# The smell of liquid castile soap



## gofastonit (Jul 5, 2016)

I am new to castile soap. I have never used it before until I made my own batch, which was successful btw. I would like to know what it is supposed to smell like with out adding any fragrance or essential oils? 

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks


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## Arimara (Jul 5, 2016)

Welcome aboard.  A castile shouldn't smell unless you use and EO or an FO, I would imagine. I haven't yet made one. Does it smell off?


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## DeeAnna (Jul 5, 2016)

Most soap, including liquid soap, has a mild scent to me -- a warm, fatty, slightly "chemical" odor that I associate with soap. The odor of soap is similar to the odor of foods such as fresh milk or fresh raw meat -- it's a useful smell in that the odor tells me what it is and that it is safe to use, but is otherwise something I am neutral about smelling. 

If the oil used to make the soap is rancid, the soap should also have that "off" rancid smell that Arimara mentioned. If the oil is strongly scented on its own, such as toasted sesame seed oil or some kinds of extra virgin olive oil, some of that odor may carry through to the finished soap as well.

Don't know if this is what you're looking for, but it's the best I can offer.


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## Susie (Jul 5, 2016)

It smells like liquid soap to me.  I have made so much of it (making more right now), that it has its own unique scent in my mind.


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## IrishLass (Jul 5, 2016)

My experience is the same as what DeeAnna and Susie mentioned. I haven't yet made a 100% olive oil liquid soap, but I do make a formula with 65% olive oil in it, and it does indeed have a distinctive scent to it, but it's not in any way unpleasant and/or overpowering or anything like that. It's just a fresh, fatty/soapy smell, which gets completely covered up when I add FOs or EOs.

For what it's worth, when I was a wee lass in grammar school back in the late '60's to early '70's, all the public schools in my area provided plain/unscented olive oil-based liquid soap in the bathroom soap dispensers by the sink, and the way that it smelled is exactly what my unscented liquid soap smells like. Every time I smell it, I'm transported back to kindergarten. lol


IrishLass


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## gofastonit (Jul 5, 2016)

I don't think the oil was rancid, I don't think I even know what that smells like. I would imagine I would know it if I smelled it. The evoo was bought specifically to make the soap, so it was new from the store.

The oils for the soap I made is as follows:
24oz EVOO
16oz Coconut
I guess it could be the EVOO DeeAnna had mentioned.

I wouldn't say that it smells bad. The essential oil I used just didn't totally cover the the scent that I do smell.

Would it be better to use regular olive oil?


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## Susie (Jul 5, 2016)

Yes, the lighter the better, both for color and scent.


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