#/overexaggerating the discourse for dramatic effect

[bang-bang-gang]

had to sit through like four days straight of mjf discourse on my dash before watching dynamite. only for my extremely offline bf who loves mjf to get up and skip the mjf match without saying anything. when i asked, he says its because mjf will be wearing an american flag and he cant really deal wtih seeing an american flag right now

[iatrophilosophos]

OK soapmaking discourse time. This is a very funny thing to have produced but it's not really dangerous lmfao. Dont like...USE it...

The risk re: incidental lye exposure in soap making is shockingly overexaggerated. That scene in fight club has had disastrous consequences for soap making etc.

Splashing a little lye solution on yourself is not dangerous. Holding the raw crystals in your hands is not dangerous, it'll start to tingle and get weird long before it actually burns you. I have done both--i started soap making at 13 with no adult guidance or supervision. The one time I have gotten at all injured was when I spilled unsaponified soap batter down my sleeve and didn't bother to clean it or change my shirt for several hours until I got a itchy hot rash. I flushed it with cold water and it was ultimately fine.

Rinse accidental lye exposures well with cold water, it'll hurt like a motherfucker if you get it into open wounds, if you're doing it with children maybe put them in safety goggles and gloves or sumn bc kid skin is a lot more sensitive and kids are a lot worse at not getting gunk on themselves. But unless it's like fun for you you rlly don't need ppe for soap making.

Lye IS a problem in: hair relaxers. I don't think it's in many/any anymore but, in the last several decades, hair straightening chemical products marketed at Black women have been lye-based and, putting lye on ones scalp for an extended processing time bc white supremacist beauty/professionalism standards enforce it WILL cause gnarly burns, especially if done regularly.

Under-fatted lye soaps have also been used historically on hair for extended applications as a lice/parasite treatment which will also give ya burns, proooobably led to the invention of lye-based hair relaxers.

Mostly tho I think the modern popular assessment of the dangers of lye come from 1) that scene in fight club where in common storytelling form a bit of science was highly overexaggerated for dramatic effect and 2) the bougeification of soapmaking as a hobby, selling ppl all kinds of expensive junk and saying it's Really For Real Super Neccesary

All u need to have ready to use soap in a few hours is

A glass jar with a lid -- you can do about 1 lbs of soap per quart of capacity so make a 1 lb batch for a quart, 2 for a half gallon, 4 for a gallon. Mason jars and big pickle jars work gr8.

Some assorted glass vessels for measuring stuff into

A digital food scale

A dish towel you don't love

A big pot ur jar fits into

A silicone spatula

A recipe-- use http://soapcalc.net/ to play around with proportions of oils you have cheap easy access to until you get something reasonable. I rlly like 1/2&1/2 olive and coconut oil.

Some shit to pour the soap into as a mold like a silicone baking pan or a plastic tub-- if your container is rigid line it with wax paper so u can actually get the shit out

Measure your oils, put them in the jar, throw it in a pot of water on the stove as a double boiler on low/medium heat

Measure your water and lye, mix them in a glass container by swirling until it's clear. IT WILL GET VERY HOT so be careful

Chill until the oils and the lye solution are about the same temperature as felt thru the side of the vessel (people use thermometers, I do not.)

Add the lye solution to the oil, put the lid on the jar, WRAP THE LID WITH A DISH TOWEL, and shake the whole situation very hard until it reaches trace (look up what trace is from regular soap making stuff you'll figure it out). The lid WILL spurt and leak lil bits of caustic lye batter which will be hot and, as described, not overly dangerous but less than ideal to touch for long periods, hence the towel you don't love.

Return the jar to the pot of hot water on low heat. Take the lid off and just leave it sorta covering the top of the jar. Let that baby cook for a few hours until it "gels"--it looks kinda like Vaseline, again look up "hot process method soap" from regular guides to get the idea

Pour the hot soap gel into your mold, using the spatula to get it out. At this point it's hot and sticky and so can still burn you, but IS finished soap that won't *chemically* burn you. Work quickly bc it will cool fast into chunks

Let the soap cool overnight. Rinse your jar and spatula out in the sink-- since the soap is now finished, it's very easy to clean. Yay!

I can't stop thinking about this reddit post on soapmaking dude

I cannot express what an insane recipe that is. No one else could grasp it either

Like beeswax doesn't. It kinda just stays as beeswax in the soap. The lye has nowhere to go with it. That liquid seeping out of the soap? The brown and clear drops?? That's lye. That's straight up lye. This mf made the soap equivalent of the Chernobyl elephants foot.