Coconut Free Products

Coconut Allergies, the “Gluten-Free,” of the Soapmaking World

One of the most common things that I am contacted about is the ingredient coconut oil. Apparently, many people believe that they are allergic to coconut. After selling over 50,000 bars of soap the last three years I have learned a thing or two about coconut allergies. And honestly as an ex chef it reminds me of the gluten-free allergy and issue that I dealt with cooking for people. There’s a lot of misinformation, confusion and conflation when it comes to coconut allergies and allergies in general. Now, take this with a grain of salt because I am not a medical doctor this is not medical advice nor should be taken as medical advice if you want medical advice; diagnosis and treatment of an allergy please see a professional doctor. These are my observations as a soapmaker and Chef. 

Number one; people tend to confuse allergies with sensitivities. Somebody has an issue, rash, or a reaction they automatically believe that they are allergic. That’s not necessarily the case if you do the skin test at the doctor you may find that you do not have an allergy you’re just sensitive. So, that’s number one. 

Number two; there’s a difference between a dermatology issue with coconut and ingestion issue with coconut. And one doesn’t necessarily equal the other. It might be that you can’t eat coconut, but you’re just fine with showering with it and have an external contact with it. 

Number three it is much more expensive and time-consuming to make equal quality soap without coconut oil. This means, that it’s going to probably cost a little more and take more time to cure then if we use coconut oil. We are working on a formula special to Birds of Valhalla™ to accommodate all of our coconut allergy customers. 

Number four; now this is the part that’s gonna make me unpopular. A lot of times people have the belief that they have coconut allergies because they had a reaction in the past from a coconut soap. A soap not made by us. A soap that maybe they bought at a farmers market or from a friend and they looked at the label and the only ingredient or one of very few ingredients was coconut. So they assume that coconut was the issue. When in fact, I know; as an insider in the soap world, that many new and inexperienced soapmakers, of which there are literally thousands selling their products across the country- sell pure coconut bars incorrectly to be used for human skin. Now why do I say that? I say that because pure coconut oil soap is way too harsh and stripping for most peoples skin. It really is only recommended for laundry. After talking to thousands of people about this issue I have determined that in the majority of these cases people with “coconut allergies” are people that just use a crappy bar soap. Now, this gives us actual good soapmakers a bad name, turns people off of natural soap, and quite honestly really aggravates me to no end. Because it causes people pain and suffering. Also then they have a lifelong belief that they need to avoid an ingredient that’s pretty much in everything. The benefits of coconut cannot be disputed in soap. It has a bubbling, cleansing and hardening effect that really can’t be duplicated by anything else. The closest thing might be Babassu oil which is very expensive. So if you have a coconut allergy it can cause you some stress and some issues trying to just avoid the thing. Here is my suggestion under the guise that I am NOT a medical doctor. If you believe you have a dermatology issue with coconut and your experience is that you used pure or over 50% recipe soap of coconut oil and you had a reaction, you may not have an issue. I would get yourself a bar of properly made soap by us or someone else that uses under 40% coconut in the recipe and try that on a skin patch test, even better do it blind- So that you don’t have any expectations of what’s going to happen. Of course I am not suggesting anyone that has a dangerous and real allergy diagnosed to expose them self to something that might make them sick. This advice is only for under the supervision of a doctor, is purely for those people that had a mild reaction to someone else’s badly made soap. And the whole point is to eliminate a stressor from your life. Because coconut’s actually wonderful it’s a miracle oil in soapmaking and for skin cleansing. 

What are your thoughts on this? 

Because of this coconut oil allergy issue, we get more custom orders than any other reason, and we have started to consider making a line of coconut free soaps available at all times. We hope that if we all offer between three and four scents, that we can cover most of the bases and offer a product for people with true coconut or suspected coconut allergies or sensitivities an option which is rare in the soap world. If you have a coconut allergy for real or sensitivity, or are in the process of finding out the severity of it there are many products that we have on hand right now that can be used that don’t have coconut in it. 

Some of these products include; 

Our handmade lotion, our shampoo bars with Argan oil, which can also be used on the body! Our cream too. If you have a respiratory issue with coconut which is extremely rare I would probably avoid our candles because occasionally there is coconut in our candles but usually there is not usually they are completely soy based. Our fragrance sticks and solid colognes are also coconut free, but our lip balms DO have coconut in them, for now. We also have wax melts, bath bombs, shower steamers, and of course all of our other products that are not skin care related like our crystals, runes books, collectibles and more jewelry. Our main recipe for soap does have coconut in it. However some of our hand soaps do not have coconut like our honeybee button soap any of our melt and pour soap‘s that are our hand soaps that are very decorative those are glycerin-based and Shea-based and not coconut-based. 

I hope this was helpful if you have any questions feel free to email us directly to answer any questions about coconut and please investigate your suspected allergies and or sensitivities so that you can find out if this is a real issue for you or you just use a really bad bar of soap! After all coconut oil is the cheapest ingredient that soap makers often find to put in their soap, which is the motivation of why they use too much of it. If you ever felt the tightness in your skin after using a bar of natural soap that also could mean that there’s a lot of coconut or too much coconut in the recipe. This is why when you use our soap, you don’t feel that tightness. We use the appropriate amount 35% or less coconut oil. 

Thank you for reading and I am happy to announce we will be carrying some coconut free bars which are available for purchase right now!

We will be expanding this line with a curated selection of our most popular scents. Click the photo below to shop now!