Teach Soap

I was wondering what yalls feeling are about Palm oil verses Palm Kernel flakes? I have a whole bag of Palm kernel flakes but Ive only use Palm oil. So experienced soaper friends, let me hear it.

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ASH

I've never used palm, but do you palm kernel in every batch. I think I only use the PK flakes once and went back to PK oil. It costs less.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I use both Palm Oil and Palm Kernal Oil in my standard recipe. Palm Kernal Oil & flakes are the same thing....just in different physical form. The Palm Oil is used at 7% and the Palm Kernal is used at 15% and together produce a very nice bar of soap IMO. I find that Palm Kernal makes a harder bar of soap and makes a fluffier lather. Palm Oil has been referred to as vegetable equivalent to lard or animal tallow and adds conditioning properties. If you already have them, I'd use them so they don't go to waste.

So would you use Palm Kernel in place of something else like Coconut oil, or just add it on top of. Im new to soaping but I pretty much have my standard recipe figured out. I have no idea why I ordered it, but I must have had some type of plan???

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ASH

I would use Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil/Flakes in addition to using coconut oil. I wouldn't use more than 20-22% coconut oil in the recipe because it can be very drying.

Listen soapbaby, the first couple of times I ordered supplies I went nuts and ordered all sorts of exotic butters & oils. Some of which took me years to use. I've since learned my lesson and quit experimenting and just developed a good "base" recipe (coconut, olive, palm, palm kernel, castor, shea butter, etc.). Now, the only experimenting I do is the lye liquid. I've made soap out of just about everything (beer, aloe, fruit juices, gatorade, wine, milk, tomato juice, coconut milk, etc.) Most all of them turned out nicely.....some better than others but they were all ok.

I would use coconut oil as a "standard" and use it in all your recipes.....same with palm & palm kernel. Other oils to consider are: olive, lard, castor, canola, crisco, rice bran, shea butter & cocoa butter. Developed a recipe you like with your basic ingredients you want to use, then "fine-tune" your recipe by adjusting amounts/percentages.

I think that is a common mistake many of us have made when we started soaping. I bought all kinds of exotic butters and oils to try recipes I found. I have decided to go with a couple basic recipes and experiment with them.