castille soap making

[dbloomingdale]

When I run olive oil at 100% thru Soapcalc, most of the numbers do not fit in the suggested soap bar quality range. So...what are the benefits of this kind of soap? And how important is it for a soap to be with in the various ranges?

Diane

 

[penelopejane]

Yes that is one problem with those numbers. There are a lot of other instances that they don’t work for as well. I ignore those numbers totally.

OO makes a gentle, very hard bar but it takes time to cure - 6 months ok, 12 months great, 18 months excellent.
Post a recipe here and someone will tell you how to tweek it for hardness, less drying etc etc.

 

[BattleGnome]

At best the best the numbers are a guide. I mostly ignore them now that I’m familiar with my chosen oils. The one number I used to pay attention to was cleansing, their chosen range was usually a bit harsher than I’d like so I’d aim for a lower number.

Once you have more experience you’ll probably ignore those numbers, look at fatty acids instead, or ignore it all and use what your skin likes regardless of what the computer program says

 

[MorpheusPA]

The numbers in SoapCalc don't tell half the story, but in this case they're accurately telling you that this is not going to be a "normal" soap.

Like PenelopeJane noted, Castile benefits from incredibly long cure times, whereas most soap is reasonably cured in a month. Even at 2 years, I find the lather to be thin and rather snotty with high-olive soap.

And yet there's an entirely valid and wonderful community of people who won't use anything else and love it.

If you haven't made and used a Castile, try some. Maybe make a pound at first, and more later if you want. You might be one of those people who becomes a fan!

I regularly break the "rules" in SoapCalc and end up with a great soap. Don't be afraid to go outside of the numbers recommended if you have any reason to do so.

 

[Obsidian]

I'm another who doesn't really look at the numbers except for cleansing since I have dry skin. When I first started out, I tried to keep the conditioning number high as possible, though it would make a nice soap but they kept drying me out. Now my cond number is quite a lot lower but my soap is a ton better.

Its a great idea to post your recipes here before making and to also let us know what you want in soap. My soap is best for dry/normal skin so someone with really oily skin probably wouldn't like it.

castile is a strange beast. Some people really love it, some hate it. I'm in the hate group, it dries me out something terrible and make me itch. Even in regular soap, I can't use more than 25% OO or it makes my skin feel weird.
I have a few pounds of 1-2 year old castile and no one I know will use the stuff. I should grate it up and make confetti soap with it.

 

[soapmaker]

I'm another who doesn't really look at the numbers except for cleansing since I have dry skin. When I first started out, I tried to keep the conditioning number high as possible, though it would make a nice soap but they kept drying me out. Now my cond number is quite a lot lower but my soap is a ton better.

Its a great idea to post your recipes here before making and to also let us know what you want in soap. My soap is best for dry/normal skin so someone with really oily skin probably wouldn't like it.

castile is a strange beast. Some people really love it, some hate it. I'm in the hate group, it dries me out something terrible and make me itch. Even in regular soap, I can't use more than 25% OO or it makes my skin feel weird.
I have a few pounds of 1-2 year old castile and no one I know will use the stuff. I should grate it up and make confetti soap with it.

I have some 100% OO soap 6 + years old and it is the most bubbly, creamy wonderful soap! If you don't like using your 1-2 yr. old soap for your skin, it is a wonderful stain remover. Mine has removed blueberry stains from a white shirt and also stains from a tablecloth. I use it on shirt collars (ring around the collar) and the many oil spots on my clothes from soaping. If it is a tough stain like blueberry on white shirt, I just kept the stained part soaking in a bowl of water for a couple days, lathering more soap in when I passed it. Then finally hung it in the sun to dry and it was totally gone.

 

[madison]

I don't pay attention anymore to the numbers in soap calculators, I know what to expect much better using the fatty acid profiles . I learned to make 100% castile soap using 50% lye concentration from the dish forum when I started making soap, it was a little challenging to use 50% lye concentartion as it's not that easy to melt the soada with the same amount of water. I have some 3 years old bars, they are very nice, no snot unless I leave them soaked in water, they give very nice foam. I made some with dual lye method and 40% lye concentration, it's beautiful. It foams much earlier than my previous ones. I love OO soap because it's very gentle on my skin. I agree with soapmaker, my mom's generation used verywell aged castile soap for cleaning, it does wonders.

 

[penelopejane]

I am another person who loves Castile. I think a good outcome really depends on the quality of the olive oil you use and your method/recipe.

I don’t ever use pomace in soap and since OO is relatively cheap in Australia I use EVOO.