# Vegan replacement for palm oil?



## soapshark (Jun 5, 2012)

I normally use a recipe with palm, coconut, and olive oil to make my bar soap.  I'm not very experienced with soapmaking and don't fully understand all the charts and stuff but I'm learning!  

I would really like to replace palm oil for ethical reasons (just read an article about how a palm plantation killed some elephants) and I'm having trouble finding a replacement that isn't lard or tallow.  I'd like to keep this a 3 or 4 ingredient bar soap if possible. any suggestions?


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## sudbubblez (Jun 5, 2012)

What you are looking for is certified "sustainable" palm oil.  It does cost a little bit more.


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## Genny (Jun 5, 2012)

Unfortunately I don't have any options for replacing palm oil, except sustainable palm oil, which was already suggested.  But have you tried your soaps without palm at all?


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## soapshark (Jun 5, 2012)

you mean just make a coconut and olive oil soap? does that work? I haven't tried it yet.  
Also, does anyone have any good US suppliers of sustainable palm oil? I found a few but they're all in the UK which doesn't really help me.


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## sudbubblez (Jun 5, 2012)

columbus offers sustainable palm.


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## Genny (Jun 5, 2012)

soapshark said:
			
		

> you mean just make a coconut and olive oil soap? does that work? I haven't tried it yet.



I've never used palm in my soap.  Mine are a large percentage olive and coconut oils.  I do add some other oils in smaller percentages, like soy, avocado oil, shea butter, castor oil, etc.


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## judymoody (Jun 5, 2012)

You can use coconut and shea to compensate for what palm brings to your soap.  Tinker around in soapcalc until you get a total fatty acid profile that is similar to your recipe with palm and give it a try.


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## serfmunke (Jun 6, 2012)

I am happy to hear another soaper axes Palm! Plantations are killing everything and slashing and burning, terrible terrible things, nothing I want to support sustainable or not.

I use Babassu Oil and love it. You could also use coconut oil.


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2012)

I have never used palm either.  First because i couldnt find any and since because while searching for it, i learned of the habitat destruction its harvest causes.  Ive never missed it.


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## vikkime (Jun 26, 2012)

You could always do single oil soaps. I tend to like the single oils better. Make a small batch and see what you think.


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## Lindy (Jun 26, 2012)

When I first started I didn't use palm oil at all and didn't miss it.  Last year I decided I need to try it.  I'm phasing it out now, once my palm oil is gone, well it's gone.  The only real replacement for palm, bringing the same qualities is tallow which I use often.  Not vegan friendly but what an amazing soap and my customers like it too...


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## Aquarius (Jun 27, 2012)

Try using shea butter instead of palm oil they have very simmilar properties.


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## Genny (Jun 27, 2012)

Keep in mind that if you use shea in place of palm, use it in low percentages otherwise it can really decrease lather big time.


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## Hazel (Jun 27, 2012)

serfmunke said:
			
		

> I use Babassu Oil and love it. You could also use coconut oil.



I wanted to add neither babassu or coconut has the same properties as palm in soap. Fortunately, they are similar to palm kernel oil (same ethical issues as with palm) so everyone has a choice of replacement for it.


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## IrishLass (Jun 27, 2012)

Yes, a palm-free/animal fat-free soap is very possible. I make an all-veggie Castile-type soap that conains 50% OO with the remainder being made up of CO, babassu oil, castor oil, rice bran oil and only 6% cocoa butter. It makes quite a lovely, hard, bubbly/creamy bar. If I don't have cocoa butter on hand, it can be subbed with either mango, kokum, illipe, or shea without too much fuss.

IrishLass


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## Soapy Gurl (Jul 1, 2012)

I recently made a palm free soap for a friend.  I used OO, CO, RBO, shea and something else, I can't remember.  It turned out very well, a bit softer than my normal bar, so I will add some CB next time.  Lots of great lather!


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## gladly (Jul 1, 2012)

soapshark said:
			
		

> I normally use a recipe with palm, coconut, and olive oil to make my bar soap.  I'm not very experienced with soapmaking and don't fully understand all the charts and stuff but I'm learning!
> 
> I would really like to replace palm oil for ethical reasons (just read an article about how a palm plantation killed some elephants) and I'm having trouble finding a replacement that isn't lard or tallow.  I'd like to keep this a 3 or 4 ingredient bar soap if possible. any suggestions?




Lovin Soap blog just posted a whole slew of vegan palm free recipes and is asking for participants in testing them (the actual soaps).

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2012/06/palm-free-recipes-day-1/


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## Seventeen Soaps (Jul 5, 2012)

I haven't used palm oil for a quite a number of years and soap with a high  percentage of olive and coconut.  You do have to adjust things a little bit to get used it and play around with the other oils you add to the soap but my soap is better than ever before now I have perfected it.   Perfect lather every time even in hard water.   Good luck and have fun experimenting


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## Lotus (May 3, 2013)

Yesterday, I made a soap that turned out SO lovely!! 

Olive Oil:            40%
Grape Seed Oil:    20%
Canola Oil:          40%

I also added Shea Butter at a 3% superfat rate. But, in retrospect, I should add the Shea to the whole lot and recalculate for a lye discount instead. 

Whatever the case, it turned out amazing!!


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## thinkativeone (May 3, 2013)

It's up to you to decide if "sustainable palm oil" exists. I personally believed it did, then I read an article that told me otherwise, regarding the real practices of palm oil suppliers certified sustainable by The Roundtable On Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). There is a lot of fraud out there and demand for palm oil is only growing due to it being used more and more in the health food industry. It devastated me and changed my soapmaking oil list for good. But again, you have to make your own conclusions. I have a thread on here about being Palm Oil Free and several members chimed in talking about how happy they are with palm oil free soaps. I found their responses very encouraging!  It takes a little longer to cure to perfection, but IMPO that is totally worth it. I won't use animal oils either, by the way (vegetarian). 

I have made 100% olive oil soap and found it became really nice at around 4-5 months, more bubbly and hard as a brick. Between olive, coconut, all the various butters out there and plenty of other liquid oils, I think we can make some pretty awesome soap!


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## melstan775 (May 3, 2013)

So think, how long do your palm free soaps take to cure ? I'm thinking of going palm free. I haven't been doing this long and my usual soaps with palm take about six weeks.


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## Lotus (May 3, 2013)

melstan775 said:


> So think, how long do your palm free soaps take to cure ? I'm thinking of going palm free. I haven't been doing this long and my usual soaps with palm take about six weeks.



Out of curiosity, how does one judge that a full cure has taken place. For instance, I made two separate batches, yesterday, one of them got really hard, really fast. The other one is still a little on the softer side, but getting there, and the one I made today, has parts of it that are soft, but the better chunk of them are a medium hardness.

So, is hardness all that matters? How does one truly know how long it takes for a soap to cure? 

A question, I should probably have asked in it's own thread. I've always just figured a good 4 weeks was the going rate.


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