Olive oil soap is certainly a lot different than your average, commercial bar of soap – it is one of the finest all natural soaps you can make. Just like all soap it is simply a combination of olive oil and an alkaline, most typically lye. The resulting soap is very mild and moisturizing for your skin. For sensitive skin it has a calming effect without making your skin dry. Olive oil soap can be bought from several manufacturers online, but you can also relatively easily make it yourself from olive oils bought in your local food store.
Many benefits
Olive oil soap has many benefits. Contrary to what many people assume it won’t make your skin greasy, instead leaving you with a smooth, silky and comfortable feeling. The oil furthermore helps create a protective barrier on your skin that will help retain moisture. It is likely to be the mildest form of soap ever to graze your skin.
More recent research also point out the the beneficial antioxidant effects associated with olive oil. It is a well known fact that olive oil good to have in your diet, but it certainly will be beneficial in your soap as well. A lot of what we put on our skin will actually enter the blood stream (a good reason not to put bad stuff on there), so the externally applied olive oil can actually provide valuable protection against diseases such as colon, breast and skin cancer and coronary heart disease. It will also help reduce signs of and aging, by inhibiting oxidative stress. It has also been shown that antioxidants can help combat stress as well as dry skin.
Real olive oil soap should be all natural and contain no artificial colors or other additives. It is a result of the traditional saponification (the “cold” method using lye) process. Since the olive oil will have different characteristics depending on where the olives have grown, and will also vary from one season to the next, the color and odor of pure olive oil can vary. This means that the color and scent of the resulting soap can and will vary as well. It is simply part of the natural process.
Using olive oil soap
A real olive oil soap – whether home made or bough – is a truly natural product. Used correctly it is long lasting. Important points to remember is to never leave the soap lying in a puddle of water, this will dissolve the soap thus destroying it. If you have used expensive, exclusive oils for your soap you may even want to carefully dry it off after each use. Like with all other natural soaps, your olive oil soap bar should be stored in a dark, dry and cool place.
A brief history
Popular things often go under many different names. It may be called Castile, Marseilles, or even French soap, but it is all essentially the same thing – pure 100% olive oil soap. It originally comes from Europe, where it has been produced for centuries in areas where olives are grown.
Long before soap was even invented, it is believed that when the ancient Egyptians used to clean themselves by spreading olive oil on their skin. The dirt got stuck in the oil, that could then be scraped off more easily. When the civilizations in Mesopotamia discovered how to (probably by accident) mix olive oil with ash (soda ash had similar characteristics as lye) the first soap was invented.
Since then, olive oil has been widely used for making soap for thousands of years. Like all other fats and oils, is transformed into soap by adding natrium hydroxide more commonly know as lye. The process was improved over the centuries, by mixing different sorts of olive oil and other oils. Various natural additives was also experimented with, spanning everything from various minerals to algae.
As noted above, each soap will have a slightly different characteristic, including the lather they produce. This has to do both with the ingredients and the recipe in use – each oil used will contribute certain qualities to the soap. A soap made from one specific oil (Castile for example) will display the soap qualities of that particular oil. While a blend of multiple oils will, as you would expect, yield a blend of qualities. In this regard, creating a particular style of soap can very much be considered and art.
These and other soaps where originally a luxury only for royalty and others who could afford it, and the many benefits of pure olive oil soap were widely acknowledged. Its mild and moisturizing characteristics are most pleasurable and won’t interfere with the normal function of your skin. Since your skin is exposed to a wide range range of pollutants and chemicals these days anyway, using a soap like this cuts your entire system some much needed slack. And your skin will feel better than ever.