Palm Oil Substitute

[ed.balaun]

I’m new, so sorry if I’m posting in the wrong section.

Is there a close substitute for palm oil? I’m finding that it’s a little expensive.

 

[AliOop]

Lard is the closest to palm. You can usually find it at Walmart in the baking or Mexican food sections.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

As a massive fan of lard, I would say it's even much better than palm.

Shea butter is also similar in the pure fatty acids mix, if I recall, and yet in a soap itself many people notice it is different (bad different)

 

[KiwiMoose]

I use a combination of soy wax and shea to replace palm. But I make vegan bars, so that's why there is no lard or tallow in mine.
You can do a search up in the top right corner for more threads on spy wax - there are tons!

 

[AliOop]

@KiwiMoose as the cool kid of SMF, of course you would be the first to try spy wax

 

[KiwiMoose]

@KiwiMoose as the cool kid of SMF, of course you would be the first to try spy wax

I wasn't the first! It was passed down from the Queen @earlene to the Prince @Dean (who's now left the forum) and to me, the Street Urchin. Passing through many other royal hands in-between. And yes - isn't it annoying how autocorrect always changes it to SPY wax?

 

[AliOop]

I wasn't the first! It was passed down from the Queen @earlene to the Prince @Dean (who's now left the forum) and to me, the Street Urchin. Passing through many other royal hands in-between. And yes - isn't it annoying how autocorrect always changes it to SPY wax?

I thought it was awesome - way better than being called a diaper instead of a soaper.

 

[MickeyRat]

Another vote for lard.

I think I've only made 2 batches of soap without lard. One was to see how castille soap would turn out. I cheated and added 5% castor to the olive oil so it was almost castille. It made a very nice white bar. The other was my first attempt at shaving soap.

 

[Quilter99755]

I'm a lardy lady. Found out several years ago that olive oil doesn't get along with me in soap. Plus I love the fact that I can go to the grocery store and buy my main oil.

I sort of did a test a few years back to see if I could notice a difference in recipes with palm oil, lard and the crisco with a lard/tallow base. I gave up after the first round. It seems my skin either likes it or it doesn't. There was no appreciable different feel in the soaps or how they lasted, nor did one feel better on my skin in or after the shower. Or I just didn't see the differences. So to keep everything easy to make, I just stuck with the lard since it is always on the shelves at the grocery store. It has a very creamy lather that I have grown to like.

I do find I get a silkier feel with RBO added to my base soaps and unfortunately I have not found a local supplier for that. I buy it off of Amazon. As I get older I am not as adventurous as I used to be and stick with just a couple of recipes that I know my family and I like.

Best wishes on your adventures.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Although I like using palm oil, both solid and liquid red palm from the African store near by, lard, shea butter, partially hydrogenated soy oil, and some shortenings are good subs for palm. (See "Basic Trinity of Oils") My favorite sub is shea butter, but it's more expensive than a pound of lard you can easily get at the grocery store.

Crisco with palm is a good option and should be available locally--
"As of 2012, Crisco consists of a blend of soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, and partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils. According to the product information label, one 12-g serving of Crisco contains 3 g of saturated fat, 0 g of trans fat, 6 g of polyunsaturated fat, and 2.5 g of monounsaturated fat."

 

[earlene]

I’m new, so sorry if I’m posting in the wrong section.

Is there a close substitute for palm oil? I’m finding that it’s a little expensive.

Are you looking for a non-animal fat substitute? Or does it matter? If cost is your only concern, then the animal fats are probably your best sub for palm.

If animal fats are out, then butters are probably just as or more costly than palm, but that really depends on your sources. I used to buy shea butter for really low prices, but haven't bought any in quite awhile, so not sure if that's still possible.

For the best price of oils and your location, I'd suggest ordering from Soapers Choice (or Columbus Foods) in Des Plaines, IL. To get the best shipping deals, play around with the size of the order, as when ordering a bit more to fill the shipping box you end up paying the same shipping cost for only one item, so I find the price per ounce or pound of oils is lower when I order more than less. Apparently shipping is based on the size of the box, rather than the weight of the product.

Also look for sales locally on other oils to offset your bottom line costs of making soap. For example, many people here find sales of Coconut oil at Smart & Final that are really very good. Sometimes lard is quite inexpensive at some Walmart stores (but this can really vary from state to state, I have noticed.) Riceland sells Rice Bran Oil on their site and often have really good sales, although I haven't bought from them since CoVid, so not sure if free shipping happens anymore.

Some folks find good prices on oils at Restaurant supply stores, but depending on what's available in your area, you may not be able to shop in one, as some require membership or that you are linked to a restaurant in order to purchase. So do a little research to find out if you can take advantage of what they may have to offer if there is one near you that you are able to utilize. We have one near us but the oils they carry are quite limited. I can get more variety of oils at Costco.

 

[user 56151]

I love lard in my soap, it makes a creamy lather rather than big bubbles. Unfortunately it is quite expensive here (Australia) unless you can find a butcher who will give or sell it to you and render yourself. Where as, palm oil is very inexpensive.

 

[Servant4Christ]

I must be the odd one here because I've never tried palm or lard. I did try using some cleaned up bacon grease once, thinking it would be a quick way to see if lard was worth trying. Needless to say, I tossed that entire batch of soap and still haven't been able to bring myself to try lard.
I have used beef tallow many times, though, if animal is ok. I'm not a fan of the smell, but in smaller quantities (20ish %) it seems to mostly go away during cure and creates a nice hard bar.
As for non-animal, I've seen some soapers use a combination of cocoa butter/shea butter as a replacement. I also seem to recall a thread with a vegan friendly combination of oils/butters to replace palm that had a very similar fatty acid profile. Let's see if I can link. It's in Zany's Trinity soap thread, post #8

Basic trinity of oils starter formula

 

[Saponificarian]

I am going to be the odd one out and say do a test batch with lard. It smells like old oil and wonky after a few months to me. I have had much better results with Shea. Downside is you need extra weeks of cure time if you use past a certain percentage in your recipe but it’s worth it.

ETA: Tallow is great as well. Love it with Shea

 

[Gaisy59]

Where does everyone get their tallow? I can find lard but i have not seen tallow anywhere.

 

[AliOop]

Where does everyone get their tallow? I can find lard but i have not seen tallow anywhere.

It's not easy for me to find in stores. I end up rendering my own tallow using fat from the custom-butchered cows that my friends order each year.

Saponificarian:
I am going to be the odd one out and say do a test batch with lard. It smells like old oil and wonky after a few months to me.

My home-rendered lard never smells. The one cube I bought from US Foods smelled very lardy to me.

 

[Gaisy59]

Ok well diy rendering will not be happening. Back to lard then.