| Yesterday was a very different experience when compared to most soaps I make. Today, I wanted to show Palm Kernel Oil, an oil most of us are familiar with in our oils. But do we really know what it contributes to our bar? Let’s go find out through experience!
Needed Materials
Recipe
Weigh the Palm Kernel Oil into a microwave safe container. Heat until liquid. This took about 2 1/2 minutes for me. Add the lye to the water to for a lye solution. Mix the oils and lye solution and blend until trace is achieved. Pour into a mold and allow to sit for 24 hours. Cut the soap. Allow the soap to cure. Longer curing time will result in a harder bar. Enjoy!
I didn’t have any trouble mixing this soap together. It went smoothly. My only trouble was when pouring the soap into the mold I spilled some on the counter. Good thing I was able to clean it up quickly. When washing with this soap, I got a lot of lather. And I do mean a lot of lather. When I first started scrubbing the lather was big and airy. The more I scrubbed, the more dense it became. The bar was also very hard. It had some very tough edges.
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 Finished Soap  Weighing Palm Kernel Oil  Melted Oil  Mixing Lye Solution  Mixing Lye and Oil  Mixing Soap  Soap in Mold |
Quick question. Did it wash well? How was cleansing power?
I found it work well for washing. I tested it after I had cleaned up some spilled oils. Worked very nicely. I didn’t even need a detergent to help with the cleanup.
I hope this helps!
Hi Taylor – I’m really enjoying this series of blog posts. You are sharing great info! I look forward to learning about tomorrow’s oil. Traci
Awesome information! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this particular series on single oil soaps.
Thanks for the information, Taylor! I am wondering when you washed with it if the bar felt harsh to your hands at all, and afterwards did the bar have either a drying or conditionaing effect? Overall, how desirable did you feel bar was?
That was my question also. Is the soap harsh or mild to your skin???
Yes you are right. I have good soap using pko. For bath soap, can I use caustic soda?
If you are wanting a solid bar bath soap, caustic soda (Sodium Hydroxide) is perfect! If you want a liquid soap, then you will need to use caustic potash (Potassium Hydroxide).
It felt a little harsh to my hands, but I wouldn’t have a problem doing a 50/50 Palm Kernel/Olive Oil Soap. I think that would be a very nice soap that wouldn’t feel harsh but would have great lather. Note: This soap wasn’t extremely harsh but I did feel after washing I needed to find some lotion for my hands. It could also be the dry air that is contributing that feeling to my skin.
RANGE (Recommended)
Hardness 29 – 54
Cleansing 12 – 22
Conditioning 44 – 69
Bubbly 14 – 46
Creamy 16 – 48
Iodine 41 – 70
INS 136 – 165
PKO
Hardness 75
Cleansing 65 <<< Will literally strip skin of all its natural oils. YIKES!
Conditioning 18
Bubbly 65 <<< High lather is why PKO is a good sub for coconut oil.
Creamy 10
Iodine 20
INS 227 <<< Add enough OO to get this number down to around 160 for "ideal" soap.
HTH
Hi
please help me with a recipe that contains palm oil, Palm kernel oil and coconut oil as this is the only type of oil in my region.
thanks
This is what I would use. Happy soaping!
6 oz, Palm Oil
5 oz, Palm Kernel Oil
5 oz, Coconut Oil
2.4 oz, Lye
5 oz, water
Please Taylor,how many bars of soap can i produce with 1litre of palm kernel oil?
Also if i want to use red palm oil how can i bleach it to white color?Thanks so much for the info
If your bar soaps are about average size I think you will get about 8 bars from a liter of palm kernel oil.
Bleaching is a different story. You can try to filter hot oil through clay to see what you get. The processes set up for bleaching oils are made for large scale processing.
This makes doing this at home a difficult task. I would prefer you add small amounts of the red palm oil to each batch of soap you make.
Good luck!
I found out your post to be a great one, but my question is how do i processed a bar soap that end up having different coloure on completion, Deola fron Lagos , Nigeria.
What color would you like to achieve?
Tina
Hi Taylor,
I just love the simplicity of this recipe. What formula can I use to calculate the needed materials in order to make a bigger batch?
What size batch are you wanting to make?
A batch size using 2 litres of palm kernel oil
I am not sure of the weight of 2 L of palm kernel oil. Please use a scale. That will be a great help to have the weight for your records and calculations.
Tina
Love this recipe because I am highly allergic to coconut soap. Olive oil doesn’t work well for me either. Could I make this recipe using palm kernel oil with mineral oil (surprisingly mineral oil doesn’t bother me) and honey?
You won’t need the mineral oil. Use palm kernel and maybe almond or other oils you like to use.
Tina
Hi
I need help, I’m using the palm kernel oil to make soap but after adding my lye water to PKO oil and stirring the mixture didn’t completely mix rather the solution form was unstable and can’t form trace
Check your temperatures and the amount of lye used. When I have a mixture that will not convert to soap I will heat it or add boiling water to the mixture.
Tina
Mix palm kernel oil (hard oil) with Olive oil (soft oil) 50/50 and stir the mixture, it must work.
Thank you so much for the imformation .Please will like to find out if soap made with palm kernel oil alone be use as bath soap.
Secondly what is the calculation of lye, water and oil to be used when working with a combination of 1000g of palm kernel oil and 500g of Shea Butter.
I use the Lye Calculator for these calculations.
https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
Any soap that is correctly made, whether a single oil soap or not, can be used on the skin. Incorrectly made soaps are not suitable for use on the skin.
Also, each skin type is different and each locale has different water so the final feeling on the skin will vary.
Tina
I produce bar soap from palm kernel oil, NaOH, calcium, Soda Ash and water and it lathers well. My only worry is that the same soap separates or precipitates when I add lemon fragrance oil or any other oil. I have reduced the oil to the minimum add still I get a soap that does not harden properly and feels oily to touch. What advise do you have to successfully incorporate fragrance oil in cold process soap using only palm kernel oil?
Paul,
I think I would omit the calcium and soda ash. I don’t think those are needed. I think the soap should handle a fragrance right into the mixture, be sure to add it when the soap mixture is still fluid and not thickened like a pudding.
Tina
what is the prefat?
I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean by prefat. Do you mean excess fat?
Tina
Thanks so much for sharing knowledge
You are welcome!
I had a problem, the moment I poured the costic solution into palm kennel oil it thicken at once making it difficult to have a smooth soap, what do I do.
That can happen. I don’t think it is a problem. If your finished soap is crumbly then I would be concerned.
Tina
I have the same problem too. It thickens almost immediately and begins to dry out. Sometimes, it got burnt when stirring and crumble and finally, the end result is not consistent in terms of colour and hardness. Sometimes cream or brown. I don’t know what I’m doing wrongly. Please, advise.
Do you have a fragrance that is being added? Are you using milk? Please tell me all the ingredients that you add to the soap.
Tina
Hello, I love your blog
I made soap with Jatropha oil and NaOH and it was awesome te first two times but subsequently they don’t turn out so great the oil separates from the soap making it look wack with low yield please how do I fix this
This sounds like a temperature problem. Make sure you have the oil and lye solutions warmed correctly and make sure you have adequate mixing. These are potential problems with any soap. If you are making soap at very low temperatures, try increasing the temperature of the oil and of the lye when combining.
Cheers!
Tina
I tried it out my soap was okay but the smell of soda remained strong even with added perfume
Hello!
Generally the lye cannot be smelled after making soap. All oils do have a very distinct smell when they are being turned into soap. I would worry that maybe you added too much lye to your recipe. I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Katy
Can I add lemon fragrance to your single oil recipe?
Absolutely!