Golden Palm

Beauty editor Karen van Ede wrote an excellent article about palm oil in cosmetics for Vogue Nederland. Looking for answers whether palm oil can be produced in a responsible manner, she explores alternatives when buying cosmetics. A clear and nuanced piece, including concrete actions that we, as consumers, can take.

Translation from Dutch.

Author: Karen van Ede

Palm oil is the perfect substitute for the animal fats that are used to make salves, shampoos and lip balms so creamy. Palm oil is vegan, has no scent or taste, produces a smooth texture in cosmetics, prevents drying out of a product, and binds the different ingredients together. Palm oil derives from the fruit of the oil palm. The yield per hectare is relatively large in comparison to, for example, sunflowers and soya beans. But the growing demand and poor policy have led to worrying nightmares of deforestation, forest fires, displaced orangutans, and poisoned soil.

Alexandra Vosmaer from Forestwise explains, “The manner in which palm oil is cultivated is not natural and therefore cannot be continued forever. Monoculture must be replaced by mixed crops, preferably an agroforest, as happens in nature. That type of forest is not full just of oil substitutes, but of everything that we need. It demands another way of thinking and working. Big companies find it difficult to make this switch…