Est. 1880
al-Shaka'a Workshop
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The Camel / al-Jamal, made in the Shaka'a family-owned workshop in Nablus, is the most iconic imprint of Nablus soap --- often people refer to 'al-Jamal soap' to mean Nablus soap in the same way that people talk of Jacuzzi for hot tubs or Xerox for copy machines. Its main market is in southern Palestine around Hebron. The imprint took its mascot from the camel trains used to carry in qilw soda ash and olive oil to Nablus from neighboring countrysides.
Virgin olive oil, water, and sodium hydroxide.
Average 4.8 ounces per bar.
Olive oil soap gets better with age. Keep them in a dry place for an increasingly olive-tan colored, dense, sudsy, and less soap-smelling bar. They can be aged even faster in a sunny window.
Visit us for pick up, or get free local delivery in our area.
You can reach us 6 days a week by email or telephone.
For the best shipping rates, select 12 bars or fewer for international shipments.
I am completely obsessed with Nablus olive oil soap ( صابون نابلسي ). I am equally obsessed with watching the enormously fascinating and satisfying videos of how it’s made. I think you should watch them, too! Just click the link in the comments and scroll down their page.
This natural loveliness is a simplistic, unadorned product which is still being made traditionally, the same way it has been since biblical times. (I love that.) Its recipe is only three simple ingredients; olive oil, water, and a sodium compound. (I love that, too.)
The olive oil is sourced and the sodium compound is made in Palestine. The product (large, square blocks of soap) is then made and dispersed by the California based Palestinian Soap Co-op, a Palestinian American employee-owned distributor.
The sodium compound is a mix of powdered barilla plant ashes from barilla that grows on the outskirts of Nablus and along the banks of the Jordan River. (Just another thing to love about it.) And the lime is sourced from farms in areas around Nablus.
I didn’t know what barilla plant was, so I, of course, looked it up. Barilla refers to several species of salt-tolerant plants that are primary source of soda ash and sodium carbonate/washing soda. (I am keeping a 2023 log of one thing I learn each day. March 19, 2023 = barilla plant.)
What I did previously understand from growing up watching my mother make lye and lard into soap balls, and later doing a little soapmaking of my own, is that to make soap, you need saponification to take place.
Saponification is a chemical process where plant or animal fats and oils are mixed with lye or soda, dissolved into water, and then heated to reaction. We don’t really don’t need all of the extra chemicals and scents added to most soaps.
I highly recommend that you try it. If you do, please let me know if you love it as much as I do! If you know me at all, you probably know I’m a soap snob. Using this Nablus olive oil soap has been so good for my skin (and my soul… there’s just something about it).
It has also helped my little dog Liesel’s skin, as she suffers from schnauzer comedo syndrome, also known as schnauzer bumps, which is a skin disorder which affects schnauzers. I would say her skin is already at least 75% better.
this is the best soap by far ... nothing like this in any store i ordered it twice one six pack at a time
