Castille soap recipes do produce lovely soaps, but they can be a bit tricky as the batch will take a long time to trace and the cured bars can often be just a touch too soft. In English-speaking countries, the term ‘Castille Soap’ is generally used to describe soaps made exclusively from vegetable oils, but some soap makers use the term to describe soaps made using Olive Oil only with no other fats or oils in the mix.
Aside from the obvious attractions of Castille soap for vegetarians, this type of soap tends to provide a greater moisturizing effect than most basic white soap recipes and has a ‘fluffier’ lather. While the fluffiness of the lather has no effect on the cleansing properties of your soap, most people prefer a soap with a plentiful and stable lather.
As your Castille soap will also be softer than soaps made with other ingredients, you will go through a bar of this kind of soap faster than say, a lard-based soap.
Making Castille Soap
The first thing you are going to need is a recipe. Here is one of my favourites. Be warned though, this is a recipe for a relatively large batch – approximately 3310 grams of soap. The last time I made up this recipe I poured 36 individual bars of soap of around 90 grams each.
(When I make soap – I make a lot of soap!)
Olive Oil Base – Ingredients
- 2,000 grams of Olive Oil
- 250 grams of Coconut Oil
- 297 grams of Caustic Soda
- 735 grams of Distilled Water
To make this soap follow the directions on the cold process soap-making page. When I created this recipe I included the Coconut Oil simply because I had some in my soap-making cupboard.
If you want to make a 100 per cent Olive Oil soap, the recipe needs to be adjusted slightly.
All Olive Oil – Ingredients
- 2,000 grams of Olive Oil
- 252 grams of Caustic Soda
- 624.5 grams of Distilled Water
To make this soap follow the directions on the cold process soap-making page.
