Seedsquatch Soaps

On Reddit's r/soapmaking community, you'll find threads with titles like "What kind of lye do you guys use?" where the top-voted response cheerfully advises: "Lye is lye. Food-grade is great if you can get your hands on it, but even if it just says 99-100% pure it should be fine. Grab whatever's cheap." Over in another thread, someone asking about using Drano-brand drain opener receives advice like "If it's truly 100%, then there shouldn't be an issue" and "sodium hydroxide is sodium hydroxide."

On the Soapmaking Forum, a thread titled "Food Grade vs Technical Grade Lye?" produces advice like "You can use either one" — no caveats, no asterisks, no mention of what "either one" might mean for the people who later use those bars to wash their faces. Another thread directly recommends drain-cleaner grade lye and helpfully points members toward hardware store brands, with one seasoned commenter stating: "what you want is (drum roll...) drain cleaner grade! Not all drain cleaners are alike. Look for a brand that contains 100% sodium hydroxide."

To be fair to the community, not everyone agrees — a handful of voices do push back, with comments like "In making bath soap I will always use a food grade of Sodium Hydroxide. I'm just saying, do you want to use something that is intended to be part of the making bagels process or something that was intended as industrial parts cleaner?" But those voices are often outnumbered, downvoted, or dismissed as overly cautious. The prevailing vibe is: if the label says 100%, you're good.

You are not necessarily good. Let's talk about why.