maandag 15 april 2013

Going palm free - rosemary & yoghurt soap

The good thing about palm oil is that it's cheap, it makes a nice hard bar and palmpit oil makes great lather. The bad thing about palm oil is that the expansion of palm plantations into high conservation value forests is recognized as a leading thread to critically endangered species including orangutans, elephants and tigers.

That's why I decided to stop using palm oil from now on. Of course there is sustainable palm oil available but it's so expensive I'd rather skip it altogether. Right now I am in a transition fase because I have some palm kernel oil left I need to finish first.

I made these rosemary & yoghurt bars on Friday. To compensate the lack of palm oil and hardness, I used 40% coconut oil and yoghurt. I know a lot of soapmakers say you shouldn't  use more than 30% coconut oil because it's drying to the skin. But I love my 100% coconut oil bars so how bad could a percentage of 40-50 be? I might just use a slightly higher superfatting percentage next time.

Oils: coconut, olive (rosemary infused), sunflower, castor, wheat germ, palm pit
Liquid: yoghurt and water 50/50
Additives: 3/4 green alg powder, 1/4 ghassoul clay, a splash of yoghurt mixed with the oils, 1/2 ts honey
Scent: EO rosemary, anis and juniper

The hanger swirl failed, it's still just 2 layers.










3 opmerkingen:

  1. This is a good facial soap, Marieke! It should smell gorgeous!

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  2. Beautiful, Marieke! I want to try some palm-free recipes, too. And yogurt!

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  3. So beautiful! I also developed myself palm free recipe and I love the quality of the soap. I use olive, coconut, castor oils and cocoa butte. I know that individually we cannot reduce this environmental impact caused by palm oil production and usage, but spreading this approach and start using palm free recipes, could somehow support elimination of this impact globally.

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