Palm oil is a vegetable oil extracted from either the fruits (palm oil) or kernels (palm kernel oil) of palm trees, it remains a highly production ‘efficient’ ingredient and is used in many different products from body care, skincare & haircare.

Palm oil has many benefits, grown sustainably it produces more oil per area of land than other oil crops but there have been issues caused by deforestation and human rights abuses due to the rapid growth of the industry.

Look for brands choosing Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) or Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) in their products. The NATRUE standard requires beauty brands to use certified sustainable or certified organic palm oil in their products. You may also want to look out for the Orangutan Alliance Certification to be sure the products you are buying don’t contain palm oil.