If you are a soap enthusiast or even a bath enthusiast, you ought to know about castile soap. And if you don’t, you ought to read this. Castile soap is a vegetable soap and is named after the soaps that first originated in the Castile region of Spain, abundant in olive oil. They were made of olive oil and soda and dated to the 12th century and gained a lot of popularity in Europe.
Castile soap was arguably the first white and hard soap to be produced and was called ‘Jabon de Castilla’ or ‘soap of Castile’. Eventually, castile became the generic name for all soaps that were hard, white and made of olive oil.1
Even today castile soaps are revered for their all-natural content as they are made from olive oil or other vegetable oils such as hemp, jojoba, palm and coconut oil. But they are no longer restricted to just bar soaps and are also available in liquid form.
According to a study, even non-edible olive oil with an unpleasant odor and deep colour can be used to produce castile soaps that are just as good as those made with semi-fine virgin olive oil. The only significant difference noted is the color. While the soap made with non-edible olive oil turned out green, the one formulated with semi-fine virgin olive oil was the usual white to pale yellow.2
Castile Soap Uses
Though very few studies have been done on castile soap, regular users vouch for its many benefits that go beyond just cleansing the skin.
1. Greening Up Your Bathtime
Are you constantly counting your carbon footprints? Do you obsess over a clean lifestyle? If yes, then castile soap, made only of baking soda and vegetable oils can help you do that. Nothing that’s non-biodegradable features in the soap–no chemicals or synthetic detergents that’ll pollute our waters at the manufacturing or the user stage. It doesn’t even contain any animal fats, making the soap completely vegan-friendly.
2. It’s A Superb Multi-Tasker
Liquid castile soap uses are plenty and it might just be the only product you need to keep in your bathroom. It can be used as a body wash, hand soap, shampoo and even unisex shave gel. Liquid varieties of this soap are usually concentrated so a little goes a long way. What’s more, they are available in a plethora of fragrances like lavender castile soap that has great uses for relaxing your muscles and lulling you into a deep sleep.
3. An All-Round Household Cleaning Champ
One of the many liquid castile soap benefits includes cleaning out your laundry. Just add about a quarter cup to a regular load and viola, the laundry’s done! You can also dilute liquid castile soap, pour it into a spray bottle and use it as a surface cleaner around the house like your floor, windows, mirrors, countertops and tables. And you’ll need very little of it.
4. Your Best Sensitive Skin Face Wash
If you have sensitive skin, whip up your own face wash by adding a couple of drops of any essential oil like tea tree, lavender, rose or chamomile to liquid castile soap.
5. An All-Natural Dog Shampoo
There’s no need to unnecessarily burden your dog with scented dog shampoos and what not. Try unscented castile soaps to get your dog all squeaky clean with a healthy and glossy coat.
6. A Replacement For Your Dish Soap
There are many uses of castile soap and one of them is for washing utensils. You can safely replace your bar of dish soap with a bar of castile soap. As a bonus, your hands will not bear the brunt of detergent and continue to be soft.
7. What? Castile Soap Can Replace Toothpaste?
Yes, you read that right. It might not be a very appealing idea but many clean living enthusiasts use liquid peppermint castile soap instead of their toothpaste to clean their teeth. Though it’s not of a paste consistency, you can use it as it is or mix some baking soda with it to get an eco-friendly toothpaste. It will be one of the many castile soap peppermint benefits you can enjoy.
8. Castile Soap Can Heal Your Wounds!
According to a study, castile soap had positive effects on contaminated orthopedic wounds. The experiment compared normal saline, castile soap, benzalkonium chloride, bacitracin or sequential irrigation with all of the above combined to irrigate and ultimately cleanse the wounds. Though the sequential irrigation treatment of the orthopedic wounds significantly lowered the rate of complications, castile soap was able to achieve similar results all by itself.3
9. Clear Up Congestion With Castile Soap
Of the many uses of castile soap, one of them is a decongestant. All you need to get rid of a stuffy nose, according to a leading castile soap brand, is one tablespoon of the liquid soap in a bowl of steamy hot water. Breathe it in like how you would normally breathe in other decongestants like eucalyptus oil. While we couldn’t verify the credibility of the claim, it doesn’t harm to give this all natural treatment a shot.
10. Use It As A Foot Soak
Castile soap can make for a wonderfully nourishing foot soak. Pamper your peds with one to two spoons of liquid castile soap blended with hot water and sit back for 15-20 minutes. You can add some drops of tea tree essential oil to disinfect your feet and fight foot odor or peppermint essential oil for that tingly, rejuvenated feeling.
Today, castile soap comes in many forms and fragrances. The original unscented version has come a long way. So pick one that smells best to you and use it for everything from bathing to cleaning your laundry.
References
| ↑1 | A Short History Of Soaps. |
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| ↑2 | Girgis, Adel Y. “Production of high quality castile soap from high rancid olive oil.” Grasas y aceites 54, no. 3 (2003): 226-233. |
| ↑3 | Conroy, Brian P., Jeffrey O. Anglen, W. A. Simpson, Gordon Christensen, Glen Phaup, Rodney Yeager, and Barry J. Gainor. “Comparison of castile soap, benzalkonium chloride, and bacitracin as irrigation solutions for complex contaminated orthopaedic wounds.” Journal of orthopaedic trauma 13, no. 5 (1999): 332-337. |