Last week I made soap.  Usually I make soap with lard, but it has always bothered me to use animal fat, so I decided to make soap with olive oil (Castile soap).  The soap turned out rather nice and is still curing.

Castile soap is made with olive oil, lye, and water.  I didn’t add any other chemical to it but it can’t be considered organic.  I wondered then if I could find organic olive oil and when I went looking I got quite an education.  It seems that there are two different standards for grading olive oils.  Europe has one standard and the U.S. has another, more relaxed standard.  In fact, there are definite problems with U.S. grading standards.

In the end, commercially produced olive oil soap can be made from olive oil that has been made using a chemical solvent.  But, because there are no consistent labeling regulations in the U.S., I can’t be totally sure my olive oil soap doesn’t contain these same chemicals.  At least my soap doesn’t contain triclosan, a pesticide found in antibacterial soaps.  I think I can live with that for now.