Honey is a popular additive in cold process soap. It’s a wonderful humectant and is great from a marketing standpoint. But, adding honey to soap does pose some challenges. The sugar from the honey can cause the soap to overheat. The key is keeping soaping temperatures cool and not using too much honey. I recommend a usage rate of 1 teaspoon honey per pound of soap. I also recommend placing the soap in the fridge or freezer after pouring it into the mold to prevent overheating. If you’d like to learn more about adding honey to your cold process soap, this post has more tips.
This Pure Honey Cold Process Soap contains a full tablespoon of local honey. It’s scented with Pure Honey Fragrance Oil, which gives the bars a wonderfully sweet scent. I kept the design of these bars simple to allow the honeycomb texture on the outside to shine. The secret to the honeycomb look is lining the mold with bubble wrap. Once the bubble wrap is peeled away, it reveals the realistic honeycomb pattern. As a bonus, we designed free downloadable labels for this soap! Find them here.
What You’ll Need:
10″ Silicone Loaf Mold
Bubble wrap, cut to line mold
1.8 oz. Argan Oil (5%)
1.8 oz. Castor Oil (5%)
7 oz. Coconut Oil (20%)
10.5 oz. Olive Oil (30%)
7 oz. Palm Oil (20%)
7 oz. Sunflower Oil (20%)
4.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
11 oz. Distilled Water
2.3 oz. Pure Honey Fragrance Oil
1 Tbs. Honey
Optional: Save the Bees Label Template
Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!
[sq_products]
If you’ve never made Cold Process soap before, stop here! I highly recommend checking out our FREE four part SoapQueen.tv series on Cold Process Soapmaking, especially the episode on lye safety. And if you’d rather do some reading, Bramble Berry carries a wide range of books on the topic, including my newest book, Pure Soapmaking. You can also checkout the digital downloads for that instant gratification factor.
SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! That means goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.
MOLD PREP: The honeycomb texture on the soap comes from placing bubble wrap on the bottom of the mold. You don’t need any kind of “special” bubble wrap, I always use leftover bubble wrap from packages I receive! Cut the bubble wrap to lay inside the mold with the bubble texture facing up. Tape the bubble wrap to the sides of the mold so it doesn’t move around.
FRAGRANCE PREP: Measure 2.3 ounces of Pure Honey Fragrance Oil into a glass, fragrance oil safe container. Set aside.
HONEY PREP: This recipe uses 1 teaspoon honey per pound of soap, for a total of 1 tablespoon honey. Have the honey nearby and ready to add to the soap at trace.
ONE: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is clear. Set aside to cool.
TWO: Combine the argan oil, castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil and sunflower oil (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning). Once the lye water and the oils have both cooled to 130 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until you reach a light trace. Because the honey in this recipe causes the soap to heat up, I recommend soaping a little cooler, around 100-110 degrees. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add sodium lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add about 2 teaspoons sodium lactate.
THREE: Once you reach a thin trace, add 1 tablespoon of honey. Use the stick blender to fully combine it into the mixture. Alternate pulsing the stick blender and using it to stir.
FOUR: Add the Pure Honey Fragrance Oil. Use the stick blender to pulse and stir the fragrance oil into the mixture until completely combined.
FIVE: Continue to stick blend the soap until you reach a medium trace.
SIX: Pour the soap mixture into the mold and tap it on the counter several times to disperse any air bubbles. Use a spoon or spatula to even out the top. Immediately place the soap into the freezer or fridge for at least 3 hours, up to 24 hours. Placing the soap in the fridge/freezer keeps the soap cool and prevents the honey from overheating and discoloring the soap. You can skip placing the soap in the fridge or freezer if you want the soap to go through gel phase.
Allow the soap to stay in the mold for about 2 days. Remove from the mold, and peel away the bubble wrap. Cut into bars, and allow them to cure for 4-6 weeks. Enjoy!
Pure Honey Cold Process Soap Tutorial
Ingredients
- 10 ″ Silicone Loaf Mold
- Bubble wrap cut to line mold
- 1.8 oz. Argan Oil 5%
- 1.8 oz. Castor Oil 5%
- 7 oz. Coconut Oil 20%
- 10.5 oz. Olive Oil 30%
- 7 oz. Palm Oil 20%
- 7 oz. Sunflower Oil 20%
- 4.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
- 11 oz. Distilled Water
- 2.3 oz. Pure Honey Fragrance Oil
- 1 Tbs. Honey
Instructions
SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! That means goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.
MOLD PREP: The honeycomb texture on the soap comes from placing bubble wrap on the bottom of the mold. You don’t need any kind of “special” bubble wrap, I always use leftover bubble wrap from packages I receive! Cut the bubble wrap to lay inside the mold, with the bubble texture facing up. Tape the bubble wrap to the sides of the mold so it doesn’t move around.
FRAGRANCE PREP: Measure 2.3 ounces of Pure Honey Fragrance Oil into a glass, fragrance oil safe container. Set aside.
HONEY PREP: This recipe uses 1 teaspoon honey per pound of soap, for a total of 1 tablespoon honey. Have your honey nearby and ready to add to the soap at trace.
- Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is clear. Set aside to cool.
- Combine the argan oil, castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil and sunflower oil (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning). Once the lye water and the oils have both cooled to 130 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until you reach a light trace. Because the honey in this recipe causes the soap to heat up, I recommend soaping a little cooler, around 100-110 degrees. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add sodium lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add about 2 teaspoons sodium lactate.
- Once you reach a thin trace, add the 1 tablespoon of honey. Use the stick blender to fully combine it into the mixture. Alternate pulsing the stick blender, and using it to stir.
- Add the Pure Honey Fragrance Oil. Use the stick blender to pulse and stir the fragrance oil into the mixture until completely combined.
- Continue to stick blend the soap until you reach a medium trace.
- Pour the soap mixture into the mold and tap it on the counter several times to disperse any air bubbles. Use a spoon or spatula to even out the top. Immediately place the soap into the freezer or fridge for at least 3 hours, up to 24 hours. Placing the soap in the fridge/freezer keeps the soap cool, and prevents the honey from overheating and discoloring the soap. You can skip placing the soap in the fridge or freezer if you want the soap to go through gel phase.Allow the soap to stay in the mold for about 2 days. Remove from the mold, and peel away the bubble wrap. Cut into bars, and allow them to cure for 4-6 weeks. Enjoy!
