Traditional

Greek olive bar

The oils

Oil	Share
Olive Oil (virgin / refined / olive oil)	90.0 %
Coconut Oil	10.0 %

How it is made

Process	Cold process
Alkali	NaOH
Superfat	4 %
Water	lye water at 33 %
Iodine value	77
INS	120

What the numbers say

Hardness 23 below 29–54

Cleansing 7 below 12–22

Conditioning 74 above 44–69

Bubbly lather 7 below 14–46

Creamy lather 16 16–48

Computed from the fatty acids of the fats above. The bands are what the craft has settled on, not chemistry — a bar outside one is not wrong.

Try it differently

8 variations

The same soap with one thing moved. Each opens in the calculator ready to change again.

2 % superfat
6 % superfat
water at 38 % of the oils
lye water at 40 %
2 % superfat and water at 38 % of the oils
2 % superfat and lye water at 40 %
6 % superfat and water at 38 % of the oils
6 % superfat and lye water at 40 %

Where these proportions come from

Craft convention in the olive-growing Mediterranean: as close to castile as a lathering bar gets.

A canonical formulation: the proportions the craft has settled on for this kind of soap. Not transcribed from a document, and not copied from anywhere.

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