Why We Chose to Remove Palm Oil from Our Products
We’ve removed palm oil from our soap base and replaced it with mango and shea butter.
That decision came from looking at both the ingredients we use and the kind of soap we want to make. Concerns about palm oil production were part of the picture. So were the firmness, lather and conditioning qualities we wanted from our reformulated bars.
Palm oil has real advantages, which help explain why it appears in so many everyday products. Understanding those advantages, alongside the environmental concerns, makes our decision worth explaining properly.
Palm Oil Is in More Than Your Soap
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of oil palm trees. You can find it in products ranging from biscuits, chocolate, spreads to ice cream, soap and cosmetics. This means it may already feature in both your food shop and your bathroom cupboard. WWF’s guide explains its everyday uses.
Its role in chocolate and confectionery can be less obvious. Some manufacturers use specially processed palm-based fats as alternatives to cocoa butter.
That doesn’t mean cocoa butter has disappeared from chocolate. Recipes vary, and different products use different combinations of fats. Checking the ingredients is the best way to understand what a particular product contains.
The same curiosity is useful when choosing soap: what has gone into the bar, and what does each ingredient contribute?
Why Is Palm Oil Used in Soap?
Palm oil is popular because it performs useful jobs in a recipe.
It is generally an affordable ingredient, making it attractive to manufacturers producing everyday products in large quantities. It also helps to support the lather produced alongside other oils in soap.
In cold-process soap, different fats contribute different characteristics. Coconut oil, for example, is known for producing larger bubbles, while palm oil supports lather in the blend. A good recipe balances those qualities. Bramble Berry explains how these oils work together.
So there are practical reasons for using palm oil. We used it ourselves, and we understand its place in soap making.
Removing it meant thinking carefully about what would take its place.
The Environmental Concerns Around Palm Oil
Expansion of oil palm plantations has been a major driver of tropical deforestation in some of the world’s most biodiverse regions.
When forests are cleared, wildlife loses their habitats. Orangutans are among the species affected. Forest clearance and the conversion of carbon-rich peatlands also release greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change. WWF outlines these environmental impacts.
Those consequences matter when an ingredient is used across so many everyday purchases. For us, they were a reason to reconsider our own soap base recipe.
There is another side to the discussion: oil palms produce a high quantity of oil from relatively little land. Replacing palm oil with other crops can require more land, and responsibly produced palm oil has a role to play. Being palm oil free does not, by itself, prove a product has a lower environmental impact. Ingredient sourcing still matters. Read WWF’s explanation of the alternatives.
Why We Changed Our Soap Base
We decided that we wanted to make our bars without palm oil and use the reformulation as an opportunity to reconsider the whole recipe.
Our aim was clear: a firm bar, a satisfying creamy lather and a comfortable wash, made with ingredients we could explain openly.
The base matters because it shapes how a soap performs long before scent, colour or exfoliation enters the picture. Changing one of its main ingredients means balancing the rest of the formula too.
For our new base, we chose mango and shea butter. Both bring useful qualities to cold-process soap, and both deserve more explanation than simply appearing on the label.
Why We Use Mango Butter in Our Soap
Mango butter comes from the kernel inside the mango stone. It is a solid plant fat, valued in skincare and soap making for its rich texture and useful fatty-acid composition.
For cold-process soap, two of those fatty acids are particularly relevant: stearic acid and oleic acid. Mango butter contains substantial amounts of both. In soap formulation, stearic acid contributes to hardness and creamy lather, while oleic acid contributes to what soap makers describe as conditioning qualities. Read about mango butter in cold-process soap and how fatty acids influence soap characteristics.
That combination helps explain our choice. We want a bar with structure, a creamy washing feel and a balanced recipe.
Mango butter contributes to those aims alongside the other oils and butters. It helps build firmness into the formula, while its fatty-acid profile gives us useful conditioning characteristics to work with.
The proportions matter. Adding mango butter alone does not guarantee that a bar will be harder, creamier or more moisturising than another soap. It is the finished recipe that determines the result.
Why Shea Butter Belongs in the Blend
Shea butter comes from the seeds of the shea tree. You may recognise it from body butters and moisturisers, where it is valued for helping skin feel soft and smooth.
In cold-process soap, shea butter contributes firmness and conditioning qualities. These make it a useful partner for mango butter in our palm oil free base. Bramble Berry describes shea butter’s role in soap and skincare.
We use it as part of a blend designed to deliver a creamy, comfortable wash. The lather comes from the balance of the whole recipe: shea butter’s main contribution is its conditioning character and the structure it brings to the bar.
If your skin is sensitive, the complete ingredient list still deserves attention, including fragrance and exfoliating ingredients. Shea butter is a valued skincare ingredient, but its presence alone does not make every soap suitable for every person.
What “Conditioning” Means in Cold-Process Soap
During cold-process soap making, oils and butters react with an alkaline solution through a process called saponification. Much of the original fat becomes soap. A recipe can also be formulated to leave some fat unreacted, known as superfatting. Learn more about this process.
That is why we talk about mango and shea butter in terms of the firmness, conditioning character and washing experience they contribute to our formula. A rinse-off soap has a different job from a body butter left on the skin.
For us, the goal is to bring those ingredients together thoughtfully and make a bar you enjoy using every day.
Final Thoughts
Choosing to remove palm oil meant looking closely at both its environmental concerns and its practical benefits in soap. Mango and shea butter gave us a way to take our recipe in the direction we wanted, with ingredients chosen for their contribution to firmness, conditioning and a creamy wash. We want you to understand those choices and feel confident about what you bring into your bathroom. If you’ve already tried our reformulated bars, thank you for supporting Bare Bar and being part of that change.
