So you've got your soap batch done and you are so proud of yourself. Way to go!

As you may already know, hand made soaps contain some excess lye sometimes. Soap that contains lye is not good for your skin. So we need a good testing procedure that will say weather our soap has some lye in it, or not.

So, how do you test your soap for too much lye or, should we say, the presence of Alkali?

There are a few ways to doing that. But let's concentrate on an easy and simple way.

The simple way of checking the Alkali level of your soap is with a liquid called: "Phenolphthalein" (Yes, I was scared too, the first time I heard this name ;-))

Phenolphthalein is basically just a sensitive PH indicator. It's a colorless liquid, that turns pink if it is applied to a substance with a high PH level.

As you may already know, Alkali has a high PH level (over 10).

Soap that touches the skin should have a PH of 7 - 9.5. More than that is harmful for the skin.

So, here's how you do it:

Apply a few drops of Phenolphthalein to your soap. If the Phenolphthalein stays colorless, of gets a VERY fain shade of pink, that your soap is OK to be used on the skin.

If, on the on the hand, the Phenolphthalein turns pink or purple, than this soap can be used for laundry or house cleaning, but not on the skin.

Before you drip the Phenolphthalein liquid on the soap's surface, remember to wipe off the white chalk-like substance on the surface (soda ash). That's because this chalk-like substance will test Alkali too.

By the way, Phenolphthalein is sold in 20 ml bottles for $5.99, so it's not an expensive thing to get.