DIY olive oil soap

In the matter of skin care and maintaining its healthy and beautiful appearance, only few products can argue with natural olive oil. Not for nothing that it is often added to a wide variety of cosmetics: from hand creams to shampoos. At the same time, nothing will stop you from making your own olive cosmetics at home! Moreover, there is nothing complicated in such soap making, it is enough just to clearly follow all the instructions ...

Olive oil is very beneficial for our body in general and for the skin in particular. Indeed, its varieties such as Extra Virgin and Virgin contain a huge number of health-important elements: vitamins A, D and E, antioxidants and polyunsaturated fatty acids, as well as minerals. Thanks to this composition, olive oil moisturizes the skin, saturates it and makes it elastic, helps maintain its natural color and structure, protecting it from the formation of wrinkles and cracks. Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, who used the product for rubbing and massage, also knew about this effect of using olive oil. And after the invention of soap in the 7th century, they began to add it to this latest cosmetic product, so that it is softer and more pleasant.

Why can’t we buy ready-made olive soap? No restrictions, of course. There are more enough factory-welded cosmetics "with olive oil" on market. But, buying them, you have to put up with a number of possible disadvantages. Firstly, the majority of cosmetics with the addition of olive oil in its composition contains not only it, but also a wide variety of thickeners, colorants, flavorings, preservatives, etc. Therefore, it is not possible to speak about the naturalness of such a soap only with a number of well-known preservatives. Secondly, additional components can not only not be beneficial for your skin, but also cause allergic reactions. And thirdly, the price of the issue. After all, any cosmetics with olive oil, especially if it contains a minimum use of additives, is classified as a “premium” price.

And how to make soap with olive oil at home? It's quite simple: if there is a desire and a few hours of free time. To make olive soap at home, you will need the following ingredients: 1 liter of pure distilled water; 1 liter of extra virgin olive oil; 150 g of caustic soda (alkali, sodium hydroxide). You also need equipment for soap making. You need to take a pan of steel or glass (but not aluminum or with an enamel coating!), Plastic or wooden mixing spoons, rubber gloves, a mask, safety glasses are welcome - all this will help you protect yourself when working. Also note: it's better to make soap in a well-ventilated area. The process itself: Gently pour caustic soda into a pot of water and then stir the resulting solution until the granules in it dissolve. Never pour water into soda! Since in combination with water the alkali quickly heats it to a temperature of about 70-80 ° C, it is necessary to leave the solution for a while, so that it cools somewhere to room temperature, which takes up to several hours. In parallel, you need to heat the olive oil in another saucepan over low heat, approximately to 75-80 ° C. After that, very carefully, you need to pour the oil into the cooling alkaline solution. Regularly mix the composition in the pan until it begins to thicken to the point where a line can be drawn on its surface. It can take several hours. The final stage of soap making is to pour the thick billet into the forms you need and leave them for 1-2 days in a cool place for final hardening. Then empty the soap bars and leave them alone in the same dark cool place for another 4-6 weeks so that they “mature”. The result: a clean, well-foaming and high-quality natural cosmetic cleanser, with which you can wash your hands and take care of your face and body. At the same time, the recipe mentioned above is not a dogma! If desired, it is possible to experiment with the composition of soaps made from olive oil and add, for example, lavender or coconut oil, sea salt, coffee grounds, all kinds of medical herbs, honey, flower petals, chocolate, almond flour, etc. - All of them will help to make your cosmetics more fragrant and even more useful for any type of skin!