What “First Press” Means Before Olive Oil Becomes Soap

The phrase points to where the oil enters the extraction process and what happens to the fruit afterward.

From fruit to oil

Olives are crushed into a paste that contains oil, water, pulp, and pit material. The first extraction separates olive oil from that paste. The solid material left afterward is called pomace and can still contain a small amount of oil, which requires a later recovery step.

In modern olive milling, oil may be separated through mechanical systems rather than a traditional screw press. In soap sourcing, “first press” is commonly used to distinguish oil from the initial extraction from oil recovered later from pomace. It describes the sourcing choice; it does not by itself establish a formal quality grade.

Why the starting oil matters to soapmakers

The oil is the main ingredient in a true olive-oil soap. During saponification, oil reacts with alkali and becomes soap. A bar made from olive oil therefore does not contain a pool of unchanged cooking oil; it contains the products of that reaction, including the sodium salts of olive-oil fatty acids.

Masbanat Awaida says it uses exclusively first-press Lebanese olive oil from family-owned orchards in the mountains and olive-growing areas around Tripoli. The workshop’s choice ties the Traditional bar to the initial extraction and to a defined region of origin.

A sourcing detail you can check

“Olive oil soap” alone does not explain whether the oil was first-press, refined, or recovered from pomace. It also does not tell you which region supplied it. When a product provides those details, you can understand more about the ingredient before it reaches the soap pot.

At Masbanat Awaida, the oil is slowly cooked in the Tripoli workshop, then the soap is poured, hand cut, stamped, and cured for six months. First press describes where the oil begins; the workshop process describes what happens next.