What makes for good olive oil?
what makes a good olive oil? What we’re really looking for in extra virgin olive oil is low acidity (1 per cent or under) and a high rating (6.5 plus) for organoleptic qualities – meaning how good it smells, tastes and looks.
Is olive oil a good cooking oil?
While not quite as stable as saturated fat, these fatty acids are reasonably resistant to oxidation, and olive oil contains a range of protective antioxidant compounds too. For these reasons, cooking with olive oil appears to be a reasonably good choice.
How is olive oil a super food?
- Reduce your risk for breast and colon cancer
- Lower your blood pressure
- Improve your cardiovascular health
Does olive oil have more flavor than vegetable oil?
When it comes to taste, vegetable oil has little to no taste. This is why it works especially well when you want all the flavor to come from the main food in the recipe. However, olive oil, especially extra-virgin olive oil, is more likely to influence a recipe’s flavor because it has a stronger, more distinct taste.
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Can I make soap with just olive oil?
Olive oil contributes moisturizing properties to soap. It also gives the bars a gentle and creamy (read: small, lotion-like) lather, making it a great choice for dry or sensitive skin. When you create soap with only olive oil (Castile soap), the batter takes quite a while to come to trace.
How do you make homemade olive oil soap?
1:595:03How To Do Homemade Olive Oil Soap - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipSo first of all seven grams of basil. And then I'll add seven grams of lime. I'm just going to putMoreSo first of all seven grams of basil. And then I'll add seven grams of lime. I'm just going to put my essential oil blend to one side while we make up our soap mixture.
Can olive oil make soap without lye?
NO, chemically-speaking, soap itself cannot be made without lye. Soap is made by blending oils (like olive oil or coconut oil), a liquid (water, goat's milk, etc.), and an alkali (lye). Lye is needed to convert oils into soap.
Is 100% olive oil a good soap?
Great For All Skin Types Olive oil is hypoallergenic, which makes it great for all skin types. From adults right down to babies, the natural olive oil soap is gentle on even the most sensitive skin, so you shouldn't need to worry about adverse reactions. It's even gentle enough to use on the face.
How long does olive oil soap take to cure?
Olive oil produces a very low lather and is incredibly moisturising. This make this soap perfect for most skin types, and the perfect candidate for a facial soap! Castile soap will need to be left in the mould to harden for a little longer than the normal 24-48 hours.
Is olive oil soap good for your skin?
Olive Oil Soap Promotes Healthier and More Radiant Skin Since olive oil is rich in antioxidants, it can contribute to healthier and more radiant skin through reversing oxidation as well as repelling unnatural and damage-causing free radicals.
What type of olive oil is best for soap making?
As the single ingredient; Castile Olive is one of the only oils which can be used as the single ingredient in soap. This type of soap made with 100% olive oil is traditionally known as a Castile soap It's a labour of love to make as it needs several months to fully cure but it does create a beautifully gentle bar.
What happens if you dont use lye in soap?
Without lye, the oils in your recipe would stay oils. Nothing would happen to them. A chemical change involving lye must happen in order to create soap.
What is soap without lye called?
You can buy pre-made bases to make your own soaps that have already gone through the saponification process and no longer contain any lye. These soaps are known as melt and pour soap.
How much olive oil should I use in soap making?
I personally use 25-100% when I formulate recipes. The more olive oil you use, the more mild, gentle and low-cleansing your soap will be. However, your soap's lather will also be reduced. High olive oil soaps can also be soft and sticky upon un-molding.
What oils make the hardest soap?
Lathering hard oils include coconut oil, palm kernel oil, babassu oil, and murumuru butter. On the other hand, conditioning hard oils are oils and butters such as palm oil, cocoa butter, lard, tallow, kokum butter, illipe butter, sal butter, mango butter, and shea butter.
Does olive oil soap clog your pores?
Olive oil soap is non-greasy and so will not clog pores which is great for acne prone skin.
What kind of olive oil do I use to make soap?
As the single ingredient; Castile Olive is one of the only oils which can be used as the single ingredient in soap. This type of soap made with 100% olive oil is traditionally known as a Castile soap It's a labour of love to make as it needs several months to fully cure but it does create a beautifully gentle bar.
How do you make soap with olive oil and baking soda?
2:065:09How To Make Your Own Soap with Baking Soda and Oil - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipOil into our measuring cup next up about 2/3 of olive oil. Now. There's a oh one of these dealies.MoreOil into our measuring cup next up about 2/3 of olive oil. Now. There's a oh one of these dealies. Perfect now we're just gonna go ahead and add the baked baking soda. Now.
What is the ratio of oil to water when making soap?
Most soap recipe calculators are set to a default of "38% water as % of oils." This means a soap recipe will have 38 grams (or 38 ounces) of water for every 100 grams (or 100 ounces) of fats.
How much olive oil should I use in soap making?
I personally use 25-100% when I formulate recipes. The more olive oil you use, the more mild, gentle and low-cleansing your soap will be. However, your soap's lather will also be reduced. High olive oil soaps can also be soft and sticky upon un-molding.
Olive Oil Soap Benefits For Skin
Olive oil is a natural fit for soaps for many reasons. Here are some of the benefits of washing your hands, body, or face with olive oil.
Side Effects of Olive Oil Soap
While olive oil soap has many potential benefits for the skin, everyone’s skin type is different.
Can You Have An Olive Oil Soap Allergy?
It is possible, though very rare for a person to have an allergy to olive oil. What are the signs of an olive oil allergy? The symptoms might include:
How To Make Your Own Olive Oil Soap
There are many recipes for making your own DIY olive oil soap at home. Here’s what you’ll need, courtesy of The Spruce Crafts. This recipe uses a little bit of palm oil to add hardness, and some coconut oil for lather.
What Kind Of Olive Oil Should Be Used For Olive Oil Soap?
While any olive oil will work in the recipe above, the best benefits come from extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). EVOO contains a high concentration of vitamins and antioxidants, which ensures you get the most benefits from your olive oil.
Step 1: Equipment Necessary
Making soap, as mentioned before, is an extremely calculated process and the equipment you use is key to producing a quality soap. Below are the tools and equipment necessary.
Step 2: Design Your Soap Recipe
A good soap recipe is key to making soap that has the proper consistency and eventually does what soap is designed to do, break down oils and help keep our lives clean. Lye, otherwise known as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, is mixed with the oils in the proper ratio to create soap.
Step 4: Measure Your Lye
Having the proper amount of lye is key to giving your soap the right consistency. Using the calculation in the picture, we determine how much lye would be the right amount to react properly with all of the oil.
Step 5: Add Essential Oils
If desired add essential oils for scent at this point. Our soap used coconut dream oil. Soap needs to smell good so that you can smell good.
Step 6: Stir the Solution (Saponification Process)
Stirring your solution is very important to the saponification process. After your lye is added to the oils and it is at the proper temperature, the saponification reaction begins. Stirring ensures that the oils and the lye all come in contact with each other. Continue stirring your soap solution until it becomes thick.
Step 7: Pour Soap Into Molds
After your soap has reached its bubbling and thick state, it is time to place it in a mold for it to solidify into. Keep in mind how much soap oil you started with and ensure that you have the right amount of space to hold that quantity. Remove your solution from the heat and pour into the molds.
Step 8: Allow Soap to Solidify
While the saponification process has already happened and the soap could be used right away, allowing it to solidify creates the characteristic bar of soap that can be used for everything from cleaning dishes to bath time.
Making Olive Oil Soap
To make a multicolor swirl soap bar, you need a soap with a light trace. Trace is a term used in soap making that means the soap has thickened and blended together with the lye, water, and oil to form an emulsion; the lye and oils can no longer separate.
Olive Oil Soap Benefits
Olive oil has been used in the beauty world for centuries and is often referred to as the superfood for the skin. It can protect skin by providing a protective barrier, promoting healthy skin, and helping with dry, damaged skin.
Best Olive Oil for Soap Making
Often when I add olive oil to a skincare recipe, I have readers asking me if they can use the same olive oil that they use in the kitchen for cooking. The answer is yes!
Making Soap with Lye
Just like all soap recipes, you will need to use lye and water to make this soap bar. Lye is the ingredient that scares most people away from making soap.
Scenting Soap Bars
Soap bars can be scented with essential oils or fragrances. I use essential oils for scenting soap bars. They are natural aromatic compounds that can provide benefits for both the skin and hair.
Soap Making Formula
Once you start making soap, you will notice there is a specific formula to use to make your bars turn out. For this olive oil soap, we are using 15% less water than what I usually do to make it come to trace faster because olive oil takes a while to come to trace.
Soap Calculator
The measurements that you use to make soap need to be precise; I use a soap calculator to figure out my exact measurements. If you want to adjust this recipe at all, you will need to use the calculator to get the proper amounts.
Olive Oil Soap – The Mildest Soap of All
Olive oil soap, also known as Castile Soap is one of the most traditional and well-known among handmade soaps. Actually, a soap is considered a Castile soap if it contains more than 70% olive oil in its recipe. This recipe is 100% olive oil.
Find Where to Buy Handmade Olive Oil Soap (Castile Soap)
If you’re not yet ready to try to make this recipe at home, but you still wish to enjoy a natural castile soap, you can find handmade olive oil/castile soap in the following links:
Olive Oil Soap Recipe
Learn how to make true castile soap!! A very basic recipe of a natural 100% olive oil soap, one of the most well-known ingredients for handmade soap. Excelent for beginners. In the end, you will have a hard and very moisturizing, silky and smooth bar of soap. Difficulty: Beginners Weight: 225g (7,9 oz) Superfat: 5% Lye concentration: 36%
How to Make Olive Oil Soap
Before you get too freaked out at the thought of making soap with lye, I want you to know that this recipe is a great place to get your feet wet. Unlike other cold process soaps, it has a very short list of required ingredients. And once you have all the supplies, you can make it as many times as you want on the cheap.
How to Clean Your Soap Making Tools
Because the lye and oils haven’t saponified yet, you’ll want to wear thick, high-quality gloves while cleaning your tools. Otherwise, the lye can burn you.
Olive Oil Soap FAQs
Because soap making requires a very strict fat to lye ratio, I don’t recommend substituting another oil in place of the olive oil.
Types of Olive Oil
Olive oil is derived from crushed olives which are optimally grown in the Mediterranean where the climate is steady with hot summers and cool winters. Damp summers and extremely cold winters are detrimental to the production of olives.
Soaping With Olive Oil
Soap makers all have their own preference as to which olive oil they use. Virgin olive oil, refined olive oil and pure olive oil trace slower in soap making so are used when a slower trace is desired, such as when you want to divide your soap out to swirl.
Soap Making Oils
Technically you can use any oil to make soap but each one has a different soap making property. Coconut creates hard bars with fluffy lather, Sunflower oil creates softer, conditioning bars and castor oil helps to stabilize lather.
About Castile Soap
On its own, olive oil can make a good hard bar that’s sensitive, nourishing, and doesn’t over-dry your skin. It has quite a unique lather though that I’ll call creamy but you’ll hear others call slimy. It lacks the big fluffy bubbles that coconut oil or castor oil can give but in all honesty, I love it.
Making Olive Oil Soap
I mentioned before that making olive oil soap could be a bit alarming for soap makers. That’s because it takes longer for it to come to ‘Trace’, longer for it to harden in the mold, and longer for it to cure. If you prepare yourself for that, then making it is easy.
Natural Soap Making for Beginners
If you’re new to making natural handmade soap, you should read my four-part series on natural soap making. It gives a good introduction to what to expect from ingredients, equipment, cold-process soap recipes, and the soap making process.
Simple Castile Soap Recipe
Makes a 1 lb or 454-gram batch which is exactly six bars if you use this soap mold. Please make sure that you are aware of all the safety-measures you need to take when handling lye and making soap. This soap has a 5% superfat.
Instructions
Prepare your workstation with your tools and equipment, and have your mold at the ready. Put on rubber gloves, eye protection, and an apron. Carefully pre-measure the ingredients. The olive oil can go in a small stainless steel pan, the water into a heat-proof jug, and the lye in another container.
Customizing Castile Soap
If you’ve ever traveled to the open markets in the south of France, Italy, or Spain you’ll have seen lots of Castile soap. Most of it is actually Bastile, olive oil mixed with other oils to improve lather, but almost all of it is colored and scented. You can make your castile soap as colorful and as lovely scented as you’d like.
The Olives
Olives are a type of fruit called a drupe which is basically a type of fleshy fruit that has one hard pit/seed at the center. First, the olives are crushed and ground into a paste. Then, the oil is separated from the paste by various methods. The first oil that comes from the very first crush is the “virgin” olive oil.
The Oils
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: To qualify as “extra virgin,” olive oil must meet four criteria:
Which Olive Oil to Choose for Soap Making?
Don’t worry too much about the grade of your olive oil. All of the grades of olive oil have predominantly the same fatty acid makeup, so each of them is going to make very similar soap. Most soap makers I know buy large bottles of “Refined,” “Grade A” or “Pure” olive oil at the large discount stores. Other soap makers prefer pomace olive oil.
