Yes, Castile is traditionally made with 100% olive oil.
There is a soap made in France called 'Savon de Marseilles', and from all I've read about it, it is traditionally made from 72% olive oil, copra (coconut) oil and palm oil (at least according to the sources I've researched so far).
'Bastille' (or 'bastardized Castile) is not actually an 'official' name for a soap, but it's an unofficial, tongue-in-cheek name that was made up by a fellow soaper on one of the forums, and it was jokingly given to mean any olive oil soap that contains less than 100% olive oil (a true Castile), but not less than 50% olive oil. Other soapers call such soaps Castile-types or something else to avoid thier soaps being confused with the infamous French prison. "Ewww! I'm bathing with prison soap?!"
Twilitr (Hello!
)- the reason your Castile-type soap acts the way it does is because that's the nature of olive oil. Olive oil is very high in oleic acid, and oleic acid is very unique in it's behavior in soap. It has the peculiar habit of forming a thin layer of a colloidal suspension (read melty, soft, slimy goo) on the surface of soaps made with a high % of it when they get wet. Don't worry, though, what you are experiencing is not out of the norm, and there is nothing wrong with your soap whatsoever- it's just the nature of the beast (oleic acid). You'll notice that as soon as your soap dries out it'll be good and hard again.
I personally don't mind the colloidal suspension (because I know what it is and embrace it for how mild and soothing it is), but I know of others that find it to be somewhat of an aquired taste (read icky :wink: ). I make a great Castile-type for such people that's mild, but stays hard and doesn't goop up when wet. It has 50% olive oil in it along with other oils and butters. It only needs to cure 4 weeks before being good to go. On the other hand, I let my 100% olive oil Castiles cure for a year before using. The 100 percenters are hard as rocks by then and longer lasting, but they still form a colloidal suspension when wet (it feels and looks like a thin layer of clear, raw egg whites on the surface of my soap). But the soap hardens back up when dry, and like I said, there's nothing wrong with the soap- it's just the nature of oleic acid beast.
If it bothers you too much, you can help to cut down on the quantity of the oliec colloid formation by cutting down on the olive oil %, or adding clay, or using a higher lye solution %, etc... You'll just have to play around a bit and experiment.
IrishLass
