Making your own Olive Oil Soap

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Edit: New thread started for Olive Oil Soap Making

We live in an olive growing area in Australia and are lucky to have several (OK many) local olive oils that we can try and buy. In fact I'm at the cafe of our favourite tomorrow morning. We've taken to buying their olive oil rather than from the supermarket mostly because we're supporting the local economy (they're only 16km away, so closer than or supermarket at 65km) and we actually prefer their olive oil.

Oddly though we prefer their single origin olive oil rather than the blend another oil the majority apparently prefers... we find the blended one lacking in flavour. It's very common in olive oil, just as in wine, to blend the oils after pressing.
Everything here is cold pressed, virgin (first pressing).

Sadly though the one thing I can not get hold of, is olive oil soap. All through Greece and Turkey it was readily available and very cheap. It's the very final heat treated pressing that gets the lowest grade oil out of it, they turn it to olive oil soap. Only i just can't buy that soap here.

 

[Barriehie]

We live in an olive growing area in Australia and are lucky to have several (OK many) local olive oils that we can try and buy. In fact I'm at the cafe of our favourite tomorrow morning. We've taken to buying their olive oil rather than from the supermarket mostly because we're supporting the local economy (they're only 16km away, so closer than or supermarket at 65km) and we actually prefer their olive oil.

Oddly though we prefer their single origin olive oil rather than the blend another oil the majority apparently prefers... we find the blended one lacking in flavour. It's very common in olive oil, just as in wine, to blend the oils after pressing.
Everything here is cold pressed, virgin (first pressing).

Sadly though the one thing I can not get hold of, is olive oil soap. All through Greece and Turkey it was readily available and very cheap. It's the very final heat treated pressing that gets the lowest grade oil out of it, they turn it to olive oil soap. Only i just can't buy that soap here.

Maybe this?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Maybe this?

Thanks, but i need to be able to "sniff test" it. Lots of cosmetics and sun creams trigger my asthma. I have to avoid certain isles in the supermarket because of it. And certain shops are just a total no-go zone.

I can buy unperfumed hemp soap in one store "locally" in Australian terms at least. It just has very odd opening hours which rarely tie in with the times i am there

 

[badjak]

You could make your own olive soap?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

You could make your own olive soap?

I have thought about making my own soap but making soap is not straightforward forward and you also need certain types of metal equipment - I can't remember if it is steel instead of aluminium etc, but certain requirements need to be met.

 

[badjak]

You need caustic soda.
So any material that does not react with it.
And eye protection, gloves etc

 

[Z-Cook]

Sadly though the one thing I can not get hold of, is olive oil soap. All through Greece and Turkey it was readily available and very cheap. It's the very final heat treated pressing that gets the lowest grade oil out of it, they turn it to olive oil

Seems to be quite a selection of soap available via online ordering if you search for Australian olive oil soap.
(Obviously results will differ on where you search from but I got loads)

 

[Barriehie]

Seems to be quite a selection of soap available via online ordering if you search for Australian olive oil soap.
(Obviously results will differ on where you search from but I got loads)

She has to smell it.

Thanks, but i need to be able to "sniff test" it. Lots of cosmetics and sun creams trigger my asthma. I have to avoid certain isles in the supermarket because of it. And certain shops are just a total no-go zone.

I can buy unperfumed hemp soap in one store "locally" in Australian terms at least. It just has very odd opening hours which rarely tie in with the times i am there

 

[Z-Cook]

She has to smell it.

Right ...

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

They sell loads of soap making kits pretty cheaply including kits for kids so I’m thinking it must be easy.
A silicone mould and a wooden spoon seems pretty cheap way to go.

 

[Barriehie]

They sell loads of soap making kits pretty cheaply including kits for kids so I’m thinking it must be easy.
A silicone mould and a wooden spoon seems pretty cheap way to go.

Lots of places, after you get the kit, sell the component pieces too.

 

[Z-Cook]

They sell loads of soap making kits pretty cheaply including kits for kids so I’m thinking it must be easy.
A silicone mould and a wooden spoon seems pretty cheap way to go.

I've seen those offered - in particular, noticed that an online garden/seed supplier I've used has soap making kits which basically use a premade block of soap as a base, so guessing you'd have find out the components and source plus you wouldn't be able to do a sniff test prior to ordering

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I've seen those offered - in particular, noticed that an online garden/seed supplier I've used has soap making kits which basically use a premade block of soap as a base, so guessing you'd have find out the components and source plus you wouldn't be able to do a sniff test prior to ordering

Yer I had a look, it’s more that the basic soap making equipment is probably already in most people’s kitchens.
I like the idea of being able to choose the ingredients in my soap but by the same token I’m quite alright with a bit of cheap Dove soap.

To stay on topic I’ll add that although I don’t love olive oil I’d rather eat that than soap

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

er I had a look, it’s more that the basic soap making equipment is probably already in most people’s kitchens.

until you meet the problem of the caustic soda eating through the metal bucket you have just used because it was the wrong metal - or the plastic bucket turns out not to be heat proof.

Also (and ironically this is what my uncompleted PhD was in, surfactants), soap and caustic soda are incredibly harmful to the skin. Surfactants undergo massive dilution and cleaning commerically to make them even vaguely friendly to skin, as I am sure you are aware.

 

[TastyReuben]

Also (and ironically this is what my uncompleted PhD was in, surfactants), soap and caustic soda are incredibly harmful to the skin.

I remember my mom making soap a few times, and yeah, that stuff would take the skin off!