Our first batch of elemental soap, made from scratch, is sitting in the mold, waiting to be cut. It was a long way from raw beef fat to soap!

Here Linda is cutting up raw beef fat, straight from the locker – look how thick that fat is from that cow! This fat was cut up, melted, water added and allowed to harden, water poured out and remaining fat remelted and water added again, cooled and water removed.

Here are all the ingredients lined up – lard, rendered beef fat, sodium hydroxide, and rainwater. It’s still bizarre that someone could put melted animal fat and a caustic material together to make soap. What’s more, greasy animal fat and caustic chemicals mixed together can be used to clean!

Alchemist Linda stirring the brew.

Still more stirring.

Finally, pouring the soap into the mold. It needs to cure for a day before removing from the mold, and 4-6 weeks before use.