Palm oil vs lard in soap
Lard is the cheapest close swap for palm oil. It has less saturated fat and more oleic acid, so the bar is a touch softer, 42 against 50 for hardness on its own, and it makes a white bar with a creamy, low lather. The lye differs by 1.0 %: a swap in the bar below leaves the superfat at 4.7 %, close to the planned 5 %, though recalculating costs nothing.
Palm Oil Lard (pure rendered pork fat) Compare them with other oils
The published figures
| Palm oil | Lard | |
|---|---|---|
| Saponification value, mg KOH/g | 190–209 | 192–203 |
| Used by the calculator, mg KOH/g | 199.5 (midpoint) | 197.5 (midpoint) |
| SAP for NaOH, g/g | 0.1422 | 0.1408 |
| Iodine value, g I₂/100 g | 50–55 | 55–65 |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 147 | 138 |
| Melting point, °C | — | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter, % | ≤ 1.2 | ≤ 1 |
| Name on a soap label | Sodium Palmate | Sodium Lardate |
Each oil alone
| Palm oil | Lard | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 50 | 42 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 2 | 2 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 51 | 55 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 2 | 2 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 48 | 40 | 16–48 |
A single oil’s hardness, cleansing and the rest are the same sums the calculator shows for a recipe, applied to that one oil. They explain what the oil brings to a blend; they do not predict how a soap of only that oil would feel.
Swapping one for the other
Gram for gram, lard takes 1.0 % less lye than palm oil. For a kilogram of oil at a 5 % superfat, that is 135.1 g of sodium hydroxide for palm oil and 133.8 g for lard.
In the bar below, where it is 35 % of the oils, weigh the lye for one and put in the other without recalculating, and the superfat moves:
| Lye weighed for | Oil used | Superfat |
|---|---|---|
| Palm oil | Lard | 4.7 %barely moves |
| Lard | Palm oil | 5.3 %barely moves |
The superfat is the share of the oils the lye leaves unsaponified, planned here at 5 %; below zero, there is more lye than the oils can take. Put the oil you actually have in the lye calculator and it works out the lye for that oil.
The same bar with either
The bar: 35 % of the one or the other, at a 5 % superfat, for 1,000 g of oils. The rest: 35 % olive oil, 25 % coconut oil, and 5 % castor oil.
| With palm oil | With lard | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium hydroxide, g | 141.8 | 141.3 | |
| Hardness | 43 | 41 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 18 | 18 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 54 | 55 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 22 | 22 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 30 | 27 | 16–48 |
| Iodine value | 54 | 57 | 41–70 |
| INS | 155 | 152 | 136–165 |
| Linoleic and linolenic acid, % | 9.0 | 8.6 |
Fatty-acid profile
| Fatty acid | Palm oil | Lard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myristic acid | C14:0 | 1.3 (0.5–2) | 1.8 (1–2.5) |
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 | 43.4 (39.3–47.5) | 25.0 (20–30) |
| Palmitoleic acid | C16:1 | 0.3 (0–0.6) | 3.0 (2–4) |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 | 4.8 (3.5–6) | 15.0 (8–22) |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 40.0 (36–44) | 45.0 (35–55) |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 10.5 (9–12) | 8.0 (4–12) |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 0.3 (0–0.5) | 1.5 (≤ 1.5) |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 | 0.5 (0–1) | 1.0 (≤ 1) |
| Gadoleic acid | C20:1 | 0.2 (0–0.4) | 1.5 (≤ 1.5) |
| Erucic acid | C22:1 | 0.0 | 0.5 (≤ 0.5) |
The figure the calculator uses for each oil, as a percentage of its fatty acids, with the published range in brackets.
Recipes with palm oil
- Piped soap cupcakes 60 % of the oils
- Classic olive, coconut and palm bar 30 % of the oils
- Everyday bar, the usual three 30 % of the oils
- Apricot seed scrub bar 25 % of the oils
- Everyday bar, gentler 25 % of the oils
- Gardener's pumice scrub bar 25 % of the oils
Recipes with lard
- Old-fashioned lard bar 80 % of the oils
- Budget lard and canola bar 50 % of the oils
- Soy-free lard and sunflower bar 45 % of the oils
- Oatmeal and honey scrub bar 40 % of the oils
- Citrus kitchen bar 35 % of the oils
- Lavender goat milk bar 35 % of the oils
Guides
Other comparisons
Where these numbers come from
Palm Oil
Verbatim mirror of the FAO file CXS_210e.pdf; the official FAO link (https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/en/?lnk=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fworkspace.fao.org%2Fsites%2Fcodex%2FStandards%2FCXS%2B210-1999%2FCXS_210e.pdf) was Cloudflare-gated at retrieval. Table 1 (Section 3.1) = mandatory GLC fatty-acid ranges, % of total fatty acids, ND = not detectable (<=0.05%). Table 2 (Appendix 'Other quality and composition factors') gives saponification value, iodine value (Wijs) and unsaponifiable matter of CRUDE oils; the Appendix is explicitly ADVISORY (a product not meeting it may still conform). This print predates the 2021-2025 amendments; the 2024 additions (avocado, camellia seed, sacha inchi, high-oleic soya bean) are not included.
Lard (pure rendered pork fat)
Section 3 GLC fatty-acid ranges (% of total FA) are mandatory; the Appendix table 'Chemical and physical characteristics' (relative density, refractive index, titre, saponification value, iodine value (Wijs), unsaponifiable matter) is ADVISORY. Later editorial amendments (2019+) not checked - FAO site Cloudflare-gated.
JP XVIII 'Lard' (Adeps Suillus): melting point 36-42 C; congealing point of the fatty acids 36-42 C; acid value NMT 2.0; saponification value 195-203; iodine value 46-70.