Palm oil is one of the most common ingredients found in traditional bar soap. Look at the ingredient list of many commercially available soaps — including some luxury brands — and you’ll often find Sodium Palmate, the soap-making name for palm oil.
There’s a reason it’s so widely used. Palm oil is an effective and inexpensive soapmaking ingredient, helping create a creamy lather and a firm, long-lasting bar.
But when we created Kleensoaps, we knew from the beginning that palm oil wasn’t something we wanted in our formulations.
Why is palm oil used in soap?
Palm oil has been used in soapmaking for generations. It helps create a bar that is firm, stable and long-lasting, while contributing to the rich lather many people associate with a traditional bar of soap.
It’s also relatively inexpensive, which makes it an attractive ingredient for manufacturers producing soap on a large scale.
So why leave it out?
For us, it came down to making a conscious choice about the environmental impact associated with palm oil production.
Why is palm oil a concern?
Palm oil itself isn't inherently bad. The issue is how and where it is produced.
Palm oil plantations have been associated with deforestation and habitat loss in some parts of the world, particularly where tropical forests and peatlands have been cleared for cultivation. This can have serious consequences for biodiversity and ecosystems.
For a brand built around reducing waste and making more considered everyday soaps, we felt that avoiding palm oil was the right choice. A decision for you, and for the future of our planet.
Rather than simply accepting it as a standard soap ingredient, we decided to formulate our bars without it.
Finding the right palm-oil-free soap formula
When you remove an ingredient that has been used in soapmaking for centuries, you need to find the right combination of alternatives.
We wanted our soaps to be:
- Rich and creamy
- Nourishing and comfortable on the skin
- Long-lasting
- Beautifully lathering
- Naturally fragranced
- A pleasure to use every day
The answer was to develop a carefully balanced combination of plant oils and nourishing butters, including olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil, cocoa butter and castor oil.
Each brings its own qualities to the formulation, and together they create the sensorial experience we were looking for - without the need for palm oil.
So, what's actually in a Kleensoaps bar?
We believe that natural soap should start with good ingredients.
Our handmade vegan soaps are crafted using carefully selected plant oils, nourishing butters, botanicals and pure essential oils.
Olive oil
Olive oil is a classic soapmaking ingredient, valued for creating a gentle, conditioning-feeling bar with a beautifully creamy lather.
Shea butter
Rich and nourishing, shea butter helps give our soaps their luxurious feel and leaves skin feeling soft and comfortable after washing.
Coconut oil
Coconut oil helps create the satisfying lather you expect from a good bar of soap, while contributing to a firm, long-lasting bar.
Cocoa butter
Cocoa butter brings richness and a beautifully smooth feel to the formulation, adding to the decadent experience of using a handmade soap.
Castor oil
Castor oil helps support a rich, creamy lather and works alongside our other plant oils to create a beautifully balanced bar.
It's this combination — rather than relying on one hero ingredient — that makes our soap formula work.
What about fragrance?
Palm oil isn't the only ingredient we chose to leave behind.
We also decided from the outset that we didn't want to use artificial fragrance in our soaps.
Instead, our bars are fragranced with pure essential oils and natural botanical ingredients, creating distinctive scents ranging from bright citrus and fresh herbs to calming florals, warm spices and deep, earthy woods.
Think peppermint, eucalyptus and tea tree in Morning Glory. Lavender and sweet orange in Lavender Love. Cedarwood, patchouli and bergamot in Blue Velvet.
Natural fragrance is a big part of what makes a Kleensoaps shower feel like a little ritual rather than simply washing your hands or body.
Does palm-oil-free mean less luxurious?
Absolutely not. In fact, that was one of the things we were determined to prove.
We didn't want removing palm oil to mean compromising on the things that make a beautiful bar of soap feel luxurious.
Our soaps are made using the traditional cold-process method, in small batches, and each bar is cured for at least six weeks.
The result is a substantial, beautifully crafted bar with a rich lather, gorgeous natural ingredients and a scent designed to make you want to linger in the shower.
Because we don't think sustainable choices should mean choosing between style and substance.
A more considered approach to everyday soap
For us, being palm-oil free is part of a bigger picture.
Kleensoaps was created with the idea that everyday essentials can be better considered without becoming boring or worthy.
Our soap is handmade in small batches in Kent. Our bars are vegan and palm-oil free. They're designed to replace single-use plastic bottles of shower gel and body wash, and our signature recycled cotton rope means each bar can be hung up between uses to dry.
Even our packaging choices are considered, using recycled or recyclable materials.
None of this is about perfection. It's about making better choices where we can.
Why choose palm-oil-free soap?
If you're looking for a more considered alternative to conventional soap, choosing a palm-oil-free handmade soap is one simple place to start.
At Kleensoaps, we've spent time developing a formula that proves you don't need palm oil to create a beautiful bar of soap.
You can have the creamy lather.
You can have the nourishing plant oils and butters.
You can have the gorgeous natural fragrance.
You can have the luxury.
Just without the palm oil.
And that, to us, feels like a pretty good swap.
Discover palm-oil-free handmade soap
Explore the Kleensoaps collection of natural, vegan and palm-oil-free soap on a rope, handmade in Kent using carefully selected plant oils, nourishing butters, botanicals and pure essential oils.
Because the everyday things you use most deserve a little more thought.
