Palm oil is one of the most common ingredients in the world, and also one of the most debated. It shows up in packaged foods, household products, and skincare, often under names you would never guess.

If you have ever wondered what the conversation around palm oil is really about, or how to make informed choices for your own home, here is a plain look at what you need to know.

What Is Palm Oil?

Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil pressed from the fruit of oil palm trees (Elaeis guineensis). Two main types are produced: crude palm oil, pressed from the fruit, and palm kernel oil, crushed from the kernel. The trees are native to Africa and were brought to Southeast Asia about a hundred years ago. Today Indonesia and Malaysia grow the large majority of the world’s supply.

It is estimated that palm oil appears in about half of all packaged goods sold today, from skincare and toothpaste to pizza and animal feed. In some regions it is also used as a biofuel. Palm oil can be hard to spot on a label, since it often hides behind other names like PKO, ethyl palmitate, and sodium palmate.

Why Is Palm Oil Everywhere?

Palm oil became popular in the 1990s during the push to remove trans fats from foods. It was free from trans fats and much cheaper than the alternatives. It also did a lot of jobs well, from keeping spreads spreadable to giving fried foods a crisp texture, all without changing the look or taste of the food.

From 1995 to 2015, global production nearly quadrupled as makers of all kinds of household products made the switch. Cost is still the main reason palm oil shows up in so many skincare, beauty, and household products today. It is widely available, high yield, inexpensive to produce, and harvested year-round.

What Are the Concerns with Palm Oil?

The main concerns around palm oil come down to how it is grown at scale. Clearing tropical land for plantations has destroyed rainforest habitat that wildlife depends on, and production keeps expanding. Labor practices on some plantations have also raised serious questions.

It is a complicated picture. But understanding the basics makes it easier to decide what belongs in your own home.

What About Sustainable Palm Oil?

Certified sustainable palm oil was meant to answer these concerns, but the system is hard to trust. Supply chains are long and difficult to trace, and enforcement of the standards has been weak. Some products carrying a sustainable label have contained only a small share of certified oil. Until the standards carry real weight, the label is not the guarantee it sounds like.

How to Spot Palm Oil on a Label

If you want to avoid palm oil, the ingredient label is your best tool. Watch for the word palm in any form, plus common derivatives like palmitate, palm kernel oil, PKO, and sodium palmate. There are over 200 ingredient names tied to palm oil, so a quick search can turn up the most common ones to watch for.

What We Use Instead

Going palm oil free never meant going without. Our bars are built on olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter, with castor oil for creamy lather and raw goat milk from our own herd for the nourishing feel our customers love. Every ingredient has a job, and every one of them is there on purpose.

Why We Don't Use Palm Oil

Here is our philosophy, plain and simple. Every ingredient in our products has to earn its place, and it has to sit right with us. Palm oil never cleared that bar. It is not the oil itself we take issue with. It is what it takes to produce it at the scale the industry demands. We did not want our bars tied to that system, so we chose a different path.

We build our recipes around ingredients we can stand behind: olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, castor oil, and fresh milk from our own herd. We carry that thinking into our packaging too. Our deodorant and lip therapy come in paper push-up tubes instead of plastic, and we choose sustainable packaging whenever we can. It costs more, and we know it. But this is how we want to do business, from our farm to your front door.

Palm Oil in Skincare, Specifically

In skincare, palm oil usually shows up as a cheap, versatile filler. In bar soap it often appears as sodium palmate, and in lotions and creams it hides behind emulsifier names. Because it is inexpensive and easy to work with, it became a default ingredient in mass-market bars and lotions, whether or not it was doing anything special for your skin.

Choosing palm oil free skincare usually comes down to brands that formulate around plant oils and butters on purpose. That is how we have always done it on the Hill: pick ingredients for what they do for your skin, not for what they save on the cost sheet.

As a Consumer, What Can I Do?

Start by reading labels and learning the names palm oil hides behind. Talk about it with family and friends, because consumer awareness is what moves companies toward transparency.

If you want to switch, look for brands that pledge to be palm oil free. At Madd House Hill, our entire product line is palm oil free. We build our soaps, lotions, and sticks around rich plant oils and butters like coconut oil and shea butter instead, ingredients chosen to nourish your skin without the baggage.

Quick Questions

Is the oil itself the problem? The debate is about how palm oil is produced at scale, not the oil in a vacuum. That is why sourcing and transparency matter so much.

Does palm oil free mean lower quality? Not in our experience. Plant oils and butters like olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter make rich, creamy bars that cleanse gently and lather beautifully.

Here is what we come back to on the Hill. Skincare works best when it is simple and honest: fresh goat milk from our own herd, nourishing plant oils and butters, pure essential oils, and nothing synthetic. No ingredient you have to look up with suspicion. Just real ingredients and real care, from nature.

Curious what palm oil free feels like? Browse our goat milk soap collection and find your new everyday bar.

Until next time,

Madd House Hill