Differences between Palm Oil and PKO?

[kazmi]

Are palm oil or PKO included in your recipes for different purposes? Are there any noticable differences between the two? Since I'm still a newbie I'm curious as to why soapers would use one or the other - or both.

TIA!

 

[Genny]

I don't use either, but palm kernel oil is more like coconut oil, so if you're using coconut oil, then I'd skip the pko.

 

[new12soap]

Palm oil and palm kernal oil are completely different. Go to soapcalc and click on each one and it will show you their respective properties. Palm is more similar to lard or tallow and will give a creamier lather, where PKO is more closely akin to coconut oil and is high in cleansing and will give you big bubbly lather.

 

[christinak]

I usually split up my coconut oil and pko. They are similar, I seem to have a harder bar and nice bubbles when I include some pko.

 

[kazmi]

Thanks to you both! I had checked out both of them in soapcalc and read about both in a couple of books but just wanted to be sure that I understood correctly.

 

[kazmi]

I usually split up my coconut oil and pko. They are similar, I seem to have a harder bar and nice bubbles when I include some pko.

I did that too in my last batch and that's what I was aiming for. They're still curing so I can't tell yet. Thanks!

 

[BananaBee]

PKO is a foam oil, so it makes you soap foaming.
Palm Oil doesn't make any foam but it makes hard soap. They've got different saponifation values.

 

[tkine]

I bought PKO when I first ordered my oils, but never used it in my recipe. Since I didnt want to waste it, I've now sub out a portion of my coconut oil w/PKO. I won't reorder it once it's gone. I haven't noticed a significant difference in my bars.

 

[kazmi]

Thanks everyone for your input!