You are reading the ingredient list on an Avlia bar. Sodium Olivate. Sodium Laurus Nobilate. Aqua. And then — on some natural soap labels — the disclosure: made with sodium hydroxide.
Sodium hydroxide. Lye. A corrosive alkali used in drain cleaners, paper manufacturing, and food processing. It burns skin on contact. It reacts violently with certain materials. Its CAS number is 1310-73-2. It sounds, in every way, like something that should not go anywhere near your skin.
Here is the complete chemistry explanation for why this concern, while intuitive, is unfounded.
You cannot make real soap without lye
This is not a caveat or a disclaimer. It is a chemical fact. The process that produces soap — saponification — requires a strong alkali to react with the triglycerides in oil. Sodium hydroxide (lye) is that alkali for bar soap. Potassium hydroxide is used for liquid soap.
Without lye, you do not have soap. You have oil. Products labelled ‘lye-free soap’ were made from a pre-made soap base, which was itself made with lye at an earlier stage. The lye was not avoided — it was used upstream and hidden from the label.
The saponification reaction: what actually happens
When sodium hydroxide dissolves in water and is combined with oils, a chemical reaction begins. The alkali molecules attack and break apart the triglyceride bonds in the oil, releasing fatty acid chains and glycerol. These components then combine with sodium to form soap salts (sodium olivate from olive oil, sodium laurus nobilate from laurel oil) and glycerol becomes glycerin.
This reaction is complete. The sodium hydroxide that entered the reaction does not exit the reaction as sodium hydroxide. It has been chemically transformed. In a properly made bar of soap with correct formulation ratios — where the quantity of lye precisely matches or slightly undermatches the quantity of oil — no free sodium hydroxide remains in the finished product.
The analogy: combine baking soda with vinegar in a bowl. They react, producing carbon dioxide gas and water. When the reaction completes, you do not have baking soda or vinegar in the bowl. You have water and a salt. The original compounds do not survive intact. Saponification is the same — the lye does not survive.
The ‘lye discount’ in natural soap making
Experienced natural soap makers calculate their lye quantity using a ‘superfatting’ ratio — typically using slightly less lye than would be required to fully saponify all the oil. This means a small percentage of the oil (usually three to eight percent) remains unsaponified in the finished bar — as free fatty acids that add extra moisture and skin benefit.
High-quality Aleppo soap, including Avlia’s bars made by Syrian Sabonji artisans in Turkey, is formulated with this superfatting. There is no free lye. There is unsaponified olive and laurel oil — beneficial to the skin.
What ‘sodium olivate’ and ‘sodium laurus nobilate’ are
These INCI names are what you see on an Avlia bar label. They are not misleading euphemisms. They are the correct chemical names for the products of saponification:
Sodium olivate = the sodium salt of olive oil fatty acids = the soap formed from olive oil.
Sodium laurus nobilate = the sodium salt of laurel berry oil fatty acids = the soap formed from laurel berry oil.
Both are stable, mild, skin-compatible compounds. Neither is sodium hydroxide. The transformation is complete and irreversible.
Why the traditional process matters
Avlia’s bars are made by the traditional hot-process method — the soap paste is cooked until saponification is complete, verified by the Sabonji artisans through experience and testing before the soap is poured. This differs from cold-process soap (which relies on the reaction completing during curing) in one significant way: hot-process soap is finished at the point of pouring. The reaction has completed in the pot.
The subsequent curing period for Avlia bars — up to a year or more — is for water evaporation and maturation, not for completing a saponification reaction that is already done.
Buy Avlia with confidence. The sodium hydroxide made the soap. It does not remain in it. Full range at avliahome.com.