I started making my own soap years ago… for me it was worth it. I didn’t want the anti-bacterial or fragrance in it… used only olive oil (pomace), avocado oil, palm oil and coconut oil with the lye. (though I want to replace the palm oil in my recipe, what I have is supposedly ok environmentally, it is controversial) Check out brambleberry.com and they have a lye calculator and recipes as well.