Just letting everyone know that it's a coincidence that olive oil soaps suck. I've just made an olive oil #1 soap that makes some of the creamiest lather I've produced. It would seem that the reason olive oil soaps suck is the same reason most handcrafted shave soaps suck. Someone takes a body soap, adds clay, and calls it shave soap. It just so happens that olive oil is very popular in handcrafted soaps (trendy), so a pattern develops.
Olive oil itself doesn't make good soap, you need other fats in there to actually make the creaminess (tallow, stearic, palm), but it in no way inhibits those fats from working their magic.
edit: I am NOT trying to suggest that a soap made of exclusively (or overwhelmingly) olive oil makes good lather. However, that point is irrelevant to most soap users, as I've yet to see a soap that says XX% Olive oil. We judge the ratio of the fats by their placement on the ingredients list (and the way the soap performs for people who's interest extends that deeply). I didn't mean to give that impression.
Olive oil itself doesn't make good soap, you need other fats in there to actually make the creaminess (tallow, stearic, palm), but it in no way inhibits those fats from working their magic.
edit: I am NOT trying to suggest that a soap made of exclusively (or overwhelmingly) olive oil makes good lather. However, that point is irrelevant to most soap users, as I've yet to see a soap that says XX% Olive oil. We judge the ratio of the fats by their placement on the ingredients list (and the way the soap performs for people who's interest extends that deeply). I didn't mean to give that impression.
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