Palm-Free Soap Recipes

What to use instead of palm oil

• Butters: shea, cocoa, mango or kokum butter add hardness. They are usually a modest share of the oils, often 10% to 20%.
• Lard or tallow: either can fill a similar role and gives a hard, creamy bar, though the finished soap will differ a little.
• Stearic acid: a few percent of the oil weight hardens a bar, but it makes the batter thicken quickly, uses lye, and is often made from palm, so check the source.
• Sodium lactate, or a little salt dissolved in the water before the lye goes in, helps a softer palm-free bar come out of the mold sooner.

Expect a longer cure for olive-heavy bars

Castile and bastille recipes, which are mostly olive oil, start out soft and get harder and milder over a long cure. Give them more time than the usual four to six weeks.

Recalculate the lye when you swap an oil

Every oil has its own saponification (SAP) value, so replacing palm with another oil changes how much lye the recipe needs. Run any substitution through the soap calculator before you make the batch.

Work safely with lye

Wear goggles and gloves, work with good ventilation, keep children and pets away, and always add lye to the liquid, never liquid to the lye. Mix it in stainless steel or a sturdy, heat-resistant #2 (HDPE) or #5 (PP) plastic container, never aluminum or glass.

If lye gets on your skin or in your eyes, rinse with plenty of running water for at least 15 minutes, taking off any splashed clothing (and contact lenses, if easy) as you rinse. Get medical or poison-control help for eye contact or burns. Do not use vinegar on skin or eyes.

Open any recipe above to see the full formula, then adapt it in the free soap calculator or browse all soap recipes.