience give people more to rub into their bodies," Howes says. For a rich, "luxurious" feel for her customers, Howes adds actual silk to the mixture. And to make the soap look nicer, she might add some calendula or chamomile flowers because they are flowers that will maintain their yellow or orange or yellowy green color in the chemical process.

Howes no longer has a physical store front, but customers can purchase her products online at her Web site, or visit her booth at one of her events (listed on the Web site). Currently, customers can visit Howes every Thursday until Oct. 29 from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Mt. Washington Farmers' Market in Stanberry Park. 

PHOTO CREDITS
Photographer: Neysa Ruhl Photography
Model: Nancy Howes
Makeup: Gigi Cimmarusti, Mary Kay
Location: The McAlpin

Linda Palacios
		About the author:
		Linda Palacios, an East-side native, is the editor of Cincy Chic. Send her an e-mail at lpalacios@cincychic.com.
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Last update: 17-08-2009 14:56

Published in : Magazine Items, Beauty