high amount of olive oil?

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WilsonFamilyPicnic

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this is an oddball question that started turning around in my mind today and i dont know if this will make sense to anyone other than myself...

soapcalc says olive is a soft oil, even though it cures hard....if you have a lot of olive oil, eventually, you'll get a hard bar. what is considered to be a high amount of olive oil in a recipe?
 
Id say anything over 40%??? could be wrong though?
 
I figure my OO in my recipe as a hard oil, because it will get hard. Like mentioned, it may take a while, but a 100% OO or Castile soap is as hard as a brick.

Paul
 
i meant if you were using oo as part of a recipe like at 20%, 30%, 40%....if you used 20% would that cure out to a pretty hard bar if you were using some softer oils or would 30 or 40% be a lot?

i made a castille soap a few weeks ago and did a 40% lye solution and it came out as hard if not harder than my other soaps the next day.
 
30 to 40% is just fine. A 40% solution is great for Castile, or even this amount of OO. My 3 oils recipe I did for the current swap has 35% OO in it, and it was really hard within a few days. I did a 35% solution.

Paul :wink:
 
Soapmaker Man said:
I figure my OO in my recipe as a hard oil, because it will get hard. Like mentioned, it may take a while, but a 100% OO or Castile soap is as hard as a brick.

Paul

Co signing on this. I made my first batch about a month and half ago and with a pretty concentrated lye solution (33%) the bars were rock hard in less than 24 hours. I was quite amazed that OO alone could make a bar that hard.
 
I made a high olive oil soap that seemed hard but wasn't when wet. The soap was really slimey. I'm guessing a long cure would have helped, though?
 
Yes - Castile's and bars with high amounts of Olive (which I consider 60% or more) do need a good long cure. At least 6 months - the longer the better. It helps with the slime and the lather.
 
I use normally about 30% in my recipes but anything over 60% is high, I usually add either a little castor oil, or coconut oil to help the slime and bubbles.
 
Thank you very much Marr. Yes, these were only 3.5 weeks old, these olive bars.
 

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