Soap Recipes Without Palm Oil

[OrchardPrincess]

Hi there,

I'm a new soaper, just starting out a small business for selling my cp soap to friends, family, and maybe later on Etsy. I'm going for a completely natural approach, and my soap is 100 percent Vegan and natural based. After checking into the issue of Palm Oil, and how it's being farmed, I've decided to leave it out of my soaps completely. However, all the books I bought usually include Palm Oil in the recipe- and I was wondering if anyone had any favorite recipes they use without Palm Oil. I've been using a combo of olive, cocoa butter, coconut oil, castor oil and sometimes homemade products such as homemade almond butter. If I've got a really fancy bar I use jojoba as well, but it's quite expensive so I typically avoid it for soaps formulated for normal skin.

Now, I posted this not because I want to get into a political discussion about palm oil, but simply because I'm looking for some alternatives that aren't too expensive and that will create a nice hard bar of soap. I WISH I could find some palm oil from a good source, because quite frankly, I love the hard bars it creates. But until we can farm it better without having it effect primates and wildlife, I would really like some input. Am I the only one that does this? If not, what are some alternatives that people use? I have several books, as I stated above, but they all heavily promote palm oil and I haven't found a great alternative. I would love advice. Thanks!

 

[Ruthie]

Have you looked into sustainable palm oil? I do not use it, so I do not know if it is expensive or how easily obtainable it is. However, I keep seeing discussions about it on different websites, so you might look into taking that avenue. Sorry I can't help more. If I used only vegan, I might be more knowledgable.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

It does seem that most recipes use either Palm or Tallow because of their Stearic acid similarities for hardness...however, there are plenty of folks that DO NOT use either, and their soaps are just fine :wink: I do use Sustainable Palm, but not animal fats. Nothing wrong with either, just personal preference.
You could up your Coconut oil, and your superfat accordingly to accommodate for the drying nature of saponified Coconut oil. Adding Cocoa or Shea butter will help with hardness. You could try Babassu oil, though its more similar to Coconut than Palm. Most people would say add Stearic acid, but it can be animal derived or Palm derived, so you would definitely need to check your source. Adding salt or sodium lactate (check your source) can harden your bar, also.
Your best bet is to compare the qualities and values of each oil and try to substitute with that information. SAP values can give you an idea of similarity, but looking at the profiles, like Oleic acid, Linoleic acid, Stearic, Palmitic, etc is your best bet.
If you are concerned about sustainability of Palm and the impact on the environment and primates, you could contact Soapers Choice...their Palm Oil is "certified" organic and sustainable and seems to be the preferred supplier because the owner "follows the paper trail":
http://thesoapbar.blogspot.com/2009/05/ ... -use.html#

 

[Genny]

I don't use palm or animal fats, no political reasons or anything like that. I just never started using palm & found that my soap lasts a long time without it & I've never used animal fat because I get squeamish easily by animal parts. My soaps are a combination of olive, coconut oil, soybean oil, avocado oil, shea butter & castor oil and with a good cure they last just as long as any other CP I've tried.

But like the others said, you can get sustainable palm. Brambleberry carries sustainable palm. I can't remember if the RSPO website has a list of suppliers that they supply sustainable palm to. You could check it. I think it's RSPrg

 

[judymoody]

I played around numbers on soapcalc awhile back to see if I could get the same numbers from my normal recipe (contains 20% sustainable organic palm) without using palm. A combination of avocado and cocoa butter plus tweaking my other oils got me there. It's more expensive but if you want to go palm-free it's worth a shot.

 

[eden.bodycare]

I know you are looking for alternative but I use the Soaper's Choice palm oil and it really does work nicely in soap. I spoke with the owners and feel satisfied with the origin of the oil. Plus it's a nice selling point for your soap!

 

[OrchardPrincess]

Thanks for all the good advice. Lately I've just been playing around with different ingredients- and I found that cocoa butter is really a nice alternative.

 

[Hina Charania]

I ve heard that u can replace the Palm oil quite successfully with Canola in the same amounts.

Never tried it so don't know ow true that is, please feel free to enlighten me either way!!!

Cheers
HC

 

[maiseycat]

Ihave never tried it either, but have read that Canola is quite prone to rancidity, and can increase the chance of DOS.

 

[Maythorn]

I've never heard that palm and canola are alike. I don't know in what way that could be said except both are soap-able.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Not very similar at all -

PALM:
SAP value: .139
Lauric 0%
linoleic 10%
linolenic 0%
Oleic 39%
Palmitic 44%
Ricinoleic 0%
stearic 5%
myristic 1%
Iodine Value 53

CANOLA:
SAP value: .123
Lauric 0%
Linoleic 21%
Linolenic 9%
Oleic 61%
Palmitic 4%
Ricinoleic 0%
Stearic 2%
Myristic 0%
Iodine value 96

 

[Seifenblasen]

Here are five palm-free recipes from Lovin Soap. There are also animal-free:

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2012/06/palm-f ... pes-day-1/

As mentioned by several others before, I find that I can make nice palm-free, tallow-free soap if I add some butters (cocoa, shea, mango, etc.) to bump up the stearic acid and hardness. It can cost a bit more, but since I don't sell and the amount of soap I make is limited, it is not an issue. I also don't have problem with the soap starting out a bit softer as I prefer a very long cure - 8 weeks to 12 months (for castile).

At first I used sustainable palm, then switched to local, free-range tallow from a farmer I know. The farmer is having some issues, partly because of the drought and sky-rocketing hay prices, so now I am without a source of "sustainable tallow". I have been exploring with palm-free animal-free soap myself as well. These two are my own formulae:

10% castor oil
35% coconut oil
45% olive oil
10% shea butter


10% sweet almond oil
5% castor oil
30% coconut oil
10% mango butter
35% olive oil
10% shea butter

 

[OrchardPrincess]

I ordered Cocoa Butter from a wholesale supplier in Oregon, so I'll see if that does it. So far it looks like I can get a pretty hard bar without Palm. My soaps are 100 percent vegan, so Tallow isn't an option for me. I guess it's just a matter of playing around with numbers til I get it right.

 

[Maythorn]

I like the look of that last recipe with the mango and shea butters and coconut @ 30%. I find castor oil @ 5% to be just right lately.

 

[SoapAddict415]

I may be wrong but I believe that wildernessfamilynaturals.com carries sustainable palm.

 

[lanchingmaa]

Spectrums non hydrogenated vegetable shortening sold at almost all hippie grocery stores is made from non rainforest 100% sustainable and organic. They even flip some profits back to research. 16oz tubs are $4.99 at Whole Foods

 

[serfmunke]

I do not use Palm for the same reasons. There is no palm oil in any for in my home, PALM FREE!!!

I use Babassu Oil and get it from Soaper's Choice. I love it, makes a great salt soap, great any soap really. Babassu is also considered a seed(from what I have read) so it is great for a nut free soap. You can also use Coconut, any of the oils that are the list of harder oils.

Goof Luck!

 

[Maythorn]

I found Spectrum Palm Shortening on sale here, too at that price, different store. I like how it's whiter than regular palm oil and I need that for a few colored recipes that have dairy or coconut milk in them which tend to go tan.

 

[Marieke]

I would love to go palm free too. For me purely because of the impact the PO farms have on nature and wildlife. But it's the cheapest hardening oil I can get, coconut oil is very expensive in the Netherlands. Palm oil only costs me 1.40 euros for a kilo, coconut oil costs me 9 euros for a kilo. And I don't want to use animal fats. Vegetable shortening is not widely available here, only is some stores where they carry a selection of American products. Also very expensive. The first 5 soaps I made where PO free (CO, OO, hemp oil and shea butter) but they stayed rather soft and didn't last very long. I must admit I used them after 4 weeks of curing, maybe I'll give that recipe a second chance and cure it for at least 10 weeks. And add some castor oil too.

 

[Momonga]

you can get sustainable palm. Brambleberry carries sustainable palm. I can't remember if the RSPO website has a list of suppliers that they supply sustainable palm to. You could check it. I think it's RSPrg

Thanks for educating me - didn't know I had sustainable options!