Ingredients

Sunflower oil is something you’ve probably had in your kitchen, or if not your parents’ kitchen. It’s the classic oil for a good old fry, but sunflower oil in soap has got some pretty amazing properties.

Sunflower oil is very high in Linoleic fatty acids. These kinds of fatty acids are incredible for moisturising the skin and are also known to make a silky lather that feels great. Like many other oils, sunflower oil is also useful for a hard bar of soap.

Finally, it’s high in vitamin E which is great for nourishing and protecting the skin.

Olive oil has been used for centuries in the soap making process, so it’s not just something that you cook with or put on your salad!

Olive oil is known to have great properties for soap products, such as providing a creamy lather and being extremely conditioning. As a soft oil, it can take a lot longer to cure but still makes a really hard bar of soap, like for example a castile soap.

Under hot water on it’s own, an olive oil soap will simply melt away, so it isn’t the best for a long lasting product.

Palm oil is used in 35% of the world’s vegetable oil applications, a staggering percentage.

It’s another oil that is good enough to eat, having a presence in a large percentage of ready to eat foods you might find on supermarket shelves.

Using palm oil in soap is really key for us at Shower Blocks. Whilst Palm oil has moderate cleansing properties, a key function of it is in making a hard and durable product, making it perfefct for forming a good base to build from.

Palm oil is extremely high in the fatty acid, Palmitic acid. Palmitic acid can also be found in small quantities in other things, such as cheese (yes really) and coconut oil.

At Shower Blocks we only use RSPO certified sustainable Palm Oil. We regularly check the status of our suppliers’ certifications.

Coconut oil is a versatile product that is used across both food and cosmetic products. Ingredients that are good enough to eat sound like the perfect thing to put on your skin, and that’s generally true.

What makes coconut oil great in soap?

Coconut oil contains lauric acid, which is a key fatty acid that contributes to a block that is both has a foamy lather and has some nice bubbles. It’s also a highly cleansing oil, so very important for keeping you clean.

As a hard oil, it also contributes to making a nice hard bar of soap, although there are other factors that go into a hard bar of soap too, such as the presence of another fatty acid – palmitic acid – which is not present in coconut oil.