Palm Oil in Soapmaking

FACT:  Palm oil makes great soap.  FACT:  Be Natural does not and will never use Palm Oil in soapmaking.

Lets look into this a bit further.

Palm Oil needs land to grow.  Much of the best growing regions for palm oil are in the Asia region, where precious rainforest is still being cut down to make way for palm plantations.  Palm oil led de-forestation is the single biggest human induced cause of climate change.   This is because palm oil plantations have cleared the way through carbon capturing ancient forests – the lungs of the earth.  Deforestation has a massive impact on soaring global temperatures.

One organisation, Say No To Palm Oil, estimates that every single hour, the area of the size of 300 football fields is being cleared in Indonesia and Malaysia.  Of course, this ALSO causes huge amounts of damage to the endangered species that live in these areas.

The orangutan is under serious threat – and could become extinct within the next 50 years – as a direct result of the palm oil industry.  That is not cool – why would you choose to use products with palm oil in it knowing this?

There is also numerous and widespread human right abuses in the palm oil industry.  These abuses include child labourers being exploited and human trafficking.  Read more about this topic here.

Here at Be Natural we spent time investigating the Responsible Roundtable on Palm Oil Production, which is an organisation that business can sign up to in order to say they use “sustainable palm oil”.  However, after our investigation, we discovered that there is no way of knowing that palm oil is sustainable – as the criteria is so weak and enforcement so lax that “sustainable” has no meaning.  So when you read that a country uses sustainable palm oil – don’t be fooled, it may not be sustainable at all.

There are numerous other amazing oils that can be used in soapmaking – coconut oil, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, shea butter, rice bran oil – the list goes on.  All of these oils have fantastic skin food qualities and make beautiful hard soap with great lather.  And by using a Be Natural Soap, you are not contributing to the terrible impact of palm oil production.

Be Natural’s soap making additives

Normally, the word additives conjures up thoughts of artificial substances added to food for various reasons.  In the world of natural soap making however, additives are an integral part of the soap being produced and often form the therapeutic and medicinal benefits held within the soap.  Be Natural Uses a range of lovely natural soap making additives and I wanted to highlight a few of those and how they are beneficial as skin food.

Our signature soap, Be Relaxed has generous amount of organic lavender essential oil added to it.  We source the oil locally whenever we can.  Lavender oil has many benefits when used in a soap from stress relief, helping sleep, antibacterial and antiseptic and sweetly fragranced.

Be Smooth contains the wonderful Pick Clay or Kaolin, as it is also known.  Pink Clay improves skin softness and is ideal for all skin types. It is very soft and can be used on fragile, dehydrated or sensitive skin. It is fantastic to use on mature skin, lined or wrinkled skin.

Taranaki Honey is used in two of our soaps – Be Clean and Be Lathered.  Honey makes a fantastic soap additive as it extremely moisturising and helps keep moisture locked in the skin. This moisture and elasticity helps to give the skin it’s natural glow and healthy “look.” Antioxidants means slower aging, less wrinkles, less damage from free-radicles.

Coffee grinds are used in our Be Fresh soap – but why?  Because coffee grounds are a perfect ingredient for removing disagreeable scents from your hands after, say, you’ve been cooking with a lot of garlic or fish, working on your car, or fixing the lawnmower.  Because coffee is a diuretic, soaps containing coffee have been known to visibly reduce the appearance of cellulite by drawing fluid away from fat cells, essentially dehydrating the fat cells.  This shrinks their size, resulting in a tightening effect from the outside.   Coffee contains antioxidants that are amazing for overall skin health. Antioxidants fight premature ageing of the skin due to heat, light, pollution, and damaging free radicals. Coffee’s antioxidant power, flavonoids, are released when brewed, and are captured in the hand soap.

Preservatives?

And lets not forget natural soap making additives are also there to prolong the shelf life of the soap!  Mass produced soap (which is basically solid detergent, not soap at all) contain nasty chemicals to prolong shelf life, not because they are good for your skin! Many of the additives we use however, help to keep the soap for months, whilst sitting waiting for the perfect customer!  We use grapefruit seed extract as a natural preservative, which prolongs shelf life and keeps the soap smelling beautiful.

What are some other additives we use?  How about, pumice, poppy seeds, vanilla paste, calendula petals, rose petals and essential oils.  All of these wonderful natural ingredients provide fantastic fragrance along with benefits for healthy skin.  Our clients have been reporting fantastic feedback recently – many clients find they prefer one soap over all others as it suits their skin type.  So, have a browse, and see if you can discover a perfect match for your skin!

Natural Liquid Soap

Be Natural’s Organic Liquid Soap is a pure castile natural liquid soap that you can use in many different ways, including as a hand soap.  It is made with organic oils of coconut, New Zealand Avocado and essential oils of Sweet Orange and Lavender – which makes a rich lather and prevents drying the skin. As for preservatives, we use none – the essential oils maintain the self life of the soap. Be Natural Liquid Soap is highly concentrated, which makes it great value.  Make sure that you use this natural liquid soap in a foaming dispenser; otherwise, it will be really hard to use and you will waste a lot of soap.  The number one reason to use a natural liquid soap is to lessen your exposure to nasty toxic chemicals that are in many of the supermarket branded liquid soaps.  Marketed as soap, these concoctions are in fact detergents, and contain thickeners, colours and parabens.  Most of the ingredients in these so called soaps are not even there to help clean you – they are there to maintain shelf life, colour the product and thicken it.  Our soap is pure soap – and every drop of it will cleanse and nourish your skin.  Did you know that when you apply something to your skin, that it is absorbed to your blood stream within 30 seconds?  If you wouldn’t put it in your mouth – don’t put it on your skin!

Being organic and pure, it won’t strip the skin of vital oils, and leaves it soft and clean.  It can be used as a top to toe wash – great for hair, body and face.  Kids love it as it foams and they can easily wash themselves.  It is septic tank friendly, easily breaking down in both regular and eco systems.  Our soap can be used for a variety of purposes too!  I use it as a window cleaner, floor cleaner, spot cleaner, vanity and shower cleaner, foot soak, car wash, laundry handwash and sometimes I add it to the washing machine and dishwasher dispensers!  My husband even uses it as a shaving foam!  Be Natural has recently released 1 and 2 litre containers, available through the website or through direct contact, use these to top up your existing foaming soap dispensers!  Make sure that you use this natural liquid soap in a foaming dispenser; otherwise, it will be really hard to use and you will waste a lot of soap.Great value, less chemicals!  Shop online today for this fantastic product at

In our next blog we’ll show you some photos of our liquid soap production process, then you can see clearly the natural and pure ingredients that go into our soap!

Soapmaking really is a science, but lucky for us, it is also a great way to unleash some creative flair whilst creating a useful and unique product. Soapmaking requires the exact measurement of fats and alkalines, combined at exact temperatures. But once the science is taken care of – it is time to conjure up the therapeutic scents and qualities which is added through the use of different fats and essential oils. Such fun! Each fat has a different constituent of fatty acids and has particular benefits. Coconut oil for example is light and non greasy, is highly moisturising, conditioning and protecting. We use rice bran oil in some of our soaps and its make up means it is fantastic for mature, delicate or sensitive skin.

We hope that you can find something you love in the Be Natural Soap range – maybe Be Indulged for a yummy shower before you head out for the evening, or the soothing scent of Be Relaxed Lavender Body soap which is fantastic to use before bed.

Through this blog, we will share our soapmaking adventures. From hauling buckets of coconut oil into our soapmaking kitchen to unwrapping our precious essential oil orders, we love every part of the process, especially cutting up a great new batch of delicious smelling soap. Please feel free to leave comments and questions, and we will endeavour to answer them.