Teach Soap

What an interesting thread...

I have never had any problems with citrus soaps, but it's important to know that some people do.

I ran into a few soaps today at a franchise restaraunt that marketed themselves as all-natural, but were anything but... absolutely amazing what people will do for profit.

I've read about the issues with palm kernal/palm oil and would love to know what other oils people are using in place of it. As a new hobbyist, it is sometimes overwhelming to have so manyy considerations thrown at you, so I'm always looking for advice and new recipes to try. So far, most of the ones I've used use palm or palm kernal.

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Shieh Design Studio
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I use tallow instead of palm oil beacuse it's localy sorced. I get it fresh and render it at home.

Do you eat beef at all? Or any pork products? Or wear leather?If not than I can understand you not wanting to use tallow and lard. I get that. I guess Im just old fashion and very frugal about things. This is not by any means my first recession.
As I understand it South America has the largest rain forest in the world. So my question is how can people farm palm oil at all without cutting down the rain forest to plant the oil palms?
I understand what is sustainable for people but how can it be sustainable for the wild life that gets displaced. The land has to come from somewere.
This is not ment to piss people off. I just don't have that ick facter going when it comes to tallow and lard.

I dunno about the OP but I don't eat pork at all. I've never liked it from the time I was a child. More recently, Rolling Stone magazine had an interesting article about the dark side of large scale pork production. It comes up easily in a google search.

I rarely eat red meat. A few times a year. We had cattle on our land for several years. My husband's uncle's. Cows have an amazing sense of community. They would babysit each others calves. Kind of like one Mom would just give another a break. It was really something to see. The whole herd turned out if one member was in danger, which is how we knew to rescue a calf that went through the ice on the pond one winter. We heard the outcry. The whole herd turned out to chase an intruding animal out of the field and the whole herd turned out to mourn and bawl for several days when the calves were taken off for slaughter each spring and fall. Kind of changed my perspective on some things.

And I'm really not a leather fan. Just not my style. I do eat quite a bit of poultry and fish. I don't care if you or anyone else soaps with lard or tallow but there *is* an ick factor for me. My previous statement was made in the context of my using it, which isn't gonna happen.

The plantation where the palm oil I buy is farmed has certification of its sustainability and is an RSPO member. http://www.rspo.org/ They undergo some stringent criteria before being certified. It's a family farm and they plant trees and take their obligation seriously. Columbus Foods/Soaper's Choice can explain the process if you'd like more details.

I buy my coconut oil from Columbus Foods as well. And palm oil if I run out of tallow. Mike, from there is very nice .

He is nice. Very knowledgeable about oils, too. He's a soaper. Helpful guy.

I'm not sure who the question was directed to, but I don't eat pork and very seldom eat beef. I live off mostly fish and chicken. Back to soap, I didnt mean my thoughts to come across as debating, I'm still trying to make heads and tails of all this information I'm learning so fast.