Palm Oil alternatives?

[divyadinesh07]

Hi guys! Can anyone give me alternatives to Palm Oil which can be used apart from Coconut Oil which will give the soap hardness? Any tips?

 

[LBussy]

Hi guys! Can anyone give me alternatives to Palm Oil which can be used apart from Coconut Oil which will give the soap hardness? Any tips?

It depends, what's your reason for wanting to remove the palm oil?

 

[zolveria]

lard , tallow, salt

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

lard , tallow, salt

I agree with lard and tallow, but salt is not a substitute for palm oil! You can certainly use it to increase the hardness, but only to a degree.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree with TEG Lard, Tallow. Salt is not a replacement but an additive that will assist in making the soap a bit harder.

 

[Lion Of Judah]

Babassu or PKO ..... for those that don't use animal fats.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Babassu or PKO ..... for those that don't use animal fats.

Those would add to the cleansing, so also not replacements for palm. They can replace CO, though.

 

[Susie]

OP- PKO replaces CO for hardness, not Palm Oil. Palm oil is in the same category as lard and tallow. Which will give you good hard bars of soap.

I am wondering, however, which type of "hardness" you are looking for, fast unmolding or long lasting bars.

 

[LBussy]

I'm still wondering why the OP wants to replace it - which would necessarily shape the answer. Doncha think?

 

[valerieinthegallery]

I don't want to speak for divyadinesh07, but a lot of people prefer not to use palm oil because of environmental concerns.

I myself have been experimenting with animal oil-free and palm-free recipes and have yet to find a great base recipe with the hardness that I want that isn't too drying, etc. Lard and tallow are awesome in soap, and it's hard to replicate that with plant-based oils, so it's definitely a learning experience! The closest I have come is shea butter, which has been wonderful in adding hardness and also counteracting some of the drying effects of coconut oil, but not perfect, and it's expensive!

 

[dixiedragon]

Lard or tallow. You can replace the palm with the same amount of lard or tallow (run through a lye calculator though). You can also use cocoa butter, shea butter, and beeswax to increase hardness, but you can't just plug it right in. You would basically need to build a new recipe.

 

[valerieinthegallery]

Lard or tallow. You can replace the palm with the same amount of lard or tallow (run through a lye calculator though). You can also use cocoa butter, shea butter, and beeswax to increase hardness, but you can't just plug it right in. You would basically need to build a new recipe.

Right! Any time you "replace" an oil with a different oil, you need to run it through a lye calculator. I was taking the question not to mean "Can you just switch this out for this without making adjustments?" but rather "What other oil has similar properties as palm?"

 

[Susie]

I'm still wondering why the OP wants to replace it - which would necessarily shape the answer. Doncha think?

It should, however, not necessarily.

If they want to replace it for environmental concerns, then, no, it won't shape the answer. If they are thinking that PO and PKO are the same thing, then they need to learn it is not. If they want "hardness" because they are having trouble unmolding, then it is one answer, if they want a longer lasting bar, then it is another.

So, while "why" is a good place to start, it does not necessarily give the "correct" answer to the "correct" question. But we have to have the correct question first.

 

[zolveria]

I was thinking Salt Bar

I agree with lard and tallow, but salt is not a substitute for palm oil! You can certainly use it to increase the hardness, but only to a degree.

 

[PinkCupcake]

Chiming in with another vote for lard. Since I started using lard, I haven't even opened a completely full 7-lb tub of palm. Lard makes my soaps hard and white, with a creamy lather. It also makes my soaps slower to trace, which is nice.

 

[IrishLass]

Hi guys! Can anyone give me alternatives to Palm Oil which can be used apart from Coconut Oil which will give the soap hardness? Any tips?

I was going to answer one way (tallow and lard), but as I read your question for a second time, as well as all the answers, I stopped myself because I felt that something important needed to be clarified and/or established first.....

Are you looking for a palm-free alternative to Coconut Oil, or rather something other than Palm Oil to use along with Coconut oil to make a hard bar? (the more I read your question, the more it seems I can take it both ways, lol)

If you are going to use Coconut Oil in your formula and are simply asking if there is something other than Palm Oil to use along with the CO to help contribute to a hard bar, then the following are your friends: tallow, lard, and/or any of the harder butters such as cocoa butter, mango butter, illipe butter, kokum butter, etc....

If, on the other hand, you are looking for a good sub for coconut oil, then Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) and Babassu are your friends.

And just in case there you are confusing Palm Oil with Palm Kernel oil and are in any way placing either one on the same level playing field with each other and/or with Coconut Oil, then you need to know that only Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) can be subbed for Coconut Oil. The only thing that Palm Oil has in common with Palm Kernel Oil is that they come from the same tree and have the word 'Palm' in their title. Palm Oil comes from the flesh of the palm fruit and Palm Kernel Oil comes from the pit or kernel of the fruit and they produce totally different results in soap.


IrishLass

 

[jenny1271]

Cupuacu Butter has bar qualities of 54 0 44 0 43, which is comparable to Palm Oil's qualities 50 1 49 1 49. So, the same amount of cupuacu would make a harder bar of soap without pushing up creaminess quite so much.

Here are some more possibilities of oils that have bar qualities similar to Palm.


Shea Butter 45 0 54 0 45
Tallow Deer 45 1 48 1 44
Coffee Bean Oil, green 46 0 50 0 46
Mowrah Butter 46 0 51 0 46
Palmolein 46 1 54 1 45
Mango Seed Butter 49 0 48 0 49
Kpangnan Butter 50 0 50 0 50
Palm Oil 50 1 49 1 49
Red Palm Butter 50 1 49 1 49
Sal Butter 50 0 42 0 50
Saw Palmetto Extract 50 40 40 40 10
Tallow Sheep 51 14 31 14 37
Saw Palmetto Oil 53 42 36 42 11
Cupuacu Butter 54 0 44 0 43
Walmart GV Shortening 54 5 44 5 49
Ghee, any bovine 55 15 22 15 40
Milk Fat, any bovine 55 15 22 15 40
Tallow Beef 58 8 40 8 50

 

[Seawolfe]

I wanted to make a palm-free, animal fat free soap, and had good results using 10% cocoa butter and 2% beeswax.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

If by chance you are committed to veggie formulations, then there is no replacement for palm, period.

You can, of course, still make palm-free soaps. You can resort to stearic oils like tropical butters instead of palmitic, but this is an expensive kludge rather than a replacement.

If you are avoiding palm because of environmental concerns, I understand that everyone has the right to be misguided in their own way.

The point is not to stop using palm oil. The point is not to over-use it and to manage production in a sustainable fashion. Overusing it means stuff like cooking oil when obviously there are countless options for that.

But actually, Americans don't really use palm oil for that. Most of it is used for food in Asia and Europe. And even the big corporations that make soap are only using a small percentage of palm oil production for that. Very little goes to soap, very little goes to the USA.

Finally, the amount that crafters are using is practically zero. Crafters have done NOTHING to create the problem and don't need to take ANY responsibility for it and cannot do ANYTHING to solve it and are among the few people who have a legitimate use for palm oil because we are not frying fish in it. In our application, like I said...

There's no veggie replacement for palm oil.

So maybe others should cool it, but if anyone has a right to contribute to the employment of workers in the palm industry it is us.

 

[divyadinesh07]

Hi everyone thanks for the responses. I was asking for alternatives to Palm Oil due to environmental concerns. And preferably veggie alternatives .
All your responses have been helpful