Olive Oil Soap Recipe for Professional Quality Homemade Soap
Posted: Thursday, October 01, 2009
by Sidney Lynn
http://www.SoapMakingInfo.com
Olive Oil soap is perhaps the finest and gentlest soap available today. The healing, soothing and medicinal uses of olive oil can be traced back thousands of years. The longevity of the use of olive oil from everything to cooking to cosmetic moisturizing attests to the remarkable longevity of its use. There are thousands of olive oil or Castile soap recipes and finding the best of them involves some time and research. To eliminate this time consuming process, I have scoured hundreds of recipes and found one that is easy for beginners, produces a large quantity of soap, and is of an extremely superior quality.
Basic Olive Oil Soap Recipe: Yield 10 pounds
This recipe has been paraphrased for the sake of brevity; however the ingredients remain exactly the same:
" Lye is potentially a very dangerous substance and must be handled with extreme caution. Use rubber gloves, protective eyewear & clothing. Never leave lye-water on the counter or table unattended, Find a safe and secure location for it to cool.
Never use Aluminum utensils or pots for soap making . Do NOT use Drano, it is not pure Lye.
About stirring: Olive oil soaps take a very long time to reach trace by hand-stirring. Accelerate the process using a stick blender. Stir well. A plain Olive Oil Soap that does not achieve full trace in the pot will NOT make good soap in the mold! With mechanical assistance, full trace should generally take less than 10 minutes.
Simple Olive Oil Soap Recipe
One 18-ounce can of Lye (also called Sodium Hydroxide)
5 cups of Distilled Water (Chemical & mineral impurities in plain tap water can cause soap making problems)
20 cups of Olive Oil (by liquid volume measure)
1 heat-proof container (Pyrex, Stainless Steel, Heavy-duty Plastic) for mixing the lye (at least 2 quart size)
1 large stainless steel or enamel pot for mixing soap (at least 2 gallon size)
1 spatula or spoon (Rubber or silicon)
1 plastic container with lid
1. Pour distilled water into heat-proof container, add Lye. Stir carefully with rubber spatula to dissolve. Mixture produces fumes, leave until fumes disperse. Place lye-water mixture aside in a safe place to cool.
2. Once lye has cooled to the point that the container is warm to the touch, pour Olive Oil into the large mixing pot and heat to approximately 100 degrees and remove pot from heat.
3. Pour the lye-water mixture into the warm oil, slowly and carefully to avoid spills, stirring the oil constantly. The mixture will incorporate and become smoother, continue stirring for several minutes to insure that the mixture is blended thoroughly. Begin using a stick blender or beater, for short intervals, hand-stirring in between. The mixture will become thicker and more opaque; continue to stir until a thick pudding-like consistency is obtained.
4. Pour soap mixture into mold, snap on lid, and cover with blankets. When it is completely cooled remove soap from mold and cut to size of choice. Stack soap on brown paper-lined shelves in a well-ventilated area, soap Age and cure for approximately 4 weeks before use.
5. Makes more than 10 pounds of soap.
Sidney Lynn is a soap making enthusiast and provides a Free Soap Making Secrets Mini-Course that reveals the best information on how to make soap, recipes, and information on how you can even make money with your handmade soaps at http://SoapMakingInfo.com . To get your Olive Oil Soap Recipe questions answered, sign up for the Free Soap Making Secrets Mini-Course today.
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