Olive Oil for Your Skin Care

Olive oil is the fat pressed out from olives.  The quality of the olive degrades with each pressing.  Extra Virgin is higher quality whereas Pomace is a lower grade that might be used in manufacturing and perfect to use for soap making.  I prefer a mid grade olive oil for cooking and soap making, commonly found labeled "Pure".  I find the flavor to be the best to suit my tastes and the color of the Pure oil is pretty consistent, whereas Pomace can be green and often has olive sediment that requires straining before use.

Olive oil is known as a smart fat in diet due to being monounsaturated, which helps to lower bad cholesterol when used in place of saturated fats.  In Skin care, Olive oil is rich in antioxidants (Vitamin E, polyphenols, and phytosterols) and doesn't clog pores.  When applied topically, olive oil may prevent premature aging.

Olive Oil is the common name we are all familiar with. In the skin care world, proper ingredient listing is required and known as INCI Nomenclature.  Products created for skin care usage should list this ingredient as "Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil" when it is used in products other than soap.  During the soap making  process, the oil is transformed into a sodium that offers the same qualities as the original ingredient, but is no longer simply Olive Oil.  As a result, the INCI Nomenclature for Olive Oil in soap is "Sodium Olivate" for bars and/or hard soap and in liquid soap you will see it listed as "Potassium Olivate".