Palm oil is an invisible part of our lives as a functional ingredient in many household products that we use on a daily basis. There is palm oil in your personal care products, as well, because it mixes easily with other ingredients; it makes your products creamy and improves product stability and shelf life.
What is Palm Oil?
Palm oil is a superior ingredient for making good quality soaps, balms, creams, salves, lipsticks and many other personal care products. It has no scent or taste, produces a creamy texture, keeps products moist, binds ingredients together and extends shelf life.
Palm oil derives from the fruit of the oil palm that is grown in the humid tropics. Currently, 85% of all palm oil produced globally comes from plantations and smallholders in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Farmers and workers harvest fresh fruit bunches throughout the year and bring their fruit to an extractor where the palm fruit is processed into crude palm oil. The palm kernel is processed into palm kernel oil. Palm oil and palm kernel oil are further processed into ingredients for the personal care market.
Because crude oil is used as an essential building block for ingredients found in your products, you will not see palm oil listed as an ingredient on your product label.