Palm oil is in roughly 50% of supermarket products — from shampoo to biscuits to soap. But you won't find it in a single bar we make at Silktown Soap Company. Here's why.
What Is Palm Oil and Why Is It So Widely Used?
Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis), native to West Africa but now grown at industrial scale across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa. It's cheap, versatile, and shelf-stable — which is why the food, cosmetics, and cleaning industries rely on it so heavily.
In soap making specifically, palm oil is prized for producing a hard bar with a stable, creamy lather. It's the easy option. But easy isn't always right.
The Problem With Palm Oil
The global demand for palm oil has driven one of the most destructive land-use changes in modern history:
- Deforestation — Vast areas of tropical rainforest in Indonesia, Malaysia, and beyond have been cleared to make way for palm plantations, destroying some of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems.
- Habitat loss — Orangutans, Sumatran tigers, pygmy elephants, and hundreds of other species are critically endangered as a direct result of palm oil expansion.
- Carbon emissions — Clearing peatland forests for palm cultivation releases enormous quantities of stored carbon, accelerating climate change.
- Human rights concerns — Land grabs and exploitative labour practices have been widely documented in palm-producing regions.
Certified sustainable palm oil (RSPO) exists, but its track record is contested — and we believe the most honest position is simply not to use it at all.
What We Use Instead
Going palm oil-free in cold process soap making isn't a small ask. Palm oil does a specific job, and replacing it requires careful formulation. Over years of small-batch testing, we've developed recipes that achieve the same hardness, lather quality, and skin feel — without compromise.
Our bars are built on a blend of:
- Sustainable olive oil — deeply conditioning, gentle on sensitive skin
- Coconut oil — for cleansing power and a rich, bubbly lather
- Shea butter — nourishing and skin-softening
- Castor oil — boosts lather and helps bind the bar
- Specialist oils — including rapeseed, sweet almond, and our signature silk fibre infusions, depending on the recipe
Every oil is chosen for a reason. Every recipe is tested until it's right.
The Cold Process Difference
Our traditional cold process method means we never use heat to speed up saponification. This preserves the natural glycerin produced during soap making — a humectant that draws moisture to the skin and is often stripped out of commercial soap and sold separately. The result is a bar that's genuinely better for your skin, not just better for the planet.
Cold process also means slower production. Our bars cure for a minimum of four to six weeks before they're ready to sell. That's not a marketing story — it's chemistry. And it's worth the wait.
Why This Matters for Earth Day (and Every Day)
Earth Day is a moment to reflect — but the choices that matter most are the ones made quietly, every day, when no one's watching. Choosing palm oil-free soap is one of those choices. It's small. It's simple. And multiplied across thousands of households, it adds up.
We've been palm oil-free since our very first batch. Not because it was trendy, but because it was the only option that felt honest.
This Earth Day, we'd love you to explore our full range of handmade, vegan, plastic-free soaps — and feel good about every lather.
Shop our Earth Day collection →
