Allergic To Olive Oil and Artisan Soap

September 14, 2026

An olive oil allergy can feel like an obstacle to enjoying handmade soap but it doesn't have to be. First a story, then the solution.

I was selling at a market recently and I met someone who was allergic to olive oil. She asked me if i made any soaps without olive oil, and I said No, completely forgetting about my 100% grass fed tallow soap. Well this blog post is how I'm going to do better. This post might never reach this specific person but by reaching you I can let you know that you too deserve to have beautiful artisan soaps, and you can enjoy both plant based and tallow based soaps without the olive oil.

Plant Based Soaps Without Olive Oil

A similar oil to olive oil in the cold process soap making world is Avocado Oil. Both oils get most of their fat from oleic acid, an omega-9 fatty acid that provides heavy conditioning, moisturizing properties, and a creamy gentle lather to cold process soap. I can substitute olive oil for avocado oil in any of my base recipes. I can pair avocado oil with other skin loving ingredients like organic coconut oil, jojoba oil, castor oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, and avocado butter.

I can also formulate a soap with 100% organic coconut oil as the base, leaving out avocado oil. There are options for you including tallow soap bases.

Tallow Soaps Without Olive Oil

What is tallow? Tallow is rendered suet fat from cattle, sheep or goats. The suet fat is the hard fat, not the soft fat you see on cuts of meat. Tallow is made by melting down the fatty tissue and filtering out bits of meat and impurities. They call this rendering. You can wet render where you add water to the fat, or you can dry render where nothing is added to the fat. I get my cattle suet fat from Ottawa Valley meats. I wet render for the first render and dry render for the next two-three renders. Fat is rendered until all the impurities and water are gone.

Tallow has been used for soap making for centuries. It's a traditional ingredient in soap making that's making a come back today because it is an eco-friendly product that created a skin nourishing long-lasting soap. Tallow on its own creates a very gentle soap that is suitable for all skin types including dry and sensitive skin. Tallow an be blended with other skin loving ingredients like organic coconut oil to increase its cleansing value and add bubbles to the lather. Shea butter, mango butter, avocado butter, castor oil, avocado oil, or jojoba oil can also be added to tallow to transform the lather and add more skin loving ingredients.

Fragrance & Colour

I use natural colourants like clays, indigo powder, activated charcoal, and oil infusons (though my current infusions are all made with olive oil but given time I can make a colour infusion with a different oil). With natural colourants you have the rainbow to choose from for the colour of your soap! You aren't limited to a colourless bar.

I use essential oils for fragrance in my soaps with a few clean certified fragrance oils. You aren't limited to a soap without fragrance.

Customizing Your Own Soap

This blog post has been my application to you to be your olive free soap maker. I don't keep any olive oil free plant based soaps in stock (unless I've just made a batch for someone else). Olive oil free soaps are made to order to your specifications. You can choose your fragrance and colour or choose to have it "naked" without colours or fragrance.

Ordering an olive free soap from us is a One bar commitment, and depending on the recipe a bar will cost you $8-11. There may be shipping costs and duties (I'm in Canada) as well.

Order Fulfillment Time

I can usually make a soap a few days after it was ordered and paid for. Once the soap is made it takes four weeks to cure before it can be shipped. It could take as much as 5 weeks to receive your soap after it was ordered.