Given that our house won't be connected to any grid services, and we won't have a septic tank (and also we're not completely silly) we'll end up with a greywater system feeding into the garden. This raised questions for us about sodium build-up in the soil over time from soaps, to which the obvious solution seems to be potassium-based soaps instead.
(long story short, soap is made by combining a strong base with oils or fats, usually sodium hydroxide is used as the base but alternatively potassium hydroxide can be used and the potassium is friendlier to plants than the sodium).
After a bit of a search it seems it is possible to buy potassium soaps in Australia but they're either quite pricey or have loads of perfumes in them (which sets off Kyle's asthma). Ordering from overseas is again possible, but postage adds up.
Now, one of my majors at Uni was chemistry, and I spent 5 years as a science teacher. So I'm not particularly worried by the thought of making it all myself. But it was pretty easy.
It doesn't look very exciting yet.
The soap paste turned out a little more fluid than I thought it would, but I suspect that's because my attempt at making distilled water in my kitchen resulted in nothing but burns and swearing so I had to use filtered water instead, which is not as good. I'm going to try and source some proper glassware for next time (lots of high schools don't do distillation anymore but have heaps of the kits and occasionally get rid of them).
I'll experiment with different dilution, maybe some colours and essential oils, and then a few different liquid soap recipes. I've also seen recipes that claim success in making a hard potassium based soap by using animal fats (as is traditional for sodium based soap), but accounts vary so I think I'll experiment when I have more time (and easy access to animal fat).
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