I heard the stories about 100% olive oil soap, that it was so gentle and mild, yet “slippery” and “low suds.” I made up a batch and have been very pleased with it. Here’s the deal on the “low suds” issue–it’s true to some extent UNLESS you use one of those scrubby plastic bath puffs. With the puff, it is unbelievably sudsy. Also very sudsy as a shampoo bar. I love it. It’s a little bit of a water discount and it sets up very fast and gets hard as a rock in record time. Don’t wait too long to unmold and slice into bars–8 hours or so is all mine needed, but check your batch and make the call depending on your best judgment.
Olive Oil/Castille Soap
100 oz. olive oil
12.6 oz. lye
30 oz. water
Makes about 24 big, chunky, creamy-white, 4-plus oz. bars. Yum.
Follow safe soapmaking procedures.
This site has excellent instructions on how to make soap.
I added no essential oils to this batch, but a general guide for most essential oils is to add .5 oz. eo’s per pound of soaping oils. For this recipe you would need approximately 3.125 oz. of your favorite essential oil(s). Round up and use 4 oz. for extra oomph.
I bring mine to a fairly thick trace so I can make some swirls reminiscent of the hot process ones.
Let your soap cure for about 6 weeks for the hardest, mildest bars.
{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s gorgeous…
I’m not brave enough yet to try making my own soap – but this photo almost makes me want to try. They look wonderful!
Quick question – are the measures by weight or volume?
Those bars look gorgeous! I like the ripply effect on the ends
Looks awesome! This site makes me wanna try home soap-making! But is the math wrong on the essential oil amount or am I misinterpreting something?
You said “.5 oz. eo’s per ounce of soaping oils”, but recommend ~3.125 oz. eo’s for 100 oz. of olive oil in the recipe. Is “soaping oils” different than the 100 oz. of olive oil?
Ooops! That should read per POUND of soaping oil!!! Sorry, will correct that!!
When I make Castile, I felt the soap after it is cured. By putting bits of wool roving around the soap and agitating, you end up with a soap that has its own beautiful body scrub wrapped around it. This gives the Castile plenty of lather, allows you to totally use up the last tiny bit of soap and when your are done you have a pretty bit of felt. You can cut the felt open and use it as a small pouch, turn the felt into jewellery or even put a couple of drop of EOs on it and use it to scent your lingerie drawer. Full instructions over at my place if you’d like to see how.
Ha!
I just took out the large jug of olive oil and set it next to my lye and crisco, on the kitchen counter, to stare at me…
I reeeeeally am going to try it one of these days….
Can this be a hot process recipe? Like in a crockpot? Thanks.
Where do you buy lye? I want to try this. Soon, so the bars can cure before Christmas. Plus, I have a whole jar of bacon fat that’s waiting to be saponified.
Thank you, Michelle!
Simple Mama–You should try it, it’s easy.
hillel.kitty–By weight, and thank you very much!
FrugalKiwi–I love that! I will check it out definitely.
Kat–Take the plunge, it really is so easy.
jlind–Yes, I imagine it would do just fine hot process.
Angela–You pretty much have to order it online. There are many outlets. Just find a soaping supplier and follow their directions to fill out a form saying you are using it for innocent purposes and they will ship it directly to you.
YAY! Thanks so much for posting this! It’s soon to be the annual (sometimes semi-annual) soap day at our house!
I just became totally jealous of your beautiful, white bars. And baffled. This weekend I made 50% olive oil, 30% lard and 20% coconut bars. They are not remotely as white as yours and they semi-gelled, which left a kind of cool, swirly effect in the middle but… yours are definitely prettier than mine. So how long will you cure/have you cured these? I did a 35% water discount but and they set up and cut into bars just fine, but it will be a while before they are any kind of hard, let alone “rock hard”.
Can this be made as a liquid soap with the appropriate amount of KOH?
Also, do liquid soaps in general need to cure to complete the saponification like solid soaps do? Or are they ready to use immediately? Thanks!
Jill–Hope you enjoy!
Carla–These all-olive oil bars are the whitest I have made. I don’t know the reason, but my blends of other oils never have been as white. One factor may be the absence of essential oils, too. These are completely unscented.
These have cured a couple of months now, but they have been very hard from about the ten-day point. My blended oil batches usually take several weeks to reach that stage. I’m sure your bars are very pretty!
Robert–I don’t see why not, although I have never done so yet. I would like to try it someday.
Properly made liquid soaps don’t need the cure time of bar soap. Suds up right away.
I’ve been looking for a liquid soap recipe. Can anyone steer me towards one?
Thanks for the idea. Mine came out great. They are already very hard and beautifully white. After they are done curing I would like to try making shampoo and dishwashing soap from some of them.
What kind of olive oil did you use? Not extra virgin–that would make yellow-green bars and be pretty expensive, I would guess. I have some large quantities of really cheap plain olive oil and may need to try this! My soaps always turn out beige. Except one time I put blue-green algae powder in a lime-scented soap and it was a very nice muted green. Ooooooooooh. I haven’t made soap in over a year–maybe this weekend I’ll make some more. I’m almost out, anyway!
Hi Jen–Sorry to take so long. Yes, it’s plain pure olive oil, not extra-virgin. Sounds like you’ve got the fever. Get soapin’!
Silly question……I get that you have to weigh the lye but do you have to weigh the liquids as well? Even if my soap doesn’t turn out I’ve had a blast. Thanks for the inspirations!!!
cinder–I weigh everything. I don’t think you have to weigh the water, though. So glad you had a good time and hope the soap turns out beautifully!
Thanks for posting. Interesting article.
I’ll try to make a soap !
I’m on a couple of soaping forums where they recommend to weigh everything, even water, in grams. I’m new at soap but these guys have many multiples of successful batches under their collective belts. I trust them.
What does “It’s a little bit of a water discount…” mean? And could you tell me the approximate size of your soap mold/box so I have an idea what size container I should use? Last time I tried making soap (which was also my first time–and inspired by this site nonetheless!) my bars came out like less than a half an inch thick! *hehehe* I’ll be using my good extra virgin, first cold pressed olive oil this time around and would really like to look forward to nice, thick bars like yours!
Thanks!
Would this be fine to use as shampoo as well. What soap would you suggest if not this one?
Elle–I use it as a shampoo. I recommend it.
Making soap is this weekend’s project. I’ve just wrapped up canning with the last batch of jam in the canner as I type. Sounds great!
Good luck, Kimberly!
Hi!
I have never made soap before but I keep coming back to this page. That soap looks beautiful and I love the idea of such a pure soap with no added fragrance. I want so bad to make it but I’m a little scared!
Mila–I hear this a lot. I was the same before I tried it for the first time. Once you have made your first batch you will wonder what the fuss was about. You can do it!
I am going to get the ingredients today! What should I use as a form for the soap?
mila–You don’t have to have a special mold. Many people use old milk cartons,shoe boxes, Pringles cans, etc. and just tear off the paper when the soap has set, then slice into the desired-size bars. Rustic is good.
Good to know! Thank you so much!
nice looking soap. how much time did you stir before you get the trace, I’m trying to make pure olive oil soap but I’m failing in getting the trace, I have to say that I’m not very patient
brainfault–Thank you. I use an immersion blender to get it to trace. With the blender, it only takes a few minutes, fewer than 10. By hand I’ve heard pure olive oil is especially reluctant to thicken up. I love the immersion blender. Saves so much stirring!
dear brainfault, I have had to stir as long as an hour to get trace on handstirred olive castille.
And TL what brand of olive oil did you use, if you can tell me. I have always gotten beige bars, which does not bother me that much if at all, but those amazingly white bars are, well, just amazing and I would like to try my hand…
Thanks, Mika
Mika–The container reads: Kroger Imported Pure Olive Oil. It’s in the big green metal can. Sorry I took so long replying, had to search for it a bit.
Thanks TL for the info.
When I go to Savannah the next time I’ll have to pick some up. No Kroger around these parts and I just don’t make that two hour x 2 drive that often anymore with the gas prices and all. But I am excited to try that oil… Maybe I have some friends I just have to visit.
Thanks again, Mika
For liquid detergent, go to Homestead Happenings by Crystal Miller. Or google homemade liquid detergent.
Just made this!
I halved the recipe and used rosemary essential oil (about 5-10 drops) to scent the soap. My fingers are crossed…
I also just took two loaves of bread out of the oven, and I can’t tell you how yummy the house smells!
Kat–Oooh, I’d like a whiff of that! Good job!
I know I may be late to this but where on earth do you get the lye?
Alicia–While once in a blue moon my local Lowe’s restocks their containers of Roebic Drain Cleaner (the ones that are 100% lye), I usually order from a soaping supply company. Simply search for “soaping supplies” and select the company you prefer. You will have to fill out a form, either an online one or one you have to mail in to the company, which says you are using the lye for good, not evil.
Very excited about this recipe, but as I’m cutting my bars this morning before work, they are very brittle and I’m wondering why? I’m cutting a loaf of mint chocolate swirl, is it the additives? (carob powder and spearmint essential oil) Smells fabulous and I can’t wait to use it, even if all I have is soap crumbles! It did sit for about 12 hours ( I was NOT waking up in the middle of the night to cut soap!) This is my first ever batch of soap (not nearly as intimidating as I thought it was) so many things could have gone wrong. Maybe I’ll just stick the whole loaf in the bath and use it that way! LOL
Any insight appreciated, thanks
Jen
Jen–Olive oil tends to make a hard, relatively brittle soap anyway. The additives may have contributed some to the speeded up hardening, but I’d attribute it mostly to the fact that it’s all olive. Being a somewhat impatient soaper I usually cut pretty early, as soon as it feels like it can take it. Now, being lye-heavy is another cause of fast setup, but if you used the exact proportions from the recipe (as I’m confident you did) it checks out fine on the lye calculator.
On the bright side, using the whole loaf would combine bathing with an upper-body workout. Two birds with one stone?
Thanks, sounds like a plan then, shower and workout all in one! The lot without additives turned out brittle to, so I probably should have cut it when I was really impatient to, but was afraid of messing it up, oh well, can’t wait to soap again!
Jen–Love it. Maybe you can carve it into a little barbell shape!
Glad you’re not discouraged–you done good!
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