The other week, I was flicking through my list of soap making recipes to see what I wanted to share with you next. I came across this gorgeous honeycomb soap recipe that I’ve tried before and thought you guys would just love it!
Not only is it scented with yummy smelling honey and oatmeal fragrance oil, but it’s also scented with real runny honey too!
Introduction
I’ve already told you how amazing this soap smells, but you’ll notice that we’re also going to get a fabulous, honeycomb-styled effect on top. Similar to the method I used to make my honey candles, this soap is made by using bubble wrap and looks so fun!
I love how it gives the soap a cool, rustic style that is always fashionable. It’s pretty inexpensive, and you can reuse bubble wrap that has been sent in the mail with your parcels if you have any to hand.
This soap should produce an initially soft bar that smells sweet and beautiful, but it may harden over a period of 6 weeks. The longer you leave it to cure, the harder it will be. It’s great for cleansing skin whilst also moisturizing and softening at the same time! You’ve got to try this, it’s now one of my favorites!
Watch How To Make Basic Cold Process Soap
Before you make this soap, take a few minutes to watch the video below for the basic method. For more detailed information see how to make cold process soap at home.
Gorgeous Honeycomb Soap Recipe
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Equipment
- Mixing Bowl (Glass, Aluminium or PET)
- Spoon or Spatula
Ingredients
- 530 grams Olive Oil
- 200 grams Coconut Oil
- 70 grams Beeswax
- 100 grams Shea Butter
- Bubble Wrap
- 120 grams Soapmaking Lye
- 60 grams Honey
- 320 grams Distilled Water
- 40 grams Fragrance Oil For Soap (Honey or Honey and Oatmeal)
Instructions
- If you’ve not made soap before, take a look at my full cold process tutorial here.Make sure you are making the soap in a well-ventilated area. Put on your gloves and eye protection, your mask, apron, and long rubber gloves.
- Measure out your ingredients. We prefer to use grams, just because it’s so much more accurate and soap recipes can be notoriously unforgiving.As the beeswax will accelerate trace, you want everything to be ready for when you pour your soap batter. So, line your mold with some baking parchment if you’re not using a silicone one. Also, cut a piece of bubble wrap to fit your mold then place it in so that the bubbles face upward. This will get you that cool honeycomb look!
- Place all oils, butters and waxes (excluding the fragrance oil) into a large pan and place on a low heat to melt.530 grams Olive Oil, 200 grams Coconut Oil, 70 grams Beeswax, 100 grams Shea Butter
- For this step, wearing your safety equipment is essential! Working carefully, add your lye to the water and stir until dissolved.320 grams Distilled Water, 120 grams Soapmaking Lye
- Then, add your honey to the lye solution and stir once more.60 grams Honey
- At this point, your lye solution may change color a few times – anywhere from orange, brown to black. It all depends on the type of honey you’re using. Set your lye solution to one side to cool. Ensure the room is well ventilated, as the fumes are toxic! Then we can move our attention to balancing the oils with your lye.We want to wait for your oil mix and lye solution to reduce in temperature to around 120-140F. This is called balancing. They don’t need to be the exact same, just both fall between these temperature boundaries.
- Once you’ve balanced your temperatures, pour your lye solution into your melted oils. Your oils should change from a rich, translucent solution to a thin, cloudy batter.
- Give your batter a brief stir and then blitz then stir with your stick blender in short bursts. You’ll want to continue until trace.You’ll know when you’ve reached trace once your batter has thickened enough to leave a light trace across the top with your spoon. At this point, stop blitzing with your stick blender.
- Add your fragrance oil stirring as you go, making sure it’s fully combined with your batter.Beware that fragrance oil can make soap ‘seize’, which means thicken extremely quickly. If this happens, don’t panic! Just start pouring or spoon your batter into your mold without delay. Keeping a clear head and not panicking is key, because that’s when mistakes happen.40 grams Fragrance Oil For Soap
- Pour the batter into your mold. You may need to give your mold a bit of a bash to level out the top. Be careful though, as the batter is still caustic at the moment.
- Next, pop another piece of bubble wrap on top so that you get the honeycomb finish both on the bottom and on the top of your soap. Make sure the bubbles are facing down, and you may need to press them gently into the batter.Cover your soap with a piece of cardboard and insulate with an old towel. Place somewhere safe and out of reach so your kiddies can’t touch it.Bubble Wrap
- You’ll want to wait at least 24 hours before you remove from your mold and cut your soap. Wear a pair of gloves to do this, just to be safe. Remember that although your soap may look lovely at this point, it is still caustic for a further 4 weeks. Test with a PH strip before using in order to make sure it’s safe for your skin.
Final Thoughts
This a great soap for anyone that loves the fragrance of honey, although with the added scent of oatmeal for a more interesting aroma. I’d say he showstopper of these soap is of course it’s honey comb top and bottom. You’ll definitely have friends asking you how you did that, because I know I have.
The bubble wrap is, of course, completely optional and this soap is a luxurious treat with or without it. I just think it looks adorable and makes it really interesting to look at. It’s just something a bit different!
This soap would smell just as good using just honey fragrance oil and no oatmeal. I also find runny honey to be the easiest to work with, but you can pretty much use anything you like.
That’s all I have for you today. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my cool, honeycomb soap recipe and that you give it a try yourself. Let me know how you get on in the comments section below, you know how much I love to hear from you.
Go ahead and share this on all your social medias as well, so you crafting friends can see all the fun stuff you’re getting up to. I’ll be back with another soap recipe very soon!
Soap Calculator & Formulation Guide
Select your chosen oils, along with the weight or percentage. The soap calculator will then show the total weight of lye and water required. The result can be instantly adjusted by changing your preferred superfatting level or water/lye ratio.
Love that recipe!
Wondering what the superfatting percentage is?
Hi Angela,
Thank you for your nice recipes.
I have tried the Honeycomb recipe just yesterday. It looks so nice.
Can we use it for face? Or just for body only?
Thank you.
Hi Safa,
Of course! Totally safe on the face. 😀 <3
Thank you
Hi Angela,
Can I substitute propolis for honey?
Thanks
Siam
Hi Siam,
You could certainly try! I haven’t used it before, so I’m not exactly sure how it will go. But experimentation is one of those important, and exciting, aspects of soapmaking that I just love!
Let me know how it goes!
Could you only add the honey at trace instead in the lye water?
I wouldn’t recommend it. Trace is a time when your soap mixture is most at risk of splitting and turning into a cottage cheese-like substance. I would stick to adding it to the lye. If you want a stronger honey fragrance, I would add a bit more of the fragrance oil.
Hey, Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I made this as my first CP recipe and in hindsight I maybe should have started with something simpler but I really enjoyed it! I have now cut my soap (I left it 48 hours) and my colour is a lot paler than yours, it’s more of a light beige (think really milky tea). Did I do something wrong or could it just be small differences in ingredients eg lighter honey? I also left out the fragrance.
Thank you for your help!
Hi Liv!
I’m so glad you had fun making your lovely soap! As for the color, it could indeed have something to do with the honey. But I think omitting the fragrance oil is more likely the culprit, as it can darken your soap almost immediately, and then increasingly over the curing weeks. Perhaps it’s a combination of both? You could try adding a fragrance when you try this again, but ultimately it shouldn’t affect the quality of the soap itself. It’ll be just as nourishing and lovely regardless of its color.
Let me know how your experimentation goes!
Great recipe! I made this yesterday and it turned out wonderful! Thanks for the info of about the honey turning dark (almost black at first). I assume it was the lye “cooking” the sugar in the honey. As a fairly new “soaper”, I am getting overwhelmed at ALL of the recipes I am finding online. I want to try them all! I am going to stick to your site and stay grounded!!
Hi Barbara
Great to hear from you! You don’t know how happy it makes me to get comments like yours, it makes all of our hard work feel worth while 🙂 I would love to see a photo of your soap If you get the chance please send me one and I’ll post it here.
This is the best page for soap making.. especially the beginners!! Everything is explained in a simple way and makes you want to try out every recepie!! Thanks a lot, Angela for this!
You’re very welcome Lavanya, I’m so glad you enjoyed the tutorial and its great to hear that I’m explaining things well! I’m always hoping that I’m getting it across but you never know how well others are reading it 😉
This is a great recipe for honey soap. I make all natural soap and don’t like using fragrance oils, only essential oils. I was wondering if you leave out the honey fragrance oil, would this soap still have a honey smell from the real honey? I read a post where someone made milk, honey & oatmeal soap and didn’t add any fragrance. She said it smelled sweet like cookies. She didn’t reveal her ingredients though. I think this would be a nice soap for my customers with sensitive skin, with only a faint sweet smell or unscented. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Carrie, thanks for the great question! The quick answer is yes you can take out the fragrance oil, and yes you would still smell the natural honey if you use it 😉
Actually I remember using just natural honey and essential oils in my layered oatmeal & honey soap.