| I wanted to continue our learning adventure with the single oil soaps. I was really enjoying what I was learning and I wanted to know more. I decided to try Olive Oil today. I have seen and heard of Olive Oil Soap before, but I have never made it and it has been a really long time since I have tested a bar. I wanted to know more. Come join me in the kitchen as we make an Olive Oil Soap!
I didn’t have any problems when mixing this soap. It went smoothly with no accelerated trace. When I went to cut my soap after 24 hours, it was still very soft. I talked to one of the gals on the Tech Support Team and she told me that my temperatures were not hot enough. My olive oil was about 120° F. As my temperatures were fairly low, I will have to wait 6 to 8 weeks to allow the soap to cure! Big note to self: When making Olive Oil Soap, have higher temperatures. When I went to the sink to test this soap it was really creamy. There were occasional bubbles but not anything I would classify as lather. Part of this is due to the slow saponification of the olive oil. I think a soap with 12 oz of Olive Oil and 4 oz of either Palm Kernel Oil or Coconut Oil would be really nice. This way you get the dense lather from the olive oil and the big volume lather from the Palm Kernel Oil or the Coconut Oil. What do you think? Should we try a soap like that? Needed Materials
Recipe
Weigh the Olive Oil into a microwave safe container. Heat until warm. This took about 2 1/2 minutes for me. Add the lye to the water to for a lye solution. Mix the oils and lye solution and blend until trace is achieved. Pour into a mold and allow to sit for 24 hours. Enjoy!
|
 Attempting to cut soap  Olive Oil  Mixing Lye Solution  Adding the Lye Solution to the Olive Oil  Mixing the Lye and Olive Oil  Mixing Soap  Pouring Soap into Mold  Soap in the mold |
This is castile kind of soap. I think. I have purchased olive oil soap at the store and it was exactly the same. it lathered not whole a lot but it had very good cleansing power with mildness to it. I think as long as you can cure it for enough time, this will be great for children and such.
I haven’t made a castile soap yet, but I keep meaning to. I haven’t heard that you need to soap it at high temperatures, but I have heard that these are awesome after a long cure. Like the best time to use it is a year later. It starts becoming ok at about 6 months or so, but really turns into a wonderful bar after a year of curing. I’m planning on making some peppermint here soon to have for Christmas gifts.
If you are really going for a true castile soap, you will not get any lather. If you want a really nice lather try castor oil instead of palm or coconut. Castor oil creates both a fluffy AND stable lather. Makes a HUGE difference.
My ever first soap attempt was with 3/4 olive oil and 1/4 coconut oil, but the soap was very soft. I mean, it was hard enough to handle after the 6 weeks of curing, but after taking a shower with it it was getting so creamy that one could scoop it with a spoon. Otherwise the lather was fine, because of the coconut oil. I’ve bought Aleppo soap several times, which is basicaly a kind of castile soap and it was definitely harder than mine.
Sadly, the first thing to consider is whether or not your olive oil is fake. A high % of olive oil on the market shelves today is adulterated. While it won’t kill ya if you eat it, it may skew your results when it comes to making soap. I learned this the hard way — when I lost 6 months of sales due to adulterated olive oil purchased from a reputable supplier! Google “fake olive oil” to learn more. Here’s one link that pretty much describes the problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_regulation_and_adulteration
But I digress. Olive oil soaps produce a slow and stingy lather. They are mild, clean well, and recommended for sensitive skin and babies. Excellent for Cancer patients undergoing chemo — they often find it to be soothing to their parched skin because it doesn’t strip away natural oils. “Normal” people either love it or hate it — both for the same reason — it leaves an oil slick on the skin that some refer to as “slime” or worse yet, “mucus”. LOL
To reduce the “slime” factor:
– Try 70% olive oil and a 30% blend of coconut/PKO (boost hardness & lather), castor oil (boost lather, emollience) and a bit of cocoa butter or avocado oil (to boost hardness, emollience). AKA “Bastile” vs. “Castile”.
– Try washing the bars in a salt water bath (1 oz. salt to a quart of water) before setting out to cure.
– Try subbing “sea water” (1 oz. sea salt without iodine per 32 oz. water) for the liquid to make the soap.
Normally, allow 12 weeks for CP castile to cure. An advanced technique many soapers use to speed up cure is to “discount water” by using the lower number in the range given on MMS calc and “discount” NaOH to 0-3%.
100% olive oil soap is an excellent candidate for HP because of its otherwise long cure time.
Adding 10% castor oil, 1 tablespoon oats/oat flour ppo and 1 tablespoon honey ppo makes an excellent soap for eczema sufferers. Add the honey (warmed) & oats directly to the (warmed) oil and incorporate thoroughly before adding the lye solution.
When making castile, I allow the NaOH solution to cool to 100°F and then warm the OO in the microwave to 100°F before combining. Works for me. 😀
Hi Taylor, I don’t think your soaping temperature had much to do with this. I’ve soaped castille soap at room temperature and it set up just fine and gelled with no problem as well. I think that the main problem was that you used way too much water. Many soapers use a 40-45% lye solution when doing 100% olive oil. This makes the soap set up much faster and indeed may get so hard that unless you cut it within a day or two you will have trouble. Try reducing the water next time. Gelling also speeds things along.
The color is beautiful though. Did you use extra virgin olive oil?
I made 100% olive oil soap last week for the first time. I made it with a 6% superfat, 4 oz water PPO, and mixed at room temp. It turned out beautifully and hardened enough to cut by the next day. It has a little fine lather and doesn’t feel slimy in our hard water.
i used Kirkland olive oil from Costco.
I’d caution against soaping too hot for castille. One time, I used newly mixed water discounted lye solution (around 189 degrees) with pomace OO and the soap totally got DOS and went rancid. first it started with orange dots, then the unscented bar turned completely orange and would turn into gel in the shower. The soap that I had added an EO also got orange, but not as bad as the unscented half of the batch.
hv question on single olive oil. Due to low temperature, 120 degree, u’ll need 6-8 weeks for soap to cure. What’s the best temperature for let’s say my soap ingredients is 50% olive oil? N do 50% olive oil in soap all need 6i8 weeks curing time? Pls advice. Thx.
2) Another quest:
I find EVOO made smoother and finer , more moisturizing soap than pomace. Does anyone feel the same? I know all reading materials said pomace made better soap..
Thx for sharing..
Judy is absolutely correct. Hotter oil is not the way to go, you need less water.
My go to recipe is 30/70 coconut olive split I usually cpop so the cure time is less I also add yoghurt and olive he resulting sodium lactate hardens the bars
I’m so glad you have learned to work with olive oil and the notoriously slow hardening process. Your comment proves that single oil soaps are tough and often a small workaround is important to overcoming the issues presented.
Tina