Palm oil comes up a lot, and it's a fair question. Here is why it's in our bars, where it comes from, and the trade-offs as we see them.
What palm oil does in a bar
Every Sensible bar starts with the same three oils: olive, palm and coconut. Each one has a job.
- Olive oil makes a gentle, mild bar.
- Coconut oil gives quick, bubbly lather.
- Palm oil makes the bar hard, so it lasts longer in the shower, and adds a creamy, stable lather that rounds out the other two.
Without palm, a bar made only from olive and coconut tends to be softer and wear down faster. Palm is what lets us make a long-lasting bar from just three plant oils.
How much is in a bar
Palm oil makes up about a third of the oils in our recipe. Olive oil is another third, and coconut oil is the rest. In the finished bar, all three oils have been turned into soap, which is why the label reads "Saponified Oils (Olive, Palm, Coconut)".
Where our palm oil comes from
Our suppliers sell us palm oil that is RSPO Certified (Segregated). RSPO is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. "Segregated" means certified palm oil is kept separate from uncertified oil through the supply chain, rather than being mixed and offset with credits.
We buy it refined, from Canadian ingredient distributors, and use it in every bar we make.
The honest trade-offs
- Palm oil has a real environmental history. Poorly managed palm farming has been linked to deforestation and habitat loss. That's why we buy certified oil instead of the cheapest option.
- Certification isn't perfect. RSPO is the most widely used standard, and it has its critics. We think buying segregated certified palm is better than buying uncertified palm, but we won't pretend it settles the question.
- The alternatives have trade-offs too. Replacing palm usually means more coconut oil (which is also a tropical crop), animal fats like tallow, or other plant butters. Each one changes how the bar feels, how long it lasts and what it costs.
We'll keep watching this, and if we change our recipe we'll tell you here.
Prefer to skip palm?
We understand. Right now every Sensible bar contains palm oil, so we'd rather tell you that plainly than have you find out from the label.
Have a question we didn't answer? Get in touch, we're happy to talk.