Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Honey Soap

So, yesterday I used the Lots of Lather recipe again to try out a couple new things: adding honey and oatmeal to a soap. While I haven’t tried using the soap yet, I LOVE the way it looks! It’s rustic looking, but in a wholesome, natural way.

I used the same recipe (including batch size) as my Honeysuckle Rose soap, but with a few modifications, which I’ve italicized:

28.15 oz (798 g) Palm Oil

28.15 oz (798 g) Olive Oil

3.50 oz (99 g) Castor Oil

7.95 oz (225 g) Sodium Hydroxide

19.15 oz (542 g) Water

1 oz (38.35 g) Honey

1 T Oatmeal, ground as fine as possible in my coffee grinder

1.75 oz (49 g) SweetCakes’ Apple Jack and Peel FO

2.0 oz (57 g) SweetCakes’ Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey FO

0.5 tsp Cinnamon

I added the honey to my water and mixed it well, then added lye. I was surprised by the fierce chemical reaction that took place — it got even hotter than usual, turned the water a dark amber color, and made the air smell (pleasantly, I thought) of caramelized honey. I’ve since read that mixing honey water with lye can cause a lye volcano! So, if you make this recipe, PLEASE make sure you’re wearing all of your safety equipment (of course, you should be anyway, right??).

I added the oatmeal after mixing the oils and lye water, but before trace. Speaking of trace, does anyone know if honey increases the time it takes to trace? Because this soap took MUCH longer to trace than my Honeysuckle Rose did.

I added the cinnamon, for color, to the Apple Jack and Peel half of the soap.

I think this is my favorite soap that I’ve made yet. <3