Honor- unfortunately Palm Oil is very different in character than Palm Kernel Oil. Their names are similar and they come from the same tree, but that's where the similarity ends.
Instead, PKO is very similar in character to Coconut Oil and they can both be substituted for each other. PKO contributes to bubbliness and cleansing in soap just like Coconut Oil does, but it's slightly more conditioning and slightly less bubbly than Coconut Oil.
Palm Oil is a completely different animal, or should I say vegetable. :wink: It's similar to beef tallow and lard in that it doesn't have a whole lot of cleansing or bubbly lather qualites like PKO and/or Coconut do, but it does lend a goodly amount of hardness and creamy lather to ones soap recipe.
If I had your oils on hand, the following is the kind of recipe I'd make. Other soapers may do something different, but I personally like the numbers I get in the fatty acid profile (what can I say- I'm soap prejudiced
). They are very close to my favorite numbers and will make a good, hard bar of soap with good bubbly/creamy lather:
Olive Oil 40%
Shea Butter 20%
Palm Kernel Oil 15%
Coconut Oil 14%
Avocado Butter 11%
I'd soap it at a 5% superfat with a 33% lye solution, and I'd also soap it warm (between 115 to 120 degreesF for the oil temp, and warm-to-the-touch for the lye), because shea has a high amount of stearic acid which tends to re-solidify in ones soaping pot if soaped too cool. At least that's been my experience when soaping high stearic oils/fats. Whenever I soap them warmer, though, in the temp range I mentioned, everything stays smooth instead of lumping or ricing up or tracing prematurely.
HTH!
IrishLass