I know, I know. I haven’t been posting as frequently as before. There are two reasons. First, my almost three-year-old little bug is going through some serious sleep regression. Just when I think sleep regression is a thing of the past, it comes back with a vengeance. Second, I opened an Etsy store! I’m selling my creations under the brand/store name: NourishBodyCare. There is only one listing right now, it’s a Oatmeal Honey Soap that I made using all natural ingredients, including Mediterranean Sea Salt, organic coconut oil and organic coconut milk. It’s palm-free, unscented and all natural.
This Oatmeal Honey Soap is loaded with Mediterranean sea salt. Mediterranean sea salt, as its name suggests, comes from the Mediterranean sea, and it has a ton of minerals that are beneficial to our skin. Sea salt makes a super hard and long lasting bar too. For me, using a salt bar makes me feel like I’m bathing in the ocean, with all those amazing salt crystals working their magic on my skin. This Oatmeal Honey Soap is also created using organic coconut oil (which cleanses and moisturizes at the same time), and organic coconut milk (which is rich in skin nourishing nutrients and vitamins). Want to learn more about my oatmeal honey soap recipe. Read on!
Cold Process Oatmeal Honey Soap with Mediterranean Sea Salt
Prep Time: 1 hour
Yields: about 40 oz of oatmeal honey soap, about 9 bars
Dry (Cure) Time: at least 4 weeks
Ingredients for Oatmeal Honey Soap
includes affiliate links
- Coconut Oil – 16.5 oz. I use Trader Joe’s Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. It’s the best organic coconut oil I’ve found. You can get Trader Joe’s Coconut Oil, or other brands like Viva Labs Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, and Nature’s Way Extra Virgin Organic Coconut Oil on Amazon. You can use any brand of coconut oil, as long as it’s pure coconut oil, not a coconut oil blend.
- Shea Butter – 2.5 oz. I get my shea butter on Amazon, which has Unrefined Ivory Shea Butter, African Shea Butter and Organic Unrefined Shea Butter. Also, check your local Whole Foods. The ones near me sell small quantities of shea butter in their handcrafted soap and bath product section.
- Olive Oil – 2 oz. I use Trader Joe’s Imported Olive Oil. Amazon has Trader Joe’s California Estate Olive Oil, Bragg Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and Zoe Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Any brand of pure olive oil, not olive oil blend, will work.
- Sea Salt – 13 oz. I use Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Sea Salt (fine crystals). Whole Foods has its own brand of sea salt. Or you can get Real Salt Sea Salt or Bob’s Red Mill Sea Salt on Amazon.
- Coconut Milk – 7 oz. I use Whole Foods 365 Organic Coconut Milk. You can also get Thai Kitchen Organic Coconut Milk and 100% Coconut Milk on Amazon.
- Lye – 2.6 oz. I use Food Grade Lye, which I get from Amazon.
- Oatmeal – 1/2 cup. I use Trader Joe’s Oven Toasted Old Fashioned Organic Oats. Get it at Trader Joe’s or Amazon. You can also try Bob’s Red Mill Organic Oats Rolled, Country Choice Organic Oven Toasted Old Fashioned Oats, or GF Harvest Gluten Free Organic Rolled Oats. You can use any brand of oatmeal. Just make sure it’s not instant oatmeal. Instant oatmeal might be too smushy for soap making.
- Honey – 1 tablespoon. I use Trader Joe’s Clover Honey. You can try Honey Stinger Organic Honey, or HoneyTree’s Raw Organic Honey both are on Amazon.
- Silicone Soap Mold. I use a 6-cavity silicone mold. There are other mold options, such as an 8-cavity oval silicone mold or a 12-cavity mini silicone mold. Because this oatmeal honey soap is a salt bar, I don’t use a loaf mold. Soap that comes from a loaf mold requires cutting. I have tried cutting salt bars at least 3 times, and each time has been a disaster, because cutting a salt bar causes it to crumble, break and disintegrate.
Step-by-Step Instruction on How to Create Oatmeal Honey Soap with Mediterranean Sea Salt
Soap making can be a fun and satisfying hobby. But when making soap, such as this oatmeal honey soap bar, PLEASE take all necessary safety precautions. At the minimum, you should wear your protective gear and make sure there are no kids or pets around. If you are not familiar with what need to be done, learn more about soap making safety here, here and here.
1. Make lye solution by slowly adding lye to frozen coconut milk. This takes prep work because the coconut milk must be frozen before you add lye to it. Otherwise, the lye will burn the coconut milk and you will have big chunks of weird stuff floating in your lye solution. Trust me. If you want to use coconut milk, or any other kind of milk, to create your lye solution, you have to freeze it first. You can learn more about making lye solution using milk here.
2. Melt all your oil and butter. I usually put all my oil and butter in a large glass measuring cup, and put the cup in a pot that has about 2 inches of water. When the water is heated on the stove, the oil and butter will begin to melt. It takes about 10 minutes to melt everything.
3. Slowly add the coconut milk lye solution to the melted oil and butter.
4. Use a plastic or silicone spatula to gently and slowly mix the coconut milk lye solution and the melted oil and butter. Be very careful, because the lye solution is extremely caustic and will burn your skin.
5. Use a stick blender to mix the mixture until it reaches thin trace (milk shake consistency). No need to make the soap much thicker, because after you add the Mediterranean sea salt, the soap will thicken very quickly.
6. Add oatmeal and honey. Use the stick blender to mix everything. You can customize the texture of your oatmeal honey soap with your stick blender here.
7. Add Mediterranean sea salt, and mix everything with a plastic or silicone spatula.
8. Pour the oatmeal honey soap into molds. Be sure to bang the molds agains a hard surface to release all the air bubbles. I usually put the molds on a cookie sheet so the molds can be easily moved, especially after I fill them with fresh soap.
10. Place the oatmeal honey soap in the freezer for at least 3 hours before un-molding the soap.
11. Because this is a cold process soap, you should allow the oatmeal honey soap to dry, a.k.a., cure, for at least 4 weeks before use.
That’s it! What do you think? Are you ready to give this oatmeal honey soap recipe a try? If you do try this recipe, I’d love to hear all about it. If you don’t want to make it yourself, but still want to enjoy this lovely salt bar, you can now get it from my Etsy store! I’m pretty excited that I now have an Etsy store, which I hope you guys will stop by and take a look. And and all suggestions to improve my store and this blog are welcome and appreciated! I’m hoping to add new items to the store regularly, but I told you about my little bug and her sleep regression, right? So maybe this will be a slow process.
If you like this oatmeal honey soap recipe, or the oatmeal honey soap that I listed on Etsy, be sure to share it or pin it. Happy soaping!
i love reading your soap recipes.. I am going to try and make a couple today. my question isnt about the soap, its about your packaging.. may i please know where you found the boxes? and what you used for the label?
Also, can you substitute the coconut milk with goats milk? and i agree with all, you are very detailed in your information. that makes it very helpful for me. thank you.
Absolutely! You can use goat milk in place of coconut milk. Before making your lye solution, be sure to freeze your goat milk, as you would for the coconut milk. Please keep me posted on how your soap turns out.
So glad to know that you’ll be trying some of my soap recipes! Can’t wait to hear how you like them.
I make my own boxes for the soap I sell on etsy. I use scrapbook papers to make my boxes. Here’s an origami box tutorial. I print my labels on craft papers. Let me know if you have any more questions!
Greetings and thx for sharing.
I know the recipe did not call for essential oils but I do have a thing with lavender. In my other soaps I do have a problem with not getting enough aroma in the soap. I don’t know if it’s because the quality of the essential oil. But can you add a essential oil to the oatmeal honey salt recipe? I only made for family and friends.
Lavender essential oil is tough to add to cold process soap, because it’s a top note essential oil. This means that lavender essential oil evaporates very quickly. So lavender essential oil often doesn’t stick to cold process soap.
If you want to add lavender essential oil to your soap, you should also add a middle note and/or base note essential oil. Combining top, middle and base note essential oils helps the top note essential oil (lavender) to stick to the soap. Consider adding rosemary essential oil (middle note), cedarwood essential oil (base note) and/or patchouli essential oil (base note) to your soap, in addition to lavender. Also, try making hot process (crock pot) soap. Unlike cold process soap, if you make hot process soap, you add essential oil to the soap when the soap is fully cooked (and very close to being ready for use). Keep me posted on your next batch of soap. Happy soaping!
Hi I’m Marylou. I want to say that your information and details are great. You go step by step with pictures and give a lot of details and information, so if we have issues with certain ingredients, because some people might have skin problems or we might be sensitive to some oils, we can substitute one oil for another. You give information on the use of different oils, so we can enjoy making organic soaps and body butter at home. Thank you for your insights and knowledge on essential oils and other topics. I do like your recipes very much. This is the best site I came to know and enjoy. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words! I agree. The best part about making your own all natural soap and body butter is that you can customize the soap and body butter to your preference. There’re many amazing, all natural ingredients you can use. If you make your own soap and body butter you can create something that’s perfect for you and your loved ones. I’m so happy you find my posts useful!