Are your soaps palm oil free?

[Deadgroovy]

This was a question I asked in another thread, so I thought I'd throw it out there!
Apologies if this has been asked before.
Do you make soaps Palm oil free?
If you sell soap, do people ask if your soap is palm free?
If you are palm free, what do you substitute?
All my recipes use palm oil, and am considering trying Shea butter as an alternative.
In the next 6-9 months I'm going to submit my recipes for cosmetic testing (UK) and was just interested in the demand for palm free. Unfortunately, shea butter is twice the price of palm oil.

 

[Obsidian]

I'm palm free only because I hate working with the stuff, traces too fast. Plus, I like lard a whole lot more, makes a nicer soap. I don't sell really but I do have a few friends/family who order large batches of certain soaps, they pay for those. No one has ever asked what any ingredients are, not even the person who wanted the pine tar for his psoriasis.

Of all the soapers around here, and there are a ton of them, none are palm free and vegan. Most use palm, a couple use tallow. The palm soap is not advertised as vegetarian, vegan or all veggie. You can't even find castile around here, people won't use it.

Even though there is a fair amount of vegans in the area, none of the soapers are. Thats kinda weird now that I think about it. I have seen all veggie soap without palm but that was more incidental as it was a triple butter bar, didn't need palm or animal fats. It was being sold as a luxury, moisturizing bar. I bought one, it was terrible.

 

[Hendejm]

Im thinking of switching from palm to tallow or lard. Mine are for gifts and if they eat meat - they should be fine with the fat in their soap.

 

[shunt2011]

I use palm but prefer lard. I’ve had 2 people ask in 8 years. Here nobody really cares. I use palm in vegan soap.

 

[cmzaha]

I am the same as Shari, I use palm in vegan soap and Tallow/Lard combo in non vegan. I have trouble with lard so only use it at 25% no higher. Lard is a dream to work with to bad it give me issues such as dos and old lard smell after the soaps are around 8 months old.

 

[Misschief]

I have never had anyone ask if I use palm oil but I have had one customer ask if I use animal products. I do and I do not apologize for it. I'm happy to explain my reasons and that one customer was fine with it after my explanation.

 

[cmzaha]

I have never had anyone ask if I use palm oil but I have had one customer ask if I use animal products. I do and I do not apologize for it. I'm happy to explain my reasons and that one customer was fine with it after my explanation.

I do not apologize for using palm oil. It puts food on a families plate because they have a job...

 

[Chris_S]

This was a question I asked in another thread, so I thought I'd throw it out there!
Apologies if this has been asked before.
Do you make soaps Palm oil free?
If you sell soap, do people ask if your soap is palm free?
If you are palm free, what do you substitute?
All my recipes use palm oil, and am considering trying Shea butter as an alternative.
In the next 6-9 months I'm going to submit my recipes for cosmetic testing (UK) and was just interested in the demand for palm free. Unfortunately, shea butter is twice the price of palm oil.

Not 100% what your asking but i am looking at selling at some point and also in england. Where are you going to get them tested? iv seen a few sites that are the same price but one had cheaper prices if you sent more for testing so kinda like bulk buying but the wording confused me.

More on topic now, what have you done in way of looking whats already out there? Have you been to farmers markets ect that might answer your question of whats in demand locally because i would guess whats in demand in america (as a whole most members here are in america) and whats in demand in yorkshire and the uk if your planning on selling online would be entirly different. Before i start selling ill be travelling to places I would be likely looking at selling and seeing what is going because we are so limited on choice and changes for soaps and cosmetics unless you can afford to get lots of recipes tested from what i can tell you even have to declare colours and scents and that counts as one the recipe changes. From what i can tell in america they are far far less regulated and can swap and change recipes for demand ect

 

[Dean]

Thats too bad UK is so regulated. Testing sounds expensive.

Irrespective of market demand, I love knowing that soaping with soy wax instead palm oil conserves rainforest habitat while putting food on the plates of families of soy farmers. Thats a win-win in my book!

 

[shunt2011]

And I’m one who won’t use soy as it’s GMO. Everyone makes the decision to use what is best for them. I have an awesome customer base and will continue what works for me. Find your niche and what people in your area will or will not accept.

 

[Obsidian]

I won't use soy either and I won't buy any handmade products that contain it.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Wow - just found this on the internet - not sure how accurate it is, but it's intersting reading. I didn't know that so much corn was also GM. https://www.vox.com/2014/11/3/18092748/how-widespread-are-gm-foods

 

[Saponificarian]

I am a palm lover, can’t use lard and love Tallow too. I am currently exploring goose/Duck fat in soap and I am loving it. Shea in high amount with Cocoa or Illipe or Kokum butter in vegan and palm free recipe is to die for but I don’t think it would be cost effective to sell.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I also found this: https://rspo.org
The supplier I use sells only RSPO palm oil.

 

[Aquamarine56]

This was a question I asked in another thread, so I thought I'd throw it out there!
Apologies if this has been asked before.
Do you make soaps Palm oil free?
If you sell soap, do people ask if your soap is palm free?
If you are palm free, what do you substitute?
All my recipes use palm oil, and am considering trying Shea butter as an alternative.
In the next 6-9 months I'm going to submit my recipes for cosmetic testing (UK) and was just interested in the demand for palm free. Unfortunately, shea butter is twice the price of palm oil.

I do not use palm oil. My soaps are perfectly lovely without it. I use vegetable oil and coconut oil for the solids. I will add about 15grams (1/2 oz) Shea butter per 1kg (2 lb) for luxury and silkiness, but you can't use a lot of shea in a batch.
This is my latest, Cherry Almond, made with almond milk, but I mostly use fresh goat milk or rainwater. I also pop straight into the freezer and do not gel.
Have been soaping for 6 years.

 

[Saponificarian]

You can use as much Shea butter as you want in a batch. You just need to make sure it’s balanced. I have used as high as 65% and it makes a lush bar of soap.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I do not use palm oil. My soaps are perfectly lovely without it. I use vegetable oil and coconut oil for the solids. I will add about 15grams (1/2 oz) Shea butter per 1kg (2 lb) for luxury and silkiness, but you can't use a lot of shea in a batch.
This is my latest, Cherry Almond, made with almond milk, but I mostly use fresh goat milk or rainwater. I also pop straight into the freezer and do not gel.
Have been soaping for 6 years.

That looks gorgeous! I use 100 - 150g of shea in a 1kg batch and have not had any problems. What sort of problems have you encountered?

 

[Aquamarine56]

That looks gorgeous! I use 100 - 150g of shea in a 1kg batch and have not had any problems. What sort of problems have you encountered?

Well I haven't encountered any, because I just always went with the recommended qty for Shea butter which is around 10%, it is expensive, but I'm interested that you and others have used so much and had success.

 

[Deadgroovy]

Thanks everyone for your comments.
The reason I asked the question is that here in the UK a lot of craft market sellers and online sellers seem to promote the fact that they are palm free. I don't know whether that they think people are really concerned about the use of palm oil (de-forestation etc) or that they are jumping on the bandwagon of saving the planet. I am at the moment asking friends and family on their views on this.
@Chris_S here is where I'm looking:
https://naturallybalmy.co.uk/products/cp-hp-soaps-cosmetic-safety-assessment-report-16-variations

https://www.cosmeticsafetyassessment.com/index.php?p=1_4_Assessments

I think they both use the same assessor, but the first one looks better value if you have more than 8 variations

 

[Chris_S]

Thanks everyone for your comments.
The reason I asked the question is that here in the UK a lot of craft market sellers and online sellers seem to promote the fact that they are palm free. I don't know whether that they think people are really concerned about the use of palm oil (de-forestation etc) or that they are jumping on the bandwagon of saving the planet. I am at the moment asking friends and family on their views on this.
@Chris_S here is where I'm looking:
https://naturallybalmy.co.uk/products/cp-hp-soaps-cosmetic-safety-assessment-report-16-variations

https://www.cosmeticsafetyassessment.com/index.php?p=1_4_Assessments

I think they both use the same assessor, but the first one looks better value if you have more than 8 variations

Awesome thank you. The best i have found so far is like the second link 180£ for 8 variations but it just felt too limiting.
Once iv got a recipe i like i would likely want to have some that have swirls which limits me to how many colours i can use then iv got to use one or more of the variations for scent and any oil adjustments.
Then if i wanted to add christmas scents to the range. In a way its a good thing because its also limiting other peoples selling range and you will know what you need and when with stock if you were free to make new recipes whenever it would complicate things. So i suppose its got its positives and negatives. What were you thinking of insteaad of palm if you went that route?
Have you looked into using soapmaker 3? If you want to see more into it as a software inbox me and ill take some screenshots so it might help if you want to buy it. If im remembering correctly we have strict guidelines we have to follow with regards to logging recipes/batch numbers ect sm3 would definatly make this easier unless you already have a system.