What is Castile Soap

Castile soap usually refers to olive oil soap. Castile is a region in central Spain. Though not totally defined it is the area that olive oil soap took this name from. Even though olive oil soap was available in Greece and Italy before making its eway to the castile region of spain they now will refer to some olive oil soap as castile soap.

Some soapmakers will only call soap that is 100% olive oil castile soap. Most however will allow that in order to make a well balanced bar of soap other oils are neede. Only if a soap is made with animal fats will it then not be called castile soap. According to Wikipedia any oils that are non animal oils qualify for the castile label. I disagree wityh this assessment. I believe olive oil is required for a soap to carry the castile moniker.

Even the famous Dr. Bonner soap has olive oil in their castile bar. One of the most popular versions of handmade soap is handmade liquid soap. This is especially true of castile soap. The olive oil makes for a rich luxurious soap mix. You can now find these soaps manufactured all over the palnet with each region giving us their own local touch. I saw Carribean castile bar the other day that had sugar cane as one its ingredients.

When making a premium bar of olive oil soap, the best ingredient is pomace oil. Pomace is the unprocessed version of olive oil. The whole wheat as opposed to the white bread of oliveoils. It has more of the natural qualities that are refined out of virgin olive oils. The price of olive oil has been increasing quite substantially lately. This for a variety of reasons not of which the least is increased demand.The health benefits of olive oil have become quite the rage and consumption has gone up with this "new" knowledge. This has made it harder for the handmade soapmaker to be able to purchase olive oil at prices that make economic sense.The margins have been squeezed even more for the manufactures of wholesale soap. Even so quality soap manufacturers eat the increase in order to continue to make superior products available to the public.