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Tips and tricks for 100% olive oil soap
2) Make it foam…
3) Make it less slimy
Making 100% olive oil soap – tips, tricks and why it should be avoided by beginners
If you like the idea of 100% olive oil soap and think that the simplicity of the recipe makes it an ideal soap for beginners, I have some bad news for you – you better avoid it before you gather enough experience…
Why?
If you are a total beginner, you probably wish 3 things:
- to create a soap that foams well and is reasonably hard
- to pass the process of preparation without problems and unexpected complications
- to use the soap as soon as possible (the best the other day :D)
Neither of the three conditions is fulfilled when making 100% olive oil soap and therefore it can be a real challenge for a beginner. What an experienced soapmaker considers a manageable situation, beginner sees as a catastrophe. What can happen is that you won’t retry doing the olive oil soap for a long time. Why is olive oil soap tricky? Let’s look at its fatty acid profile:
| Fatty acid |
Myristic(C14) | Palmitic (C16) |
Stearic (C18) |
Oleic(C18:1) | Linoleic(C18:2) | Arachidonic(C20) |
| % | 0.1-1.2% | 7.0-16.0% | 1.0-3.0% | 65.0-80.0% | 4.0-10.0% | 0.1-0.3% |
Leged to table above: C18:1 – number of carbon atoms (C) in the molecule (18) and number of unsaturated bonds(1).
Unsaturated fatty acids (in this case oleic and linoleic) give soaps that only very slowly create tension with water and therefore:
- It takes very long time to get the soap trace… slow reaction of unsaturated fatty acids with lye makes the thickening and trace very slow
- After pouring into the mold it can take up to 48-72 hours to harden for unmolding
- 100% olive oil soap is soft, slimy has a hard time to foam. In very fresh soaps old only few weeks or months, there is no foam at all…
This is the video of my foaming test of olive oil soap after 2 months
Of course, all the above mentioned problems have their solutions, however, this is exactly what an experienced soapmaker can resolve without problems, while a beginner can have a hard time as he does not know how the process should look like or what to expect.
Tips and tricks for 100% olive oil soap
1) To accelerate the trace…
(choose one method at a time, a combination can cause troubles of too fast trace)
Of course, using blender accelerates the trace, however it still takes much longer than with other recipes
- Discount water.
Instead of 38% of oils as recommended by SoapCalc, use less water to obtain 35% lye solution (e.g. if you need 125g of NaOH, use 125/35*65=232g of water).
This accelerates the trace – attention, can cause problems with other oils!
- Add an essential oil or fragrance that accelerate trace.
- Dissolve a bit of soap in the lye solution – this helps to emulsify oils with lye and accelerates the trace
2) Make it foam… 
- By long cure time – Castile soaps are cured for more than a year before being distributed to the shops. The less water, the better the foam.
- Mechanically- use the old, good soap net!
- By using warm and soft water – hard water create soap scum and makes it much more difficult to foam. Warm water helps foaming!
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By adding something containing sugar (sugar, honey, milk, yogurt…) in your lye solution, … or substitute 5% of your olive oil by castor oil (but then it is not a 100% olive oil soap ).
- By substituting KOH for part of your NaOH in the recipe. KOH makes soaps that are readily soluble in water (that is why it is used for liquid soapmaking). 5% should be enough. Do not forget that you need more KOH than NaOH to saponify the same recipe, so use this formula: amount of KOH needed = 0.713 / amount of NaOH you substitute for (e.g. if you need 100g of NaOH for your recipe, you take out 5g of NaOH and will add 5g / 0.713=7g of KOH. Thus, you will need 95g of NaOH and 7g of KOH.)
3) Make it less slimy
- By adding beeswax – cca 3% of the recipe
- By adding kitchen salt – dissolve around 1 and 1/2 teaspoon in the water before adding your NaOH, for each 1kg of oils in your recipe (this is a recommendation I read somewhere, did not try to tweak the amount yet)
4) Make it cure faster
- Discount water (see 1) )
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Ensure your soap goes through the gel phase by:
- The CPOP technique (cold process in the oven) that will help the soap gel – in this case, I do NOT recommend the water discount, as in the oven a part of water tends to evaporate and you can finish by slowing down the reaction by evaporating too much water
- Insulating your molds too keep it warm
Indeed, now you ask yourself, what about other oils with high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids – is this the same for those? Well, for some yes, for some no, but this will be maybe for another post…
Do you have any recommendations for olive oil soapmaking?
Recipes
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#2 written by evik 5 years ago
Hi Tina,
well, if by plain olive oil you mean pomace olive oil, then yes, I do see a difference. The extra virgin oil usually contains more unsaponifiables, which is good for your skin, but takes much longer to trace and cure. I don’t think it is the essential oil, it is definitely the extra virgin.
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#3 written by Melissa 5 years ago
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#5 written by Jen 5 years ago
Go figure, I have made soap twice in my life…both times by Cold Process. The first time was a 100% Olive Oil Soap, which turned out beautifully.
The second time was a tallow soap and it wound up with pockets of Lye in it. Which is why it has been years since trying this again.
Now I have a scale to weigh amounts out exactly, and not have to rely on measurements which can be a little over or under. Trying to decide on CP or HP method. Thank you so much for this resource and the information.
Thank you for the information on 100% Olive Oil soap, may not attempt it again until I am more experienced.
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#6 written by T.C. Parker 5 years ago
I am a beginner, and I have made olive oil soap three times, and each time it came out perfect. I am allergic to just about everything so I decided to try my hand at a natural soap and I am glad I did. I do not use any fragrance or colors in my soaps as that defeats the purpose in my case. (allergies) I also don’t add anything else such as other oils or beeswax, because then it won’t be 100% olive oil soap. I do not agree that beginners should avoid making 100% olive oil soap as it can be done. I read every possible article I could find on the subject and use a very old recipe from a book I picked up while visiting Europe. I was completely prepared to make this soap and I have successfully on three occasions. The reasons you list for beginners to avoid making this soap don’t seem to be very good reasons at all IMO. This was the first soap I tried making and with the proper preparation it is just as easy as making any other soap. Each batch I made cured for a minimum of 8 mos. When I finally used it, the lather was very smooth and creamy. Some of the articles I read said the soap would be slimy, but I didn’t experience that at all. I will make this soap again and again, and I encourage anyone that is interested in a 100% olive oil soap to try it. Just be patient and thoroughly prepare yourself before starting.
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#7 written by evik 5 years ago
Hi T.C., thanks for your comment. You are one of the few beginners, that had from the beginning what it takes to be a great soapmaker, as you state yourself: “patience” and “thorough preparation”, good for you!
Helas, many of my readers have not and I cannot count how many times I got frustrated emails on “why their soap does not foam” and “why it is drying my hands” or “why is it taking so long to trace” – that is the experience of the wast majority of beginners with 100% olive oil soap (indeed many other soaps, but that would be for a longer article) – they are impatient and really not willing to wait 8 months for their soap to properly cure to get it foamy (indeed your soap did foam well after 8 months, see my first tip on how to make it foam)… majority would love to use it the very next day.
Maybe I should be more clear about this point… If this article helps people make their first 100% olive oil soap correctly and without frustration, than that is what I wanted! 🙂
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#10 written by Bobby 5 years ago
I can’t say I’m an experienced soap maker. I tried 100% olive oil soap for the first time and it turned out wonderful.I used a water discount. Basically for 32 ounces of olive oil I used 4.25 oz. (weight) of lye and 9 oz. of distilled water. It did take a bit longer to get trace but wasn’t long as some I have done with grapeseed oil.I used 1 and a half pounds as cold process and the rest I hot processed.I figure the part cold processed will be good for christmas gifts and my own personal use.Thank you for the tips. Keep on keeping the world cleaner to all you soapers 🙂
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#11 written by Angelica 1 month ago
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#13 written by Agnes 4 years ago
Hi Evik,
it has been a long time, sorry for dissappearing 🙂
Just a quick question: recently came up with my soap maker fans why the 100 % olive oils soaps from Southern Europe have that nice deep green colour, like the olives themselves. Any idea? I don’t think it is fake colour, none of them states it and I don’t think they bother with that. You and me know that castile soap is bright yellow but certainly not dark green. I’d love to hear your view on that.
Kind regards
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#14 written by evik 4 years ago
Hi Agnes, I was already thinking about this and went from theory that it must be fake (since we know we don’t get green olive oil soaps!), but recently I again experimented with one oil soaps and found that very green oils like hemp or avocado give very green soaps. So I believe that for soapmaking they might use some very raw olive oil, which is much greener (probably due to impurities).
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I just made my first ever batch of 100% olive oil soap (first of any kind of soap, actually), and it turned out pretty good. Even though I used extra virgin olive oil (only because I did not have higher acidity oil this time), I discounted water and achieved trace much faster (about 5 minutes with a hand blender) than I expected; in fact, it traced it too much and I had to pour into mould quickly. Not sure if this was due to the fact that I added scented oil and a smudge of pigment, or just the water discount. Anyway, I know that the soap won’t foam, and would like to add sugar or honey to the next batch, as the article suggests. Any advice as to how much honey/sugar, and how, to add to the lie solution (ie before or after adding the lie to the water)? Thank you for the excellent article, by the way.
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#17 written by ERICA CHRISTOPHER 4 years ago
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#18 written by BTB 4 years ago
I also have extra batches of 100% olive oil soap. Can send you a Bar (4.5oz) or a mold (4lb) to cut yourself. zenjirou@gmail.com
Olive oil isn’t my favorite. It won’t feel like a commercial soap. It’s slippery, smiley, slow to lather, and gives a nice film over your hands. It’s bubbles are small. It’s a soft and mild soap.
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#19 written by Saleh Omari 4 years ago
Hi Erica,
We can supply you with olive oil or olive oil soap in a very reasonable price.
Saleh Omari
omari_ph@yahoo.com -
#22 written by Lahnie 3 years ago
Thank you for this article. I am an experienced soapmaker and have tried many times to make a successful castile soap, and have only had one batch turn out. You’re right, it is not a soap for beginners, and when teaching people about soapmaking, I warn them off of castile. If it would have been the first soap I had ever made, I would have thrown in the towel long ago. I will try your tips the next time I get brave enough to make castile again, and hopefully things will go better. Thanks again!
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#26 written by Katia 1 year ago
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#28 written by Heather 1 year ago
Thank you for this article! I made a 100% olive oil soap a couple weeks ago and just discovered SoapCalc. I put my recipe through and it seems to be telling me it is a wildly unbalanced soap. But as we all know Olive Oil soaps can be wonderful after a long cure (the lather improves and the bar hardens up a lot). So I’m wondering if SoapCalc just isn’t equipped to tell me the properties of soap that changes after a long cure?
Also I’ve just done some extensive research on traditional Spanish Castile soap, Savon de Marseille, and Aleppo soap. The Aleppo soap is green from Laurel Berry Oil. When its fresh its green, after a cure the outside is golden and the inside remains green. French soap makers are required to use only 72% olive oil to call it Marseille soap. The other percentage can be other vegetable oils. They have also traditionally added clay and brine (sea water) to their soap. The soap is made by boiling and they may make their own lye still (the old way) from sea plant ash or barilla tree ash. Its not a cold process soap made from commercial lye.
So there are many reasons their soaps could be green. Many French soap makers these days also make scented varieties with herbs in them and sometimes colorant. It would still be Savon de Marseille but not the plain version.
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#29 written by Mary Jolly 1 year ago
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Hi,
re the green colour, dried powdered olive leaves can be infused in the oil. It can be strained out giving light green or left in giving a dark green, this doesn’t have to be declared on the label as it’s still olive however any artificial or natural colour would have to be on the label. The olives from our grove give a very, very bright green oil which has to be combined with other oils to dilute the colour if a specific colour is required. Hope this helps
Warm regards
Alex -
#32 written by There are spaces here, but they are not labelled. 6 months ago
100% olive oil soap was my first soap, cold process. It turned out fine. I’ve continued to make it, but sometimes add some castor oil, for bubbles. I’ve also made soap from rendered bacon drippings, and it was a great soap.
I’ve made 100% grass-fed beef tallow soap, but was in a different climate, with almost no humidity. The bars cracked, but were still useful.
I love CP soap! 🙂
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#33 written by theodore 4 months ago
olive seed oil gives green soap. (the oil from the seed of the olive fruit) i dont know if pumace and olive seed oil is the same thing.. i dont know if filtered and non filtered olive seed oil gives the same green color. i live in southern europe-mediteranean-Greece and traditional soaps here are with olive oil. (white or yellow-brown depends) and soaps from olive oil and olive seed oil (green). me personaly i use only extra virgin olive oil bcoz i m olive oil producer. and i give a litlebit salt in my batches. i take a wonderful white soap. for green i put a litlbit nettle.. yes the foam after 4 months its not the perfect bt its ok. after all olive oil and good sea salt are great for skin. ps some others here use sea salt water and hot proccess bt i dont know the results of this. sorry for my poor english. love. Theodore.
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In your experience, is there any difference between plain Olive oil and Extra Virgin? I usually use 100% olive oil or a mixture of olive oil and extra virgin but tried pure EV on a batch 8 weeks ago and it is still slightly sticky to touch.
Another batch 6 weeks old, with only 25% EV is hard and smooth to touch. Both used the same recipe. The only other difference is that I used lemongrass EO in the sticky batch.
Is the difference in the oil or the essential oil do you think?