Palm and Palm Kernal Oil

[Junes_Pocket]

A few years ago, I started my cp soap making journey, was super enthusiastic bought books and books and mountains of supplies, because after all, I am going to have all kinds of time to devote to this hobby of course!

My books all generally skip over the properties of coconut oil,Palm oil, and Palm Kernal oil as just saying they cause lather and make your soap hard. So now that I have discovered soap calc, I love doing my own recipes picking out oils and butters based on what they do for the skin.


Well of course coconut oil is all the rage so I kinda forgot and stopped using my big bucket of Palm and Palm Kernal Flakes and I know I better use them or toss them at this point. I thought also, if coconut oil turned out being more than just a lathering and cleansing oil, what information am I missing about the Palm oils?

There is a bit of conflicting info on google about these oils, so what types of successful soap do any of you guys create using these oils? or do you just use them as a lathering and hardening ingredient for soap?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I would throw those books away!

Coconut and palm kernel do indeed bring bubbles and hardness to the soap. Palm, on the other hand, is more like lard in that it brings hardness but is not as drying (or bubbly!) as the other two. Any resource that puts palm in the same boat as coconut and Palm kernel is pretty shoddy.

Palm kernel is handy for those with coconut allergy problems. Some people also like to use a mix of Palm kernel and coconut to a total of about 25% of the recipe as they are not a straight swap for another

 

[shunt2011]

Hi and welcome. I like using all three. I mostly use lard but when making a veggie soap I use Palm. I use both PKO and CO together quite frequently. They are both cleansing so you don't want to go too high combined. I like 11% PKP and 10% CO. I go higher or lower depending on how much cleansing I want. I stay pretty basic/simple. Palm or lard, PKO/CO, Olive, Shea and castor. Sometime I'll switch Olive with Avocado or Sunflower (high oleic)

 

[Junes_Pocket]

I probably generalized to much, they do talk about each oil individually but it seems to be only information about what these oils will do for the bar of soap and I can't find very much information about what sorts of benefits they might have for the skin. like for instance when designing a recipe for face soap, or acne, or just a body cleansing for dry or oily skin. Are they a heavy oil like olive that you would use to treat cracked heals, or a light oil like grape seed, or a wax type oil like jojoba? I guess some blogs I read discuss Palm having a reddish color that brings lots of nutrients to the skin, so does any use Palm oil for face soap recipes? or is it to heavy and might clog up pores or something?

 

[Obsidian]

You can't compare oil used on the skin to oil that has been turned into soap. Coconut oil is wonderful on the skin but if too much is used in soap, it will be very cleansing and drying.

Soap cleans you. It doesn't nourish or add moisture to the skin. Each oil ads different things to the lather and physical property of the soap.
For face soap, you want something gentle that doesn't dry the skin. This usually means no or very little coconut with oils that are low cleansing. I like a high lard bar for my face with around 5-10% coconut.
I don't use palm, don't like how it feels in soap, makes my skin feel waxy. Palm kernel is nice though.

 

[IrishLass]

Hello and welcome! :wave:

Ditto what Obsidian said. The chemical reaction of saponification totally changes the way oils/fats behave from the way they normally behave in their un-saponified state.

Here are a couple of good charts that show how different oils behave when soaped:

http://www.lovinsoap.com/oils-chart/

http://www.soap-making-resource.com/saponification-table.html


IrishLass

 

[Junes_Pocket]

That does make sense, for soap the characteristic of the bar is really the most important to focus on since it goes through the process of becoming soap, who knows what makes it through and than you want it to rinse it off your skin anyway, and not stay on... I hadn't really focused that aspect in my desire to create perfect soap bars. hahaha That is what I should be thinking about for making moisturizers not soap necessarily.

 

[Arimara]

I probably generalized to much, they do talk about each oil individually but it seems to be only information about what these oils will do for the bar of soap and I can't find very much information about what sorts of benefits they might have for the skin. like for instance when designing a recipe for face soap, or acne, or just a body cleansing for dry or oily skin. Are they a heavy oil like olive that you would use to treat cracked heals, or a light oil like grape seed, or a wax type oil like jojoba? I guess some blogs I read discuss Palm having a reddish color that brings lots of nutrients to the skin, so does any use Palm oil for face soap recipes? or is it to heavy and might clog up pores or something?

Unrefined palm is reddish in color. It's also not recommended to use as a replacement for palm. Yellow lather, stinky smell that doesn't cure out, overly strong yellow color in general... No bueno if you want a nice white soap.

 

[Junes_Pocket]

thank you for the welcome.

 

[Junes_Pocket]

I must have refined Palm then because it looks a little golden as liquid but pretty colorless as solid.

 

[lsg]

Palm oil contributes to a longer-lasting lather and bar hardness. It also contributes mildness to the soap.

 

[Junes_Pocket]

thanks everyone for your input and the links, you've all been very helpful.