How can I make Castile soap ?

Question

I am having a difficult time finding a recipe for making Castile soap from scratch ...

Answer 1

Traditionally, Castile soap is made with 100% olive oil and a lye solution. This type of soap is extremely gentle but has a rather thin and 'slimy' lather. If you do not have any skin sensitivity issues, adding in a small amount of coconut and palm oil will produce a nicer lathering bar.

Visit the page below for a couple of olive oil soap recipes - one contains coconut and palm, the other contains crisco and castor oils.

http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/ho...

If you would prefer to have a recipe with 100% olive oil, go to this site to calculate the amount of lye you would need.

http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/SoapCalc.as...

This site is great and I use it all the time. Simply put in the weight of the oils you would like to use and then select the oils. The water % and the superfat/discount % can be left as is or you can reduce the water amount if you wish - I use around 33 - 37%. Hit the calculate recipe button.

Note: If you're unsure of how much oil you need to use, visit this page to find out how to calculate it.

http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/wo...

Scroll down until you see "Calculation for Rectangular Mold Volume"

For instructions on how to make cold and hot process soaps visit this page:

http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/ho...

Good luck!

Answer 2

check out http://www.millersoap.com/castile.html

Kathy has several recipies to choose from.

I've had success with all the recipes i've tried from her site, and have not had to check out her troubleshooting page. She has a lot of great information on her website besides the recipes.

Good luck! Have fun!

Answer 3

  About.com  has easy castile soap recipes, but  did you know that you have to use lye, very causticic, so be careful.

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapre...