Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: 1 hr
Yields: 6 round soaps
This is one of my favourite natural soap recipes and despite not adding any fragrance, the soap smells deliciously like porridge, which isn’t surprising as the soap is made of the same ingredients: milk, oats and honey. The milk will add creaminess to your soap. The oats are for the exfoliating effect. And the honey is for fragrance and colour, as well as being a humectant, which means it adds moisture to the bar. The honey also improves the lather, giving this soap a wonderful creamy, smooth lather.
If you have never made cold process soap before, I strongly suggest you check out the basic cold process soap tutorial first.
Before starting, please read the safety and precautions post, especially since this tutorial requires the handling of caustic soda!
ONE: First, prepare your lye. Weigh out the caustic soda in a small container. Measure the water in a small pyrex or other heat proof glass jug. Then carefully add the caustic soda to the water and gently stir until all the caustic soda has dissolved. Stir one teaspoon of sodium lactate to make the soap harder. Set aside to cool.
TWO: While you are waiting for the lye to cool down, prepare your other ingredients. You will need one tablespoon of milk powder (you can use either cow’s milk or goat’s milk powder), one tablespoon of honey (I used a manuka honey blend), and one to two tablespoons of rolled oats, depending on how exfoliating you would like your soap to be.
THREE: Next it is time to prepare the oils. Weigh out the coconut oil in a pyrex jug and heat in microwave on high for one minute or until melted.
FOUR: Add the honey to the warm coconut oil and give it a bit of a stir. I like adding the honey to the warm oil, so that it will soften up and become a bit easier to work with.
FIVE: Add the remaining oils to the coconut oil and honey mixture, and wait for the lye to cool down to room temperature.
SIX: Make sure you are still in protective gear (goggles and gloves), carefully pour the lye to the oils, avoiding any splashes. Give it a quick pulse with the stick blender.
SEVEN: Add the milk powder and keep stick blending to mix the powder and the honey thoroughly into the soap mixture.
EIGHT: Add the rolled oats and either stir with a whisk, if you wish the rolled oats to remain in size for a scrubby effect, or stick blend to cut the rolled oats into smaller sizes for a light exfoliating effect.
NINE: The soap can get a bit thick if you leave it too long, so either pour or scoop the soap into your soap molds. As you can see, my soap thickened quite significantly, while I was taking pictures, so I’m really having to pay it down with the spatula. I’m using a mold with small rounds, but you could also use a muffin tray or loaf mold.
TEN: Leave to cure in the mold overnight. The honey in the soap can cause the soap to overheat, so don’t insulate and keep an eye on it. The next day, unmold and leave the soaps to cure for a further 6-8 weeks before using.
Honey, Oats and Milk Soap
Ingredients
- 150 g olive oil
- 130 g rice bran oil
- 100 g coconut oil
- 20 g castor oil
- 55 g caustic soda
- 120 ml water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon milk powder
- 1-2 tablespoons rolled oats
Directions
- Prepare your lye: carefully add the caustic soda to the water and stir gently until all the caustic soda has dissolved. Set aside to cool.
- While you wait for the lye to cool, prepare your other ingredients, so that you’ll have them ready when needed.
- Weigh out the coconut oil in a pyrex jug and heat in the microwave on high for 1 minute or until melted.
- Add the honey to the warm coconut oil and stir briefly (it won’t completely melt).
- Add the remaining oils to the coconut oil and honey mixture.
- When the lye has cooled down to room temperature, carefully add it to the oils and stick blend briefly.
- Add the milk powder and continue to blend with the stick blender to mix the milk powder and honey into the soap.
- Add the rolled oats and either stir with a whisk for a more scrubby effect or stick blend if you wish for a finer exfoliation.
- Pour or scoop the soap into your soap mold and leave to cure overnight.
- The following day, carefully unmold the soap and leave to cure for another 6-8 weeks.
Hi Jackie. I LOVE your site. Thanks for all the useful tips and easy to follow instructions. I’m at the very beginning if my soap making journey. I’ve made your Castile soap. Yesterday I tried the oat and honey. Today when I cut it it crumbled – why might it have crumbled. I also made some in moulds and they just popped out and look beautiful. Does this soap require individual moulds?
Hi! Thank you for you lovely comments. I’m so glad that the tutorials are easy for you to follow. About your honey, milk and oats soap, there could be several reasons for it being crumbly. I’m assuming you used the same batch in the individual moulds as well as the other mould which crumbled. First, wait a few days and check your soap isn’t lye heavy, which it shouldn’t be if you followed the recipe. Another reason could be a combination of using the oats and a partial gelling of the soap. The smaller individual soaps would have stayed at a similar temperature throughout, but a bigger soap, such as a loaf mould, reaches hotter temperatures in its centre and can start to gel but if not insulated, the gelling won’t be throughout the soap. Because of the sugar content in the soap, the temperature is higher than usual, so I recommend to try and avoid gelling and to use individual moulds. It makes it a lot easier for this kind of soap, especially if you’re just starting out. The oats can also add to the crumbly texture but won’t be the cause of it though. I hope this helps!