Castile vs Bastile, the test

Obsidian · Aug 14, 2013

Decided to compare the castile and bastile bars, see just what is different between them all. Here are my findings using regular hand washing techniques.

Bar 1. I consider this my control bar. 100% OO, aged over a year. Bought off etsy. Ivory in color, hard, slight earthy/stale smell.
Initial big bubbles changing to nice creamy lather. mildly slimy, nice conditioning

Bar 2. Bastile soap acquired from a member here. 100% OO made with buttermilk, aged over a year. Light tan, hard, no scent
Small bubbles, thick creamy lather. Mildly slimy, conditioning but my skin doesn't care for the buttermilk much

Bar 3. 100% extra light OO, made by me, aged 1 month. white, very hard, no scent.
Nice bubbles, creamy lather. Only slightly slimier then the control bar. Conditioning.

Bar 4. 90% EVOO, 5% castor. 3 TBSP sugar PPO. Aged 2 weeks, made by me. Light yellowy/green, still soft. This one is scented to cover the EVOO scent.
small bubbles, rich creamy lather but not a lot. Slimiest of them all but not significantly. skin kinda icky feeling, not sure if its from the castor or due to the young age.

Over all, I didn't see a huge difference between a year aged castile and my one month batch. I will probably start using mine at 3 months before they have a chance to develope that stale smell I dislike.

I don't have much of a opinion on the bastiles since they are wildly different. I do prefer a bar made with plain water though.
I will do another comparison once the 2 batches I made have aged more.

Hazel · Aug 17, 2013

Thanks for sharing! Isn't it funny how people are so different? I don't care for castile but I did like my buttermilk 100% olive soap after 18 months. My skin loves buttermilk. Unfortunately, I don't like the fragrance I used in it. :lol:

debbism · Aug 17, 2013

I tried a bar that was 75% pomace olive and 25% palm kernel and it was just lovely (or maybe it was 80-20?). Rock hard in 6-8 weeks and not slimy in the least. A nice pale color too - almost white. The bar I made using extra virgin olive oil was very yellow

newbie · Aug 17, 2013

The bastiles I've made with 90/10 Kirkland OO/shea or castor have turned out snow white (not using milk/cream of course). I don't think I have any unscented old Bastiles; do they always smell stale when older?

Obsidian, I wonder if the strange feel on your skin from bar 4 has to do with the sugar. 3 tablespoons per pound of oils might end up leaving some stickiness, at least theoretically. Do you always use this level of sugar? I recently increased mine from 1 tsp per pound, which I discovered is probably an extremely conservative amount, to 1 tablespoon per pound. I know sugar is supposed to make the bar softer so I was afraid too much more than 1T might leave a batch too soft. What have you noticed in hardness in your bars? Interested to know how much of a difference people find in bubbles between 1 T ppo and 3 T ppo.

THanks for your observations!

Obsidian · Aug 17, 2013

I don't think the weird feeling is from the sugar. Its not really sticky or tacky, more of a dry, waxy feel. I've noticed a similar feel with other young soaps so I'm sure it will go away.
I normally only use 1 TBS PPO but was told I could could increase it to 3 TBS without any negative affects. I used a round mold so its hard to say how that affected the cure time. I had to leave it in the mold for 3 days and it was quite soft for at least one more week. Its firmed up now but I'm sure I could still stick a finger through a bar if I tried hard enough.
I also forgot to do a water discount. My only other batch of castile was so hard at 12 hours it was difficult to cut. Not sure if it was because of water, mold types or OO grades.

newbie · Aug 17, 2013

Are you going to keep these bars aside and test them over time with notes? I would love to hear how they change over time and how your new bar compares as it ages.