Sodium Palm Kernelate

Sodium Palm Kernelate is soap. Specifically, it is the sodium salt produced when palm kernel oil is reacted with an alkali, a process called saponification that has been used to make soap for thousands of years. The name looks technical but describes something entirely traditional.

It is worth distinguishing palm kernel oil from palm oil. Palm oil comes from the flesh of the oil palm fruit and produces Sodium Palmate; palm kernel oil comes from the seed inside and produces Sodium Palm Kernelate. The two have different fatty acid profiles, and many soap bars list both, since palmate contributes hardness and palm kernelate contributes lather.

On an ingredients list it appears as Sodium Palm Kernelate, usually near the top, because in a soap bar it is the bar. You will find it in cleansing bars, hand soaps, body soaps and some shampoo bars.

Two things are worth knowing about it. The first is practical: true soap is alkaline, typically sitting well above the skin’s natural pH, which is why traditional soap bars can leave skin feeling tight and squeaky and why they are generally not recommended for the face or for dry or sensitive skin. Syndet bars, which use synthetic cleansers instead, are formulated closer to skin pH and are usually the better choice there.

The second is environmental. Palm cultivation is associated with significant habitat loss, and this is one of the ingredients where sourcing genuinely matters. Certified sustainable palm sourcing is worth looking for if this is a consideration for you.

Soap works as a surfactant. Each molecule has a water-loving end and an oil-loving end, so when it is worked into a lather the oil-loving ends attach to sebum, sunscreen, makeup and general grime while the water-loving ends stay in the water. The result is that oily material is lifted from the skin and carried away when you rinse.

Palm kernelate is chosen for the particular kind of lather it produces. Its fatty acid profile, rich in shorter-chain lauric and myristic acids, generates a quick, generous, bubbly foam that people associate with cleanliness. Palmate, by contrast, produces a denser lather and a harder bar that lasts longer, which is why the two are so often combined.

The trade-off is thoroughness. Soap is an effective cleanser and not a discriminating one: it removes the skin’s own protective lipids along with everything else, and it does so in an alkaline environment that temporarily disrupts the skin’s naturally acidic surface. Skin recovers from this, but repeatedly and on already dry skin the recovery lags behind, which is what produces persistent tightness and flaking. On robust skin, and on hands, this is usually a non-issue.

Traditional soap has its place, but it is worth being deliberate about where you use it.

• Better on hands and body than on the face, where the skin is thinner and more easily disrupted.
• Avoid it on dry, sensitive or reactive skin. A syndet bar or a low-pH liquid cleanser will clean just as well without the tightness.
• If skin feels squeaky after washing, that is not a sign of cleanliness. It means surface lipids have gone and the cleanser is too stripping for you.
• Follow with moisturiser promptly, while skin is still slightly damp.
• Keep the bar dry between uses on a draining dish, which makes it last considerably longer.
• Check the sourcing if palm cultivation matters to you. Certified sustainable palm is widely available.
• Fine for most people on the body, and a perfectly reasonable everyday hand soap.