Palm oil vs tallow in soap
Tallow is the closest match to palm oil overall, and Failor treats the two as interchangeable in her recipes. On their own they score 50 and 52 for hardness, but from different acids: palm oil’s saturated fat is nearly all palmitic, tallow’s is palmitic and stearic. Tallow’s linoleic acid is lower, 3.5 % against 10.5 %, so it keeps well. It takes 1.8 % less lye, so a straight swap in the bar below moves the superfat to 4.4 %.
Palm Oil Edible Tallow (beef/mutton dripping) Compare them with other oils
The published figures
| Palm oil | Tallow | |
|---|---|---|
| Saponification value, mg KOH/g | 190–209 | 190–202 |
| Used by the calculator, mg KOH/g | 199.5 (midpoint) | 196.0 (midpoint) |
| SAP for NaOH, g/g | 0.1422 | 0.1397 |
| Iodine value, g I₂/100 g | 50–55 | 40–53 |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 147 | 150 |
| Melting point, °C | — | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter, % | ≤ 1.2 | ≤ 1.2 |
| Name on a soap label | Sodium Palmate | Sodium Tallowate |
Each oil alone
| Palm oil | Tallow | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 50 | 52 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 2 | 4 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 51 | 43 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 2 | 4 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 48 | 48 | 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, tallow takes 1.8 % 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 132.7 g for tallow.
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 | Tallow | 4.4 %recalculate |
| Tallow | Palm oil | 5.6 %recalculate |
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 tallow | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium hydroxide, g | 141.8 | 141.0 | |
| Hardness | 43 | 44 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 18 | 18 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 54 | 51 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 22 | 23 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 30 | 30 | 16–48 |
| Iodine value | 54 | 52 | 41–70 |
| INS | 155 | 156 | 136–165 |
| Linoleic and linolenic acid, % | 9.0 | 7.0 |
Fatty-acid profile
| Fatty acid | Palm oil | Tallow | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myristic acid | C14:0 | 1.3 (0.5–2) | 4.0 (2–6) |
| 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 (1–5) |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 | 4.8 (3.5–6) | 22.5 (15–30) |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 40.0 (36–44) | 37.5 (30–45) |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 10.5 (9–12) | 3.5 (1–6) |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 0.3 (0–0.5) | 1.5 (≤ 1.5) |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 | 0.5 (0–1) | 0.5 (≤ 0.5) |
| Gadoleic acid | C20:1 | 0.2 (0–0.4) | 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 tallow
- Unna-style superfatted tallow bar 89 % of the oils
- Kitchen tallow bar 75 % of the oils
- Creamy tallow and olive bar 50 % of the oils
- Tallow and coconut laundry bar 50 % of the oils
- Transparent glycerin bar 50 % of the oils
- Long-lasting bar 45 % 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.
Edible Tallow (beef/mutton dripping)
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 'Beef Tallow' (Sevum Bovinum): melting point 42-50 C; acid value NMT 2.0; saponification value 193-200; iodine value 33-50.