This is how soap used to be made, and I suppose you could still do it this way, but I recommend jeans and a long sleeved shirt, and gloves!
Creme de Cocoa
This is lye ( sodium hydroxide). Dangerous stuff. This will burn you! Be very careful. Lye is necessary to make soap. No lye, no soap.
After the lye and fats saponify, it will no longer be caustic, in fact, it will not be lye anymore.