Marseille Soap

Marseille soap or Savon de Marseille is a traditional soap made from vegetable oils that has been made around Marseille, France, for about 700 years.Traditionally, the soap is made by mixing sea water from the Mediterranean Sea, olive oil, and the alkaline chemicals soda ash (sodium carbonate) and lye (sodium hydroxide) together in a large cauldron (usually making about 8 tons). This mixture is then heated for several days, stirred constantly. The mixture is then allowed to sit, and once ready, it is poured into the mould, and allowed to set slightly. Whilst still soft, it is cut into bars and stamped, and left to completely harden. The whole process can take up to a month from the start before the soap is ready to use.There are two main varieties of this soap. one is made with olive oil and the second is made with palm oil or a palm and copra oil mixture. The olive oil variety is green and the palm oil variety is white in colour.

1 comments:

  desperateblogger

November 15, 2008 at 3:22 PM

such a tedious process for a soap! i wonder how much it costs?