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Making 100% olive oil soap

Why it is tricky and

how to manage it!

100% olive oil soap

Some soapmakers love it, some hate it...

..... that‘s because ...

100% olive oil soap is tricky!

How tricky?

... it takes long, long ..... long time to trace

… it takes long time to cure!

... the finished soap does not foam well and gets slimmy (see my video of foam test below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTJsZVnkVvM

Why?

It is composed mainly of unsaturated fatty acids, oleic (65-80%) and linoleic (4-10%)

Unsaturated fatty acids give soaps that only very slowly create tension with water

This directly affects trace and final soap characteristics

Fortunately, these problems can

be solved relatively easily

with the following tips and tricks

1. Making it trace faster…

Of course, use blender and in addition, choose one of the methods below (a combination can cause soap seizing)

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).

OR

Add to the recipe an essential oil or fragrance, which accelerate the trace

OR

Dissolve some finished soap in the lye solution. This helps to emulsify oils with lye faster and thus accelerates the trace

2. Making it foam…

By long cure – castille 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! It really helps.

In warm and soft water – hard water creates soap scum and makes soap much more difficult to foam. Warm water boosts foaming.

Add 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 ).

! Attention, sugar can cause overheating of your soap, be careful !

3. Making it less slimy…

Add beeswax – cca 3% of the recipe

OR

Add kitchen salt – dissolve around 1 and 1/2 teaspoon in the water before dissolving NaOH, for each 1kg of oils in your recipe

! Avoid sea salt, as the calcium and magnesium ions accelerate oxidation and can cause your soap get rancid quicker !

4. Making it cure faster…

Discount water (see above )

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

See some of my recipes using

these techniques…

100% olive oil soap with cocoa and golden mica decoration (http://curious-soapmaker.com/100-olive-oil-soap-with-cocoa-and-golden-mica-decoration.html)

Olive oil soap with grapefruit or how to make soap roses (http://curious-soapmaker.com/olive-oil-soap-grapefruit-how-make-soap-rose.html)

And how do you make your olive oil

soap?

http://curious-soapmaker.com

Copyright: Eva Budinska (Curious Soapmaker), all rights reserved