Pomace Oil vs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

by Elizabeth
(New Zealand)

First I wanted to let you know that I popped out the wee olive oil soaps from their rose shaped silicon molds this morning.

They are beautiful and the smell from those 2 essential oils is divine though I will never sprinkle dried lavender heads in again as I don't like that bit.

They look a bit diseased where the wee bits of lavender are. The soaps are gorgeous and so so white and they feel creamier to the touch than my previous castile soap. I still love them and will do more of them.

My next batch is sitting on the bench waiting for me to make up. It is very exciting yet terrifying all at the same time.

Now to my question. My local supermarket, it's 100 km away so not very local and I have to seriously think what I will be purchasing there as it's a 2 1/2 hour round trip to get there and back to my wee cottage.

It's even worse in the middle of winter when it can be up to a 4 hour return trip when I have to take on the snow storms-black ice and snow drifts.

The market doesn't stock pomace olive oil but will get it for me if I am prepared to buy 3 x 3 litre bottle carton in the one hit.

What I need advice on is - is it any good???

I have looked it up on the net and there are just too many for and too many against.

I don't know the brand name but that wouldn't matter because it probably doesn't match any in America.

I don't want to waste $60NZ and find I have bought a dud there is also a lot of comments that it turns the soap various shades of green - I don't like green in any shade especially in soaps it just turns my stomach.

Thank you so much for any help you can give me on this decision.
Liz

Answer:

If green is not big on your list of choices for soap I would go with regular olive oil. I prefer regular grade myself.

Both pomace and extra virgin olive oil can give your soap a greenish tint.

The regular grade is usually labelled as simply 'olive oil' and is quite a bit lighter in appearance.

A benefit of pomace oil is that it traces faster which is nice when making a castile soap and as I mentioned in an earlier question, it has been reported to have a little bit of a nicer lather.

On the down side, I've read that some companies that manufacture pomace oil use chemicals to extract the oil and pomace can contain some olive sediment. I have no idea how you would find out if this is true or not.

Extra virgin oil tends to be more expensive and that high of a grade of olive oil isn't necessary, at least in my opinion.

There are always people who swear by one option or another but ultimately you have to choose what works best for you.

Cathy