I have been asked by some of our clients why not use coco oil or what is known as copra oil (also referred to as Coprah); coprah seems more exotic right? First off coco oil can be of different grades from virgin (so first press, no chemicals, no heating) to second or third grade which usually are mixed with a bunch of chemicals to separate remaining oil from the impurities in the presence of heat. Coco oil is solid at ambient temperature, so some heating or chemicals (or both) will be required to extract it. That said, why are we not using coco oil again? To answer this let’s ask this rhetoric question first: If coco is cheaper than olive and is good for you (as some claim), than why don’t we see soaps made of 100% coco oil. The answer is simple, because it dries the skin. Then why is it used in the industry? It’s used because coco oil is cheaper than olive and increases both detergency and lather properties of the soap BUT at the expense of its hydrating power. That’s why manufacturers limit it at 30%.