Palm Oil in Cosmetics Series: Part Two

This is a multi-part series on the usage of palm oil in soaps, beauty products and cosmetics. First we discussed the environmental effects of palm oil harvesting. This post will give suggestions on how to formulate palm-free, cold process soaps. Future posts will include substituting palm-based waxes in creams and lotions and a few guest posts from some of my new friends in the world of saving orangutans.

Photo credit: Liz Vagg

Tips for Creating Palm-Free Soap

Palm oil contains palmitic fatty acids, which brings hard bar and stable lather attributes to cold process soap. By giving up palm in your soap recipes, you’re going to have to allow for a longer cure time or “outsmart” your recipes. One way to do this is to substitute other oils or butters that are high in palmitic fatty acids. Some options are shea butter and cocoa butter. When you consider how brittle cocoa butter is, it is easy to see how it would add a hardness to cold process soap. Typically I create recipes with 15% or less of shea or cocoa butters.

Another way to compensate and create a harder and longer lasting bar without using palm oil is to use beeswax. Use at a rate of about 1 oz. per lb. of oils and melt with the base oils.

Salt will help add hardness to your soap. Simply add one teaspoon of salt per pound of oils to the lye water and mix well to dissolve. Sodium lactate is also widely known to effectively create a harder bar. Use it at a rate of 1-3%.

Water Discounts

Another tip to creating palm-free bars is to water discount (to reduce water in soap recipes) to create a harder bar with less shrinkage. Safety note: water discounting is not for beginner soapmakers. By using less water but same amount of lye, you are increase the strength of the lye water. This means your lye water is much more concentrated. A simply splash is more dangerous. (Wear gloves, goggles and protective wear at all times when working with lye.)

Aside from being dangerous, the bonus with water discounting is a faster cure time.  Start with a 40% water discount and see how your recipe handles the reduced water content. It’s important to remember that the physical limit to combining lye and water is 50% ( 1 part lye to 1 part water) although I don’t recommend going that extreme with the discount. (Math tip: the percentage is the reduction of the water being used, not an increase in water.) With less water, your lye water is going to be extra concentrated so use extreme caution when handling and test your recipes in small batches. I will write a blogpost on the details of water discounting as it can be confusing.

So is dropping palm oil out of your soapmaking repertoire going to be completely seemless? Probably not. Are you going to have to test your recipes and reformulate them? Most definitely. But consider the flipside: your  money spent on palm oil and palm-related products supports the killing of orangutans and the deforestation.

Palm-Free Soap Recipes

“This One’s for the Orangutans” Soap

49% Olive
26% Coconut
15% Cocoa Butter
10% Rice Bran Oil

“Wonderfully Nutty Palm-Free Soap”

42% Olive
33% Coconut
15% Shea Butter
10% Sweet Almond Oil

As of May 2012 our company will be completely palm-free. Our soapmaking and cosmetic courses will no longer use palm oil either.

I'd love to hear your tips for making cold process soaps without palm oil. If you create palm-free soaps please post below.