Olive Oil Soap Recipe - Homemade Castille Soap

Ingredients:
(Follow ingredients exactly)
*Ounces reflect weight not volume
52 ounces olive oil
7 ounces lye
10 ounces cold water
3 plastic pitchers with lids
Rubber gloves
Safety Goggles
Hand mixer
Newspapers
2 candy thermometers
Scale
Mold With Lid ( I use plastic shoebox sized containers with lids from the Dollar store)
Large cooking pot for soap
Long-handled wooden spoons

*Fragrances/ I use approximately 1oz. of essential oil plus a small handful of dried herbs ie. lavender, patchouli or rosemary to each plastic container mold

This recipe makes a great Castille soap. It's an excellent choice for skin problems or allergies. Please make sure to read through all of the directions carefully before proceeding. Don't forget to use protective gloves and eyeware. Be very careful when handling lye. Read the safety and handling instructions on the container

Spread out newspapers on the surfaces you will be using. Read through the directions and safety labels on the lye. With a permanent marker, separately label each pitcher. One for lye, one for oil and one for water. Put on your gloves and goggles.

To measure lye: Put your lye pitcher onto the scale and return the scale setting to zero. Add the lye until you reach 7 ounces. Set aside.

Place your water pitcher on the scale. (Not the lye pitcher) Weigh out the water using the same method from above. You'll need 10 ounces of cold water. Set aside.

Now, place the water pitcher on a safe protected surface as it will heat up rapidly with the next step. Without splashing, slowly and carefully add the lye to the water pitcher-a little bit at a time. Do NOT pour the water into the lye!

After you've combined the lye and water, slowly stir the mixture with a long handled wooden spoon until the lye has dissolved completely. This is important. The lye has now begun to heat up by itself. Cover it with it's lid. I usually open a window at this point for ventillation.

Take out the oil pitcher and weigh the oil using the previously described method. You will need 52 ounces of olive oil. After measuring, pour the oil into your large cooking pot and place onto the stove. You will be heating it to 100 degrees fahrenheit. (Before heating, read ahead through the next steps to understand the process.)

In the next step you will be using your candy thermometers to test the temperatures. You want the oil and the lye solution to each be at 100 degrees fahrenheit. I find it easiest to heat the 52 ounces of olive oil on the stove top
to 100 degrees while placing the lye pitcher into an ice bath to cool it down. (the lye solution will likely be above 150 degrees at this point)

For an ice bath I fill the kitchen sink with ice cubes and cool water and gently stir the lye solution with the wooden spoon. Make sure there isn't so much water in the sink that the pitcher floats-as it could tip over and spill.