Beeswax and honey make a sweet smelling soap
Honey soap smells of caramelized honey and will usually turn a golden brown color. By adding a little beeswax into the mix you’re making a truly bee-autiful soap that is also hard and smooth. Be careful with how much beeswax you use in soap though, using more than 2% of your recipe can stop it from lathering up.
Honey, Oats and Beeswax Soap
700g batch – makes approx. 6-7 bars
5% superfat
98g (3.5oz) Sodium Hydroxide
200g (7oz) Water
210g (7.4oz) Refined Coconut oil
301g (10.6oz) Olive oil
105g (3.7oz) Castor oil
70g (2.5oz) Sustainable Palm oil
14g (0.5oz) Beeswax
1 tsp Honey
1 tsp Rolled Oats
9 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract
1. Make sure there are no kids running around and that all pets are locked out of your work area. Lye can be very dangerous if it’s spilled on the skin, splashed into the eyes or is accidentally ingested. Put on your safety goggles, apron and plastic gloves to continue.
2. Measure all your oils into a pan and your water into a heat resistant, tall container.
3. Begin heating up the oils on the hob until just melted. Put the hob on the lowest heat — the oils will take less time to melt than you think.
4. While the oils are heating up, measure the lye into the water in a well ventilated area, stir well and try not to breathe the fumes. The mixture will get very hot and may even begin boiling so keep your face well away and if you can. Add the honey if you want your soap to be a darker brown colour.
You can then place the container of lye in a tub of water to help it cool down a bit but keep an eye on its temperature to make sure it doesn’t get too cold. Cold lye water can cause your beeswax to harden on contact creating a false trace and ruining your soap.
5. When both the oil and lye water are around 120°F (and within 10 degrees of each other) you can mix them together.
Start by pouring in about two tablespoons of lye-water into the oil and stir well before pouring in the rest.
Stir thoroughly and then dip your stick blender into the mixture at an angle, so as to not get air into your soap. Alternate short blasts of whizzing with stirring the mixture gently until you reach a light trace.
Trace is when the oil and lye are less a liquid consistency and more like a light pudding. To make sure it’s traced, take a little of the mixture up in a spoon and dribble it on the top.
If your dribble holds its form and doesn’t immediately sink down into the soap then it’s ready. Using beeswax in a soap recipe does cause trace to happen quite quickly so you might only need to whizz and stir in as little as 30 seconds to a minute.
6. Now pour in the honey (if you haven’t already added it to the lye water) and grapefruit seed extract and mix very well – you don’t want streaks of honey in your soap.
When that’s all mixed in, add in your oats, stir well and then pour the soap into your moulds. Cover optionally with plastic wrap to reduce the chance of soda ash.
7. Cover the mould lightly with a towel and let it sit on the counter until the next day. Alternatively, you can pop the mould into the fridge if you’d like your soap to be a lighter color.
8. Wait at least 24 hours before un-moulding and if the soap doesn’t come out easily, just pop it in the freezer for 45 minutes and try again. After un-moulding you can press more oat flakes into your soap for a nice effect. This soap needs four weeks of curing before it can be used. For full instructions on how to cure handmade soap head over here
Vicki Farley says
April 17, 2019 at 9:01 pmHi Tanya,
I’m excited to make this soap. Will the oats work as an exfoliant? If so, would I be able to leave the oats out?
lovelygreens says
April 18, 2019 at 9:01 amA very light exfoliant but you can leave them out either way 🙂
Ruchi says
July 29, 2018 at 9:27 pmHi, firstly thanks for this awesome recipe. Not sure if I’ll get a revert since this post is quite old but still gonna try my luck. I was wondering if I can use soywax instead of the beeswax? If yes then what qty / % is advisable in soaping? I have been trying to search for soywax soap recipe but no success 🙁
lovelygreens says
July 30, 2018 at 12:09 pmHi Ruchi — you can use soywax but the quantity and amount of sodium hydroxide (lye) you’ll need will be a little different. Pop my recipe into the SoapCalc. Take the beeswax out and fiddle around with the calculations. I’d recommend that you head over there if you’re thinking of editing any soap recipe: http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp
Helen says
April 28, 2018 at 4:39 pmHi Tanya, Could I substitute babassu oil for the palm (using a lye calc!). Thanks for the recipe. Helen
lovelygreens says
April 29, 2018 at 5:48 pmBabassu is similar to coconut oil so I probably wouldn’t try to sub palm oil for it — the soap could be too drying.
Elise says
January 1, 2018 at 2:33 amHello
I am just wondering if i wanted to do this recipe or any recipe as a hot process soap is it just a matter of cooking it for about 45-60mins? Im new to this and just used this recipe to make a cold process one with a few substitutes castor oil for Almond oil, palm oil for Shea butter and more oats. hoping it will work
lovelygreens says
January 2, 2018 at 10:06 amHi Elise, as a beginner you should not make any substitutions with soap recipes. They’re a careful balance of different oils and the correct amount of sodium hydroxide for each. Each oil also has different properties in soap making and each can affect how hard or soft it turns out or how cleansing or not cleansing it is.
Pauline says
October 30, 2017 at 6:53 pmWould it be possible to replace any of the oils with Sweet Almond oil, as I was given 500mls
lovelygreens says
October 31, 2017 at 3:17 pmYou could replace the olive oil with sweet almond but make sure to pop your final recipe into the Soap Calc. It will tell you what your new lye amount will be: http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp
Jacob says
January 4, 2017 at 6:16 pmMy soap turned very dark brown when I mixed they lye in with the oils. I’m also concerned the soap isn’t going to be “soapy” at all (suds). I rubbed the mixture between my fingers and it was just oily. As you can tell, this is my very first time making soap. I have bees so I figured I should try projects like this since I have an endless supply of beeswax and only keep pure organic oils around the house for cooking and DIY face, body products. Please help!<3
lovelygreens says
January 5, 2017 at 12:09 pmYour soap takes a full month to turn into soap Jacob — don’t rub the soap at all until it’s cured as bars for this amount of time.
Anne says
January 9, 2016 at 1:50 pmThank you so much for the recipe! it really help a lot!
Anonymous says
March 2, 2015 at 11:16 pmI have only helped another beekeeper make soap twice so am pretty new to this. I have now branched off and do my own bees with honey and beeswax as a result. I have wanted to try making a traditional honey soap for some time and this definetly fits the desired ingredients! I'm wondering about curing. I seem to recall the guy I helped letting his soap cure for 6 weeks. Do you need to do this with this soap to harden it? And also, I remember him telling me it can be really hard to get the honey to incorporate well since it will want to seperate from the soap in pockets. Have you found that to be true or how do I avoid that happening? Lastly, I don't have a stick immersion blender. Can I use standard electric hand mixers? I saw that it's important to keep air from getting in….I was hoping that could be reduced but submerging the beaters in the liquid before turning them on and not raising and lowering them above the mixture. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Tanya from Lovely Greens says
March 6, 2015 at 11:10 amHoney incorporates into soap just fine providing you don't use too much and that it's well mixed in. Saying that, if you do have too much, it's no bad thing for the honey to be on the soap. In fact, your skin will benefit from it 🙂
Liz says
May 19, 2014 at 5:50 pmHi Tanya,
Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
I was wondering if there is anything else I could use instead of the grapefruit seed extract as a preservative? I know you've mentioned the use of Vitamin E as a substitute but would that be enough to preserve the soap in the same way?
Thanks,
Liz
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
May 20, 2014 at 1:44 pmGrapefruit Seed Extract isn't a preservative…rather, it's an antioxidant. It helps free floating oils in the soap to not go rancid. Another choice other than GSE or VITe is Rosemary Oleoresin Extract (ROE).
Christy says
April 4, 2014 at 3:37 amForgot to hit notify me
Christy says
April 4, 2014 at 3:35 amThis looks like such lovely soap. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful tutorials, they are so very helpful and informative. I have 1 question: Is the honey in this recipe what you are superfatting with? I just read your tutorial (I wish I had read it before I made my first batch, it's so much better than anything I had read before) Make, Mould, and cure and it mentioned putting the superfat oil in at trace. This tutorial didn't mention any oils at trace. I just want to make sure I understand.
Thank you
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
May 20, 2014 at 1:49 pmGood eye! This soap is superfatted but instead of adding the extra oils at the end, all the oils are added at the same time. That way it works out that some of all the different types of oils are leftover to 'superfat' the bars. It's more imprecise than adding it at the end but when you're using beeswax in recipes you'll find that you'll hit trace a lot quicker and it can sometimes be difficult to mix in superfatting oils and extras. Especially for a beginner.
Roberta Devers Scott says
December 16, 2013 at 8:20 pmsame question here. . .if you are wanting to increase this recipe to a 5# batch through soapcalc.com how do you do so? i wish you would do a tutorial. your are so good!!!!
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
May 20, 2014 at 1:52 pmJust enter in all the ingredients and their measurements from this recipe into the SoapCalc. Hit the button 'Calculate Recipe'. Next, click the radio button next to the ingredients' quantities so that it's on % rather than measurement. Go then to section two where the batch weight is listed and change it to 5lbs. Hit 'Calculate Recipe' again and you'll have the amounts you need.
Krystal says
November 27, 2013 at 7:54 pmCan you make this soap using the Hot Process Soap Method??
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
May 20, 2014 at 1:50 pmAbsolutely…the recipe would be the same but the method in Hot Process is obviously different.
Lysi Browneyez says
November 9, 2013 at 1:12 pmGreat Post Tanya….first time reading your blog. Very interesting thank you!
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
November 10, 2013 at 9:11 amThanks Lysi 🙂
l collet says
July 18, 2013 at 10:44 pmHi, what size soap mould does this fit? I would like to try this but have a 2kg mould. How much will I need to increase the recipe by? Thanks, Lauren 🙂
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
July 19, 2013 at 7:01 amThis is for an 700g batch of soap so you'll need to adjust the recipe accordingly. Try using the Soap Calc at this url: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp
l collet says
July 21, 2013 at 4:42 pmThanks Tanya. I was also wondering what the recommended curing time is? Is curing time different for different types of soap or a standard set of weeks?
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
July 22, 2013 at 7:57 am4-6 weeks 🙂
Amanda Rose says
July 7, 2013 at 3:45 pmWhat would your recommended substitution be for the palm oil?? I really want to try this recipe. Haven't started making soaps yet, but am in the process of collecting some recipes that I really like first 🙂
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
July 8, 2013 at 7:35 pmThe best substitution is tallow.
Anonymous says
June 15, 2013 at 2:25 pmHi do you have to use lye.
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
June 15, 2013 at 2:42 pmYes. Contrary to what some people think, there's no such thing as soap that isn't made with lye.
Anonymous says
April 22, 2013 at 5:39 amJust curious as to what can be substituted for the palm oil as it is not a product I will use as it's production is the main cause of the murder of orangutans?
Jodi says
March 25, 2013 at 11:04 pmSo, I am really interested in making this soap. My concern is, I'm not quite sure how to change the measuring system from grams to using measuring cups and spoons? Do you have any suggestions on how to do this?
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
March 26, 2013 at 9:19 amWith soap making Jodi you should always weight your ingredients. Using cups/tsp is fine for cooking but too inaccurate for science 🙂 Soap making is a science and involves the chemical reaction between fats and alkaline.
What I'd suggest is investing in a digital kitchen scale. You'll find that all proper soap recipes will be in grams in Europe and in oz's/lbs in the US so it will make your life easier and ensure that you're making good quality soap (opposed to the infamous 'Lye Soap' of our grandmothers' time).
Anonymous says
March 29, 2013 at 4:10 amI see. Thank you for explaining it to me. I didn't realize the importance of weighing out the ingredients.
I did make the soap and it was a success. The only concern I had was that after the 24 hours of letting it sit it was still a little soft…not as firm as I thought it would be. But when I used it I loved how it makes my skin feel afterwards. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
I do have one more question, is there anyway dilute it…to make it into a liquid soap?
Stephanie Wilson says
November 25, 2012 at 8:04 amCan I substitute anything for the grapefruit seed extract? I am allergic and would really like to try this recipe otherwise.
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
November 26, 2012 at 5:13 pmTry using the same amount of Vitamin E, Stephanie. You'll need a natural preservative though since the extra oil in the soap will eventually turn rancid without it. Good luck 🙂
Stephanie Ware says
November 29, 2012 at 9:49 amThank you so much! I'm excited to make this 😀
Tia says
January 9, 2012 at 7:36 amI like this content. Very useful to increase my knowledge. thank you.
Dörte says
October 11, 2011 at 4:22 pmall nice Soaps!
liebe Grüße
Dörte
Tanya @ Lovely Greens says
August 9, 2011 at 12:03 pmThanks Mo and glad to help 🙂 And just want to reassure that as long as the stick blender is completely submerged and very little air is trapped under it there won't be much splashing. That said, I do have a tiny spot on my goggles from where a drop of lye must have splashed up on it and eaten the top layer off – so be careful and always wear protective gear!
Mo and Steve says
August 9, 2011 at 6:50 amGreat post, Tanya! You explain it so well and it has certainly been helpful to me. I like that you explain how hot the lye solution gets, and it's good to see how you use a stick blender – I was scared of splashing everywhere 🙂
Your soap looks wonderful.