Ingredient Highlight- Palm Oil

I am going to write about an ingredient that has fallen out of favor

Palm tree and fruit

in the past decade or so due to not being sustainably sourced. The ingredient is, of course, palm oil. This is one of those oils that is found in pretty much EVERYTHING anymore, it is the most commonly used vegetable oil in the world at the moment. You can find it in packaged foods, cosmetic products, soaps and it is even used industrially. Other countries use it commonly for a frying oil and some even use it as an industrial lubricant. While the palm tree is native to Africa, both Malaysia and Indonesia started to clear cut their own forests in order to plant palm tree farms to capitalize on this versatile product. The problem in doing that is that they are taking away the only habitat that many animals, including the Sumatran Orangutan live in. This animal is presently critically endangered. In our lifetime this species could go extinct because of something that humans have done, that's just heartbreaking...

Sumatran Orangutan

When I initially learned about all this many years ago I thought "well that's it, no more palm oil"......right.....that's when I learned that it is in so many different products. Ok, so what next? How do I try to be a good conservationist and be good to the earth when I can't just eliminate this ingredient from my life? Enter the RSPO or Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. This group of people has come together to try to work with the palm oil growers and come to an agreement on how to make this product more sustainable. (Yahoo!). They have made great strides in the past 10 years but still have very far to go. What I have to remind myself is that the answer is not to just stop palm oil production or boycott palm oil, it is to try to work within the confines of the industry and to help educate the farmers growing it and the governments that are clear cutting their own lands. This is someone's livelihood after all, it's got to be a 2 way street if it's to be successful.

So how can you help? Spread the word about palm oil and sustainable palm oil and aim to buy products that use sustainable palm oil. Let your dollars be your voice! Be the voice for those who have none (like the Sumatran Orangutan).

Resource #1 is on the world wildlife fund page. Resource #2 is the UK based page which is put together by the Chester Zoo.  With more digging I was able to find on the RSPO site a page that lists companies which are members but it's rather cumbersome and not very helpful in a shopping scenario. They also have an app which I am downloading at the moment. (edit to add) AHA! Upon further searching there are quite a few apps which you can use to scan products to see if they are "Orangutan friendly" as the one app states. Check out this site, they have information on the apps and other great information. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo also has an app which I just used on some items in my fridge, it was pretty neat.

Take this journey with me. Let's work together to become better conservationists for a more sustainable future. Typically I feel that since I am just one little person I cannot make a difference with something that is just so big but today I am feeling plucky, today I feel that I CAN make a difference and I am going to try to. So.....palm oil challenge???

These and many more animals are affected by the palm oil industry

Stay tuned my friends
~Your Soapsmith

PS- Upon checking with my soap ingredient vendors I am ecstatic and relieved to find that the palm oil and palm kernel flakes I use in my soaps ARE sustainably sourced! It's a small step but it is my step.

What's curing?

I have some soaps-a-curing. It feels good to be making lots and lots of soap again, I really missed it. I
mean I still made between 7-10 lbs per year for family and as gifts but it doesn't compare to planning out really large batches or a bunch of smaller artisanal batches and just taking the day to soap. I few weeks ago I started to get down to it. My hubby helped me to build a really sweet art space in our new house and I wanted to break it in right with some soap!

I made 5 batches right away. I am working to focus more on natural colorants, additives and scents, but sometimes I like to throw caution to the wind and make that coconut lime verbena scented soap that I love so much. My batches were all made with the same base ingredients and I just changed out the scents and colors. Why you may ask? Because the recipe is a good one, it saponifies consistently and creates a bar of soap that it quite lovely. I have been using and perfecting this recipe for years at this point and I feel that it creates a great and consistent product. Also once you find that perfect recipe that makes a great bar of soap you can also cut out a lot of other expenses and streamline ordering which makes good business sense.

The pictures I took were not great this evening, I am still working on better lighting for the studio, I will take new pics and put them into this post....really though, it's smell-a-vision that is needed. They do smell good! I made a few classic scents like lemon/lavender and the coconut lime verbena that I love as well as some newer ones like "Happy Hippy" which is patchouli and ylang ylang then colored with chamomile powder. There is also a "Citrus Sunshine" bar which has various citrus scents and a "Cold Snap" bar which has delicious winter scents such as eucalyptus, peppermint and spearmint.

My house smells divine!

Ta for now,
~Your Soapsmith

Where have I been.......?

Hello out there in the land of the interweb. I took a hiatus from writing for a bit as well as selling

Snowy

soap, not that I ever stopped making it or working on awesome new ideas. Since last time I wrote I have moved back to my home town of Pittsburgh, PA, gone back to school and became a Certified Veterinary Technician and now work at a zoo (yes, it's as awesome as one would think!) Oh, we also bought a house and have an awesome dog named, Snowy. In all that time with all those things that I have been working on I somehow knew I would come back to soapmaking, one of my passions. I have many new ideas and have started making new batches of soap. I am hoping to open a small artist space here locally where I can sell my soaps and bath and body creations as well as other items that I have created, see I wanted to branch out. Deep down I am a "maker" I love to work with my hands and be creative and try new artistic techniques when I learn about them. Sometimes they completely crash and burn and sometimes they are pretty neat. I also think it might be kind of cool to share my craft with others through teaching or just group making sessions. Like I said, I have lots of new ideas. Sit tight and stay tuned to see what will be next for this little soapsmith!

Signing off
~your long lost Soapsmith