A handmade olive oil soap scented with rose, from Daki, a small Portuguese artisan soap works.
Why olive oil, and why handmade
Soap is made by saponification: an oil reacts with an alkali and becomes soap plus glycerine, and the reaction completes in the finished bar, so no lye remains in it.
The difference is the glycerine. Industrial manufacturers extract it and sell it separately, because it is valuable in its own right — which is part of why commercial bars can leave the skin feeling tight. A cold-process handmade soap keeps all of it, and glycerine is a humectant that draws water to the skin. That is the main reason a handmade bar feels gentler.
Olive oil makes a particularly mild soap with a creamy, low-bubble lather. It is the basis of Castile soap and has been used around the Mediterranean for centuries for exactly that mildness.
About rose
Worth knowing, because it explains a great deal about pricing. Rose is the most expensive material in perfumery: it takes something in the region of several tonnes of petals to produce a single kilogram of rose otto, which is why almost every rose-scented product on the market uses a reconstruction rather than the true oil. Rose geranium, which is a different plant with a genuinely rose-like scent, is the common natural alternative.
None of that makes a rose soap less pleasant — it is simply worth knowing that "rose" on a label rarely means distilled rose petals.
Making it last
Keep it out of standing water. This is the single thing that decides whether a handmade bar lasts a month or a week. A bar left in a puddle absorbs water, goes soft and dissolves. Use a draining dish or slatted rack and let it dry fully between uses — kept dry, olive oil soap hardens and improves with age.
Note
For external use. Avoid the eyes. Test on a small area first if your skin is reactive. Handmade soaps vary slightly in colour, size and finish between batches.