How To Make Castile Soap At Home

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Here’s how to make Castile soap, a traditional olive oil soap recipe that’s absolutely one of my favorites. It’s simultaneously one of the most inexpensive soaps you can make (making it a great beginner soap), but also the most gentle of cleansers at the same time. 

This is a cold-process solid soap bar, not to be confused with my liquid castile soap recipe which is also great for sensitive skin.

my diy bastile soap

Introduction

When I have my grandkids over I always get them to use my DIY Castile soap as it’s so much kinder on their young skin than any other soap I can make.

In fact, if I know anyone who’s just had or is about to have a baby, I give them a boatload of this soap (minus any essential oils) so they don’t have to worry about going out and buying specialist baby soap, which is damn expensive as well.

Castile Soap v Bastile Soap

Throughout its history, Castile soap is ordinarily made with 100% olive oil, which is one of the reasons it’s so pure and mild on the skin. However, in recent years, soapmakers have started making what has been coined ‘bastile soap’.

Bastile is your standard castile soap recipe but adulterated with a small quantity of other oils and/or cosmetic butter to enhance the skin-softening and nourishing qualities. Bastile is usually 80-95% olive oil, with the 20-5% additives being anything from shea butter to macadamia nut oil. Basically, whatever you wanna put in it!

There’s also another key reason you might favor making bastile soap over castile and that’s because bastile is a lot firmer than it’s purer sister soap. Castile can sometimes melt quite quickly when exposed to warm water. So, instead of lots of your lovely soap ending up down the sink, bastile affords you much more ‘lather time’, for the lack of a better phrase.

my homemade castile soap

So, I thought it might be fun to share with you two of my favorite recipes, castile and bastile, all in one little blog post! Then, you can give both a try and see which one you prefer. So let’s kick things off with the traditional castile and come on to bastile in a little bit.

One thing I should note is that Castile has quite a rich, creamy texture to it. This is predominantly because of the high oil content and lack of other ingredients such as cosmetic butters. It almost feels like a lotion bar! Bastile is very similar, although a bit less creamy and easier to lather.

About Ingredients In This Castle Soap Recipe

This is called emulsion and is the precursor to trace when you make castile soap.

You’ll notice here that the amount of water I say to use in this recipe seems a little low. Usually, I opt for a ratio of 1:2 (lye to water), but this recipe doesn’t even come close to that. In fact, if you run this recipe through a lye calculator, it might tell you to add a lot more water than I’ve recommended. However, you really don’t want to do this.

Do you remember when I said Castile is quite soft? Well, it also takes a very, very long time harden in the mold. By decreasing the amount of water we add, this recipe behaves much more like your standard soap recipe and you should be able to remove from the mold in about 24 hours to cut into bars. Business as usual!

For Little Ones & Babies

As I’ve already said, castile is great to use on your little ones, especially babies, as it’s the most gentle of cleansers you could possibly use besides water. If this is what you intend to use it for I recommend to omit any essential oil. Fragrance-free is always the best in terms of purity, especially for your little baby.

If your kids are a little older, you could get away with using a small amount of essential oil but I would still never use a synthetic fragrance oil on a child who’s skin, body and brain are still developing. There are still many unknowns when it comes to synthetics, particularly fragrance oils.

The research just isn’t there yet, and we have no idea how a synthetic agent such as fragrance oil can affect the developmental physiology of a young child. So, I would rather not risk it. If you want to use essential oil, I’d recommend ones that aren’t overly expensive or potent, such as lavender or sweet orange.

Unsuited To Fragrance Oils

Moreover, I find that this Castile soap recipe is just totally unsuited to fragrance oils in general. I really struggle to use them, as it makes the batter seize like crazy! Take my advice and just use an essential oil instead. Or, don’t use either.

As this recipe is so simple, with literally only olive oil besides our lye solution and essential oils, there’s very little to substitute here. Bastile soap allows for more freedom, so if you want to get creative scroll down to give that one a try instead.

Watch How To Make Basic Cold Process Soap

Before you make this soap, take a few minutes to watch the video below for the basic method. For more detailed information see how to make cold process soap at home.

my best bastile soap recipe

How To Make Castile Soap That’s Gentle On Skin

This DIY Castile soap recipe is absolutely one of my favorites, it’s a traditional olive oil soap that's a gentle cleanser & very inexpensive to make. 

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Prep Time: 30 minutes
Active Time: 30 minutes
Curing Time: 28 days
Total Time: 28 days 1 hour
Yield: 8 Bars (approx)
Difficulty Level: Intermediate
Author: Angela Wills

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Ingredients

Oils & Butters

Lye Solution

Instructions

  • If you’ve not made soap before, take a look at my full cold process tutorial here.
    Make sure you are making the soap in a well-ventilated area. Put on your gloves and eye protection, your mask, apron, and long rubber gloves.
    soapmaking PPE
  • Weigh out your essential oil, olive oil, distilled water and lye crystals in separate containers (use glass for essential oil) ahead of time. It makes things a lot easier.
    The lye crystals and in turn the lye solutions and subsequent soap batter are all very caustic and can cause nasty chemical burns, be safe and use your PPE.
    Then, go ahead and pour your lye crystals into the distilled water. Make sure to pour the crystals slowly into the water to avoid splashing. As you pour, turn your head and try to lean away from it slightly so that if splashes do happen, you’ll avoid it more easily. Stir carefully with a stainless steel spoon.
    This will begin the chemical reaction and your lye solution should rapidly increase in temperature. Place to one side, ensuring the room is well ventilated. Be sure to not breathe any of the fumes in, as they are quite toxic.
    172 g Distilled Water, 115 g Soapmaking Lye
    pour your lye crystals into the distilled water
  • Pour your olive oil into your chosen glass or PET plastic mixing bowl that you use to whisk up your soap batter, then pop it into the microwave to heat it up. You want it to be within 90-140F.
    Now we need to balance the temperature of the oil and the lye solution. Using a laser thermometer, check the temperature of your lye solution. If it falls between 90-140F, you’re good to pour. If it’s too hot, wait a little while and then pour. If, during the time you’ve waited for your lye to cool, your oil has cooled too much just pop it back into the microwave to get it back up to between 90-140F.
    Once you’re happy that both your lye and your oil are between this temperature range, pour your lye into the oil. Make sure to do it this way around, as you want to avoid splashing and losing any of the oil to the rim of the bowl.
    900 g Olive Oil
    Once you’re happy that both your lye and your oil are between this temperature range, pour your lye into the oil
  • Using a stick blender, blend the soap batter until you reach a light trace. You will notice immediately that the color of the oil has changed to a creamy, yellowish hue. This is called emulsion and is the precursor to trace.
    If you’ve made any other type of soap before, you may notice that this soap takes a lot longer to trace than others. This is fine and totally normal, just keep blending until you can pick up some of the mixture with a spoon, ladle it back onto the surface of the batter and it doesn’t immediately emerse. It should just sit on top. If you want a better description of trace, take a look at step 5 of our basic soap recipe.
    This is called emulsion and is the precursor to trace.
  • Now that we’re at trace, it’s time to add our essential oil. Go ahead and pour the whole 35.5g into the batter and give it another blend. Be sure to work quickly, as all soaps have a tendency to seize when adding essential oils after trace.
    Once you’re happy that the essential oil has fully dispursed, move on to the next step.
    If you’re making a baby-safe, essential oil-free version, ignore step 5 and skip immediately to step 6. Although you may wish to blend a little longer than normal so it’s a little thicker than a light trace.
    35.5 g Essential Oil
    Now that we’re at trace, it’s time to add our essential oil
  • Working quickly but carefully so not to let the batter harden in the bowl, pour or spoon your batter into your soap mold. Once you’re happy you’ve got all of your mixtures in the mold, cover the top of the mold with a cut to size piece of cardboard and wrap with an old towel that you use only for this purpose (never use it to dry skin again, even if washed in a laundry machine).
    Working quickly but carefully so not to let the batter harden in the bowl, pour or spoon your batter into your soap mold
  • Leave to harden in the mold for 24-48 hours. Then, you can remove from the mold and cut into bars.
    You can remove from the mold and cut into bars
  • Depending on the thickness of the cut, you should be able to get between 6-10 bars.
    my best castile soap recipe
Category: Soapmaking
Cuisine: N/A
Difficulty: Intermediate

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The Bastile Soap Recipe

Ingredients For Bastile Soap

Lye Solution

  • 171g Distilled water
  • 114g Sodium hydroxide crystals/caustic soda

Oils and Butters

  • 765g Olive Oil
  • 135g Shea Butter
  • 35.5g Essential Oil

Notes on ingredients

As I said earlier, bastile soap is much more versatile due to the inclusion of other oils besides olive. When substituting the shea butter, you can use any cosmetic butter you prefer. Cocoa, mango and illipe are all good alternatives to shea. If you like, you can substitute some of the shea for various base oils that you enjoy or want to try. Be careful to make sure that you have no less than 80% of your oils and butter mix to be olive oil, as otherwise you’re not really making bastile soap at all.

Important note! If you do intend to sub some of the ingredients, keep in mind that you will need to run it through the sap calculator in order to make sure you’re using the right amount of lye. Nonetheless, I would stick to the amount of water I suggest and always check the PH before using it.

Like with castile, feel free to experiment with whatever essential oil blends that take your fancy. Although remember that if this is intended for young children, make sure not to use certain essential oils. If this soap is for a baby, you may want to avoid using any essential oil at all and keep it scent/fragrance-free for their super sensitive skin.

Method

Follow all the steps I’ve listed above for DIY castile soap, although you will need to melt the shea butter. You can do this by simply combining the shea and the olive oil in step 3. Ensure that the shea is fully melted, and the oil/butter and lye solution are at a balanced temperature of between 90-140F before combining.

Final Thoughts

So there we have it, how to make castile soap in two ways, that will cost you very little to make! This particular recipe is a great one to learn, simply because the ingredients are so easy to get your hands on and is always my go-to if I’m low on certain ingredients.

I’ve been perfecting how to make castile soap for years now, and I’ve only recently started using significantly less water. I have to say, I’ll never go back to the amount of water I was using before. If like me, you make a lot of soap, it’s really annoying having to wait around for liquidy batter to harden in the mold.

When I have a million and one different recipes I want to try, I just don’t want to wait around to use one of my molds again. I guess if you had a ton of molds it wouldn’t be so bad, but for someone who doesn’t make this to sell buying lots of molds is not a great investment.

My family absolutely loves this castile soap (which is great considering how it’s a lot cheaper to make than any other). I’ve absolutely committed it to memory now, and I encourage you to do so as well.

If you give this recipe a go, totally let me know how you got on. I love to hear all of your soaping stories, especially when something goes wrong so I can try and help you out. I also love hearing what fragrance and essential oil blends you use, it’s fun to experiment and find new amazing aromas!

Author: Angela Wills

Title: Founder and Author - Savvy Homemade

Expertise: Beauty Recipes, Skincare Formulation, Soapmaking, DIY Crafts, Parenting

Bio:

Angela Wills is an author, founder, and the driving force behind Savvy Homemade. With over fifteen years of experience, she brings a wealth of knowledge and dedication to every post she writes. She is fearlessly dedicated to creating tried and tested beauty recipes, skincare formulations, soap recipes, and many other DIY crafts that will work for everyone. Angela has a Diploma in Skincare Formulation, is a proud member of the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild, and infuses each DIY product with her passion and expertise.

Discussion (31 Comments)

  1. Hi Angela. Thank you for your nice Soap instructions and Recipes.
    I did Castile Soap with the same percentage of Lye: Water ( 1:1.5), however the soap bars are still sticky and melt quickly once I start to use them even after 6 months curing time. I am using a soap sieve as well.

    Is there any way to get the castile soap cured as quickly as the other recipes?5 stars

    Reply
    • Hi Safa,

      Yeah, this is usually a problem I experience with castile soaps too. I have known some fellow soap makers who will cure their castile soap for as long as 12 months. Sounds crazy I know, but curing is the only way to make them any harder other than using my lye to water ratio.

      Although, you could focus more on bastille soaps. Use some oils you know will increase hardness, alongside your olive oil. As long as your olive oil is more than 75% of your fat, then you can still call it bastille.

      Reply
    • Hi Debbie,

      That would be a little challenging for this recipe. I’ve lowered the amount of water here because Castile takes so so long to cure and harden. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, but I haven’t tried it myself. Consider putting all of the ingredients into a soap calculator and see how much water it tells you to use – then I’d use that amount. Milk behaves differently in soap than water, and can burn easily.

      Also, if you haven’t worked with goats milk in soap before (you probably have) take a look at my goat milk soap recipe, as it gives some good tips for working with milk in your soaps for the first time.

      Reply
  2. Hi Angela, your recipes are very easy to follow. I have been making the olive oil one (as I am from Cyprus and we have our own olive oil) and it comes out perfect. Only I never put any essential oils not to desterb the olive oil. I would love to though. Can ylu sugest what I can use. Thanks Vasoula

    Reply
    • Hi Vasoula.

      That sounds absolutely lovely! Using ingredients so close to home! As for essential oils, you can use whatever you like. Olive oil is pretty stable in soap recipes, so you shouldn’t have any trouble using essential oils you like the smell of. I would start with something like Lavender, or perhaps Sweet Orange. Those are lovely essential oils to start off with.

      Reply
    • Hi Maggie,

      I don’t see why not! Just follow our method for hot process soap, using the ingredients on this page. However, I would take the water back up to 1:2 (so just double the amount of water). But otherwise you won’t have any problems, especially if you’re already experienced with hot process soap.

      Reply
  3. Thanks for posting this! I did the bastile recipe, but changed it so it was 10% shea and 10% cocoa. I wanted it to be a little harder than castile. I ran it through a lye calculator and it still came out to 114, so I just used your water and lye measurements. It’s been about 24 hours and it’s soft to the point of still being a little liquid. It has been insulated the whole time. I’ll wait 48 and still leave the towels on, but somehow I suspect that this won’t set up. Is there anything I did wrong? Is there anything I should do now such as take the towels off perhaps?
    Thanks! Helen

    Reply
    • Hi Helen,

      As long as your lye was not weak and you measured out everything correctly, it should harden up. I would take the towels off and let it get some air, I usually do this after 24hrs.

      Reply
  4. Your instructions are easy to follow and video let me know what size bowls needed I now feel confident to get started
    thank you x

    Reply
  5. Thanks again and I will have to check out the soap calculator and formulation guide ?

    Take care and I’m sure I will be needing your help again lol.

    God Bless!

    Reply
  6. Hi again Angel!
    I hope you’re having an amazing day! I wanted you to know that I made another batch of the castlie soap and this time I did as you said by insulating it and the soap turned out beautiful!!! I didn’t even have to wait the whole 24 hours before cutting. The soap harden up so beautifully I was able to remove from my silicone mold and cut within 12 hours ?

    Thanks so much again, next time I’m looking forward to making your next soap recipe, the one with Shea Butter! I also subscribed to get your newsletters. Take care and God Bless!

    Reply
  7. Thanks so much for replying back and for the positive feedback ? I’m going to give it another try and I will keep you posted.

    Take care, and God Bless!

    Reply
  8. Hi Angela!
    I am new to soapmaking and I found your website and I love your personality and how your recipes sounds really easy!

    I made the Castile soap and I was very careful to follow your recipe. I let it sit in my silicone mold for 24 hours before cutting. The next day when I unmolded it, and begin to cut, the soap was pretty hard and as I cut into bars some of the soap crumble ☹️ I only used about 10 grams of lavender essential oil. Since I live in a humid environment I didn’t insulate my soap.

    What could I possibly have done wrong? Thanks so much for your time and I can’t wait to hear back from you ? God Bless!

    Reply
    • Hi Ernestine

      Sorry that you had issues with your soap, unfortunately soapmaking is not an exact science, and many factors come in to play.

      In your case, I would say that it sounds like you haven’t insulated it enough, but it could also point to having too much lye. This recipe can be a little more difficult as I’m reducing the water level. This is because castile soap is usually quite soft and takes a very, very long time harden in a mold. Next time try insulating and if you still have problems increase the water a little, as that will make it easier to work with.

      Check the soap is ok with a PH strip, and if so you could use it for something like the Cleopatra’s Milky Cocoa Butter Bath Treats.

      Above all don’t let this put you off soap making, as once you have more experience you will find it easy to overcome issues like this.

      Reply
  9. Hi Angela, I knew I was going to forget something from my question I already submitted. I don’t especially like the smell of olive oil, especially extra virgin. Will this soap have any of that olive oil scent if I make it without essential oils for fragrance? I would like to make it unscented if it won’t smell strange.

    Thanks.

    Reply
  10. Thank you for this website. I have been making my own lotions and even a wonderful cream for muscle pain that actually works. Now it is time for me to delve into replacing my shampoo, conditioner and soaps. I would like to know if you have a tutorial for making liquid castile soap. I bought a bottle, but it is quite pricey, so I would love to make it myself.

    Thank you so much for all your great information!
    Diane

    Reply
    • Hi Diane,

      Thanks for your lovely comment! As for liquid castile soap, I haven’t done a lot of liquid soap recipes. It’s definitely something I want to get more acquainted with, so I’ll be posting on this subject sometime early this year. So watch this space on that one. Update: As promised here’s my liquid soap recipe and method.

      As for the smell of your soap, without fragrance oil or essential oil, you may find that some of the smell of the olive oil does remain. However, you don’t need to make use of extra virgin olive oil if you don’t want to. Pomace Olive Oil is just as good, if not better for soap making. Another consideration you could make would be bastile soap. It’s very similar to Castile, but you can add extra oils. These extra oils could ‘dilute’ the smell of olive oil you find unpleasant.

      I hope this helps and good luck with your soap making!

      Reply
  11. Hi there, thank you for this great information! I recently made a batch of cold process castile soap. It has been curing for two weeks. Is there a way to rebatch it to make it more of a bastile? Or would I have to add more lye/water solution and ‘start over’?

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Hi Linda,

      I would say around 4-6 weeks, but Castile and Bastile have a tendency to take longer sometimes. I’d leave it for 5, check to see the consistency (that is isn’t too soft) and give it a try.

      Reply
    • Hi Maryam,

      Providing you double everything correctly, that should be fine. You’ll need a bigger mixing bowl though, which I’m sure you’ve already thought about.

      Hope this helps!

      Reply
  12. I am new to soap making. Took a simple class locally to learn olive oil soap. They grow olives. I want to find a recipe for chocolate/ cocoa soap. I have purchased a 5 pound mold. When in Seattle they had wonderful smelling chocolate soap.

    Reply
  13. what is the shelf life for this castile soap? does this work as (pure) shampoo bar as well or there is a different recipe?
    if essential oil will be added (future reference), how many drops is recommended for this recipe?
    thanks~

    Reply
    • Hi Shirley,

      Soap shelf life is a little difficult to determine. After about a year you’ll start to notice the aroma has gone, the color has faded and the bar is often very dry (and hard). I wouldn’t keep soap longer than that.

      As for the number of drops needed for soap, I really wouldn’t recommend using drops. As you notice my recipe calls for essential oil in grams. I wouldn’t be able to convert it for you in this context because there is no real standardized ‘gram to drop’ ratio, especially considering how different essential oils have different densities. Get yourself a jewelry scale, they’re super precise and really don’t cost very much at all. It’s the best way to measure small quantities of oil.

      I hope this helps, and good luck with your soap making!

      Reply

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