You may have seen Castile soap at your local store but not understood what it was. It’s long been used in Europe and is naturally sourced from olive oil. It’s named “Castile” for the Castile region of Spain.
Soap making history has been traced back to ancient Syria and Egypt, where it was made for Queen Cleopatra, Queen Zenobia, and other wealthy people of the region. This soap was made in a solid bar form that we’re still familiar with today. Soaps were both made from laurel oil sourced from the laurel plant and olive oil sourced from the olive plant.
Laurel oil-based soap was green, but olive-oil based soap was a white or light yellow soap. As it continues to harden as it ages, it also stays white, rather than turning color like other types of soaps.
This soap is extremely versatile and can be used for any purpose in personal body care and home care.
1. Castile Bar Soap Cleans Your Body Effectively
Castile soap provides a delicate balance for your skin. It removes all dirt and debris from your body, as well as harmful organisms such as viruses or bacteria that we may pick up from touching doorknobs, keyboards, or tables. It also has a nice consistency that isn’t too hard to rinse off your skin after using it.
If you’re ever curious as to the cleaning power of Castile soap, simply take a bath. After, you’ll notice how your crystal clear blue water has turned a darker shade of brown. Just imagine how all of that dirt was lying on your skin for the past 24 hours!
2. Castile Liquid Soap Makes an Effective Home Cleanser
Castile soap isn’t only sold in one form. It’s also sold as a liquid too. Often it’s available in a larger container, so one bottle will last you for several months.
You can use liquid soap for all types of cleaning in your home. You can use it as dish soap or clean sink and counters. You can mix it with a bit of vinegar and scrub your floors. It’s safe to use on all types of flooring—tile, linoleum, hardwood, laminate, cork, and more. You can even use it for the spot cleaning of carpet stains. Neutralize the soapiness with a bit of vinegar after using it.
It’s useful for scrubbing out your bathtub, sink, and toilet, and doesn’t have the abrasiveness that powder bathroom cleansers do. It will never wear away at the finish of your acrylic or porcelain bathroom fixtures.
3. Castile Soap is Safe for Sensitive Skin
If you have sensitive skin, you’ll likely want to avoid your usual store-brand soaps. Often these are full of ingredients that you can’t even pronounce, yet you still need to wash your skin. Fewer components in a bar of soap mean that the chances are decreased that you’ll suffer a reaction. Castile soap is a non-toxic alternative for people who suffer from sensitive skin.
Since this soap contains no scents or fragrances in its classic form, you also won’t have to worry about experiencing reactions from added ingredients. There also won’t be any added colors or dyes.
4. Excellent Body Cleanser for Eczema Sufferers
When you suffer from eczema, you still want to wash your hands, face, and body, yet your skin may be extra-itchy and sensitive to inflammation. Castile soap is your best choice for helping to clean and calm your skin. This is because it’s made from olive oil, which also has a proven benefit for softening and calming problematic skin. It also won’t clog your pores, which can lead to additional issues.
5. Possesses Antibacterial Properties
Castile soap naturally possesses antibacterial properties. Just like it’s perfect to use on skin that suffers from eczema, it’s also suitable for people who suffer from psoriasis or acne.
The soap contains natural antibacterial properties that will help kill the bacteria that cause acne. This will help to give your skin a chance to clear up, and in a week or two, your face will start to look better.
Castile soap is also good to use when you’re at work and exposed to people who have a cold or flu bugs. You can wash your hands regularly without worrying about the soap drying out your skin.
6. Suitable for People with Allergies
Castile soap is perfect for people who suffer from allergies. Since the soap doesn’t contain any scents or fragrances, nor any additives or fillers, your chances are decreased that you’ll experience an allergic reaction.
And if you have allergies and prefer to make your beauty care products, you can use Castile soap as a base and add in your additional ingredients to make your shampoo or body soap.
7. As a Replacement for Shampoo
If you’ve ever been frustrated with the over-scented shampoos that you buy in the stores, you can switch to washing your hair with the liquid form of Castile soap.
Castile soap doesn’t contain any detergents that will strip your hair or scalp of its beneficial oils. It also won’t dry out your scalp. Your hair will be clean and soft. You won’t experience any itching after using it.
Ordinary shampoos are often loaded with silicones that can also weigh down your hair, and aren’t necessarily that safe for your body. But you won’t have to worry about that with Castile soap.
For people who like to use a rinse or conditioner after using shampoo, you can use apple cider vinegar. This neutralizes any lingering soapiness, and the acidity of the vinegar helps to reseal the outer layer of the hair.
8. Use as a Base for Personal Care Recipes
Castile soap can be used to make all sorts of personal and home care recipes. You can make your shampoo, hand soap, shower gel, bubble bath, or laundry soap. Essential oils can be added for additional benefits, or to add a natural fragrance.
For the home, you can add in lemon and vinegar to make floor and bathroom cleansers.
9. Suitable for Vegetarians & Vegans
Whether you avoid animal-based products for ethics or religious reasons, Castile soap is 100% suitable for you to use. Since it’s made from only olive oil, it contains no animal-based products that are often in many store-bought cleansers.
Vegans and vegetarians usually want to avoid products containing lanolin, beeswax, tallow or rendered beef fat, and lard, which is rendered pork fat.
Using Castile soap for home or personal care will make it simpler for you to conform to your practices and beliefs.
10. Safe to Use Around Babies & Pets
Many household cleansers are harsh and full of questionable chemicals. The solution is to use a 100% safe product for your family.
Using Castile soap to wash your floors or bathroom is safe for everyone. And if you choose to bath your child or bath your pets, you can also use Castile soap on them.
If your child or pet happens to lick their skin, the soap is non-toxic and won’t harm them in any way. They’ll also be safe, even if they walk across that freshly-cleaned floor afterward.
Castile Soap Side Effects
While Castile soap is safer to use than many other bodies and home care products, you should still observe some cautions when using it.
- Don’t use Castile soap in your dishwasher or washing machine. This will cause an excess of bubbles and flooding. Only special cleansers should be used in these types of appliances.
- If your water is hard in your city, the soap may leave behind a white film on surfaces. In these cases, use filtered or bottled water. Or, rinse off with a vinegar and water solution.
- Just like with any hair care product, test the soap on a small section of color-dyed hair first. The soap could strip away the color.
- The soap will still make a baby cry if it gets in their eyes. Wash out with warm water, or use only a small amount to avoid this situation.
- Castile soap is highly concentrated, so only use a few drops for each purpose. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting the soap, and the tap water you’ll be using to wash away the excess.
Great informative article. Thank you.
Good article, although I wish you would remove the recommendation to use bottled water, and just say filtered water. There are so many negative aspects to bottled water, both for our health and for the environment.
Also, I use castile soap in my washing machine, and I find that if it’s diluted enough it doesn’t cause an excess of bubbles. Haven’t tried it in my dishwasher.
Thanks!
Article did mention that vinegar takes away (or lessens’) “soapiness”. So just wondering, Is there a recipe for castile soap and vinegar combined (and stored for continuous use) that is safe for washers??
If you have ever mixed vinegar and baking soda, you likely noticed that it foams up in a big way. This is a typical chemical reaction between an acid (vinegar) and a base (baking soda). Beings as Castile Soap is a base, and vinegar is an acid…you get the same kind of reaction going on. So, adding vinegar to Castile Soap destroys the molecules in the same way, therefore there is no benefit to mixing Castile Soap with vinegar.
I know that there are likely dozens (if not hundreds) of recipes that want you to mix Castile Soap and vinegar out there, so I understand why people want to do this… however, if your desire is to gain the benefits of Castile Soap, you will lose all the benefits of Castile Soap should you mix it this way.
Best Regards and Good Luck!
Fred Williams
I am certain that no dermatologist would recommend using castille soap for sensitive, acne, psoriasis, or eczema prone skin.
My daughter uses it for her eczema prone skin. Works great to soften the skin & neutralize the itchiness so she doesn’t need to use medicine. Mom, not doctor, recommended.
One of the reasons they won’t recommend it is because it works, which would be contrary to what they want you to believe. It works really well for eczema-prone skin.
My mom would have us wash with Castile soup whenever we got into poison ivy/oak. It neutralizes the stinging & itching. Then she would cover the rash with whatever medicine was provided & we were as good as new in 1-2 days.