Replacing coconut oil with palm oil?

[Simplefoxskincare]

Hello!
Brand new to soap making! I've been researching recipes and ratios for soap making, and I keep running into an issue with calculating my recipes. I'm trying to make liquid and bar soap without coconut oil (due to allergies) when u enter my recipes into the soap calculator on soapee.com everything looks great except for the cleansing %. It always says 0% cleansing. I had planned on substituting coconut oil with palm oil, but it seems like that's what's causing the 0% cleansing problem. I don't care if the soaps are clear or cloudy. I don't have palm kernel oil, just palm oil. I do have cocoa butter, shorea butter, shea butter I can add. Any suggestions? Thank you!

 

[jcandleattic]

I had planned on substituting coconut oil with palm oil,

If you want the numbers to be similar, you need to use similar oils.
Coconut oil and palm oil have completely different properties, however, Palm KERNAL oil has similar properties to coconut oil, as well as babassu oil.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

1. No worries. All soap cleans. The “cleansing” number is a slighlty unfortunate misnomer; some would agree to rename it into “(too) much cleansing/stripping/drying” number. The only oils that appreciably contribute to this number are lauric oils (coconut, palm kernel, laurel, babaçu and a few other exotic oils). Many skins react adversely on soaps with too much lauric oils, and there are many recipes out there that give a lovely bar soap or liquid soap, without lauric oils.
2. Palm oil is not a viable replacement for coconut oil. It is a hard fat and much more like cocoa/sal butter or tallow, than coconut or palm kernel oil. It is much more well-suited for long-lasting bar soaps than coconut, just it is more difficult to get the most abundant, fluffy lather out of it.
3. Save the butters and palm oil for bar soaps. Liquid soaps are best made from liquid oils, the hard oils don't really add much to LS, particularly not what coconut oil would.

ETA: head-to-head race with @jcandleattic and @AliOop

 

[AliOop]

I agree with @jcandleattic and would also say that 0% cleansing is a good thing. It is still soap, and will still clean your hands and body, but what it won't do is strip the oils off your skin. So unless you need the soap for someone who gets very dirty or sweaty/stinky (mechanic, gardener, personal trainer), leave the cleansing at 0. Otherwise, add a bit of palm kernel oil to bring the cleansing and bubbly numbers up a bit. You can also add a bit of sugar or starch to increase the bubbles. The soap calculator won't change, but the soap will definitely bubble more.

ETA: apparently ResolveableOwl said the same thing moments before I did, and with much more scientific precision. So there you have it.

 

[Simplefoxskincare]

If you want the numbers to be similar, you need to use similar oils.
Coconut oil and palm oil have completely different properties, however, Palm KERNAL oil has similar properties to coconut oil, as well as babassu oil.

Thanks! I don't have palm kernel or babassu oil, are these the only oils I can use instead of coconut oil? I ordered the palm oil instead of palm kernel oil, not realizing there was such a difference between the two.)

 

[Simplefoxskincare]

1. No worries. All soap cleans. The “cleansing” number is a slighlty unfortunate misnomer; some would agree to rename it into “(too) much cleansing/stripping/drying” number. The only oils that appreciably contribute to this number are lauric oils (coconut, palm kernel, laurel, babaçu and a few other exotic oils). Many skins react adversely on soaps with too much lauric oils, and there are many recipes out there that give a lovely bar soap or liquid soap, without lauric oils.
2. Palm oil is not a viable replacement for coconut oil. It is a hard fat and much more like cocoa/sal butter or tallow, than coconut or palm kernel oil. It is much more well-suited for long-lasting bar soaps than coconut, just it is more difficult to get the most abundant, fluffy lather out of it.
3. Save the butters and palm oil for bar soaps. Liquid soaps are best made from liquid oils, the hard oils don't really add much to LS, particularly not what coconut oil would.

Thank you! This helps so much!

 

[Simplefoxskincare]

I agree with @jcandleattic and would also say that 0% cleansing is a good thing. It is still soap, and will still clean your hands and body, but what it won't do is strip the oils off your skin. So unless you need the soap for someone who gets very dirty or sweaty/stinky (mechanic, gardener, personal trainer), leave the cleansing at 0. Otherwise, add a bit of palm kernel oil to bring the cleansing and bubbly numbers up a bit. You can also add a bit of sugar or starch to increase the bubbles. The soap calculator won't change, but the soap will definitely bubble more.

ETA: apparently ResolveableOwl said the same thing moments before I did, and with much more scientific precision. So there you have it.

Thank you! Scientific explanations make me happy

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Thanks! I don't have palm kernel or babassu oil, are these the only oils I can use instead of coconut oil?

Palm kernel oil is the only realistically economical lauric oil besides coconut. Have a look at Sort Oils and sort by “lauric acid 12:0” to see which other oils contain considerable amounts of lauric acid (most don't).

I guess you want to avoid coconut due to a proper allergy against coconut? If the skin has just a low tolerance against medium-chain fats, replacing coconut by any other lauric oil will lead to nothing. Safest bet is to forget about the zero cleansing number (it's just a number!) and avoid lauric oils altogether.

 

[ImpKit]

Thanks! I don't have palm kernel or babassu oil, are these the only oils I can use instead of coconut oil? I ordered the palm oil instead of palm kernel oil, not realizing there was such a difference between the two.)

I will add here that, based on some brief research I did, if you have an allergy to coconut oil then there is a higher than average probability you could also be allergic to babassu. If you ever want to try babassu in your whatevers, talk to your allergist FIRST before you order any. It's not cheap.

Palm kernel oil is the only realistically economical lauric oil besides coconut. Have a look at Sort Oils and sort by “lauric acid 12:0” to see which other oils contain considerable amounts of lauric acid (most don't).

I guess you want to avoid coconut due to a proper allergy against coconut? If the skin has just a low tolerance against medium-chain fats, replacing coconut by any other lauric oil will lead to nothing. Safest bet is to forget about the zero cleansing number (it's just a number!) and avoid lauric oils altogether.

THERE'S A SORT FUNCTION?! >_< The number of times I went through the calculator page item by item clicking to see what had cleansing / lauric. I feel dumb now. lol