Soapmaking seems to be quite an addictive hobby. Luckily I can sell it, otherwise we would have soap to last a lifetime already. My latest recipe uses honey and beeswax from our hives, and oatmeal.
Oatmeal has a soothing effect on skin, and also helps to retain essential oil scent in the soap. The honey provides both colour and healing properties. Beeswax is added to this soap to make it harder and provide a subtle honey scent. This soap will get very hot due to the honey. When adding beeswax, its best to cut it into small pieces or grate it, so that it will dissolve quickly, otherwise you will be stuck stirring your fats and oils after everything else is ready!
Like all my soaps, I like to use tallow in the recipe. You can read more about why I use tallow and find all my other soap recipes in the posts linked further down. I am currently working on an ebook with all my tallow soap recipes and a step-by-step guide to cold process soap with tallow, look out for it on this blog, coming soon!
Here's a few links to my previous soapmaking posts.
Why use natural soaps and salves?
I prefer to use natural products, rather than commercial soaps and lotions with unknown and unnecessary ingredients.
Making tallow soap
This is my first post about soapmaking, and I used tallow right from the start because we have so much leftover from butchering our own beef. Its very cheap to buy from the butcher, and its a sustainable ingredient (especially if you eat beef anyway). It makes great soap too!
Rendering tallow in a slow cooker
Its very easy to render tallow from beef fat. The kidney fat makes the best soap as its hard and white.
Beef tallow soap recipes
Here's a couple of basic recipes for tallow soap - a bath soap and a cleaning soap.
Sustainable soap - 100% tallow!
I was very happy to finally master a 100% tallow recipe (the other recipes had 50% tallow, with coconut and olive oil making up the rest of the oils).
Natural soap using beef tallow
I started to have more fun with my soap here, and learnt how to add other natural ingredients for colour and texture.
Shaving soap and A sustainable shave?
I made Pete shaving soap in little tins. You can use that with a shaving brush instead of shaving cream.
Soap with coffee grounds
Coffee grounds help to remove dirt and odours, great for hard workers!
Neem oil soap and salve
Neem oil is a healing oil for the skin, as well as an insect repellent. It can be used as a pet soap, for kids with knits or adults with damaged skin.
Activated charcoal soap and salve
My latest recipe for a lovely black soap with detoxifying properties.
How to rebatch a soap disaster
It hasn't all gone to plan - this batch never set due to not using enough lye, but I rebatched using the hot process method.
Salt soap fail
And salt soap needs to be cut while its still hot, I had to rebatch this one too. The photo above is a more successful attempt at salt soap.
What do you think? Do you make soap? Have you tried honey, beeswax and oatmeal? Any other natural ingredients that you love to use in soap?
You can get all my tallow soap recipes in my eBook Make Your Own Natural Soap, more information here.
Oatmeal has a soothing effect on skin, and also helps to retain essential oil scent in the soap. The honey provides both colour and healing properties. Beeswax is added to this soap to make it harder and provide a subtle honey scent. This soap will get very hot due to the honey. When adding beeswax, its best to cut it into small pieces or grate it, so that it will dissolve quickly, otherwise you will be stuck stirring your fats and oils after everything else is ready!
Like all my soaps, I like to use tallow in the recipe. You can read more about why I use tallow and find all my other soap recipes in the posts linked further down. I am currently working on an ebook with all my tallow soap recipes and a step-by-step guide to cold process soap with tallow, look out for it on this blog, coming soon!
1 kg tallow
15 g honey
15 g beeswax
132 g caustic
300-330 mL water
10 g powdered oatmeal (in a splash of water)
(whole oats for topping optional)
(20-40 mL essential oil optional)
Why use natural soaps and salves?
I prefer to use natural products, rather than commercial soaps and lotions with unknown and unnecessary ingredients.
Making tallow soap
This is my first post about soapmaking, and I used tallow right from the start because we have so much leftover from butchering our own beef. Its very cheap to buy from the butcher, and its a sustainable ingredient (especially if you eat beef anyway). It makes great soap too!
Rendering tallow in a slow cooker
Its very easy to render tallow from beef fat. The kidney fat makes the best soap as its hard and white.
Beef tallow soap recipes
Here's a couple of basic recipes for tallow soap - a bath soap and a cleaning soap.
Sustainable soap - 100% tallow!
I was very happy to finally master a 100% tallow recipe (the other recipes had 50% tallow, with coconut and olive oil making up the rest of the oils).
Natural soap using beef tallow
I started to have more fun with my soap here, and learnt how to add other natural ingredients for colour and texture.
Shaving soap and A sustainable shave?
I made Pete shaving soap in little tins. You can use that with a shaving brush instead of shaving cream.
Soap with coffee grounds
Coffee grounds help to remove dirt and odours, great for hard workers!
Neem oil soap and salve
Neem oil is a healing oil for the skin, as well as an insect repellent. It can be used as a pet soap, for kids with knits or adults with damaged skin.
Activated charcoal soap and salve
My latest recipe for a lovely black soap with detoxifying properties.
How to rebatch a soap disaster
It hasn't all gone to plan - this batch never set due to not using enough lye, but I rebatched using the hot process method.
Salt soap fail
And salt soap needs to be cut while its still hot, I had to rebatch this one too. The photo above is a more successful attempt at salt soap.
What do you think? Do you make soap? Have you tried honey, beeswax and oatmeal? Any other natural ingredients that you love to use in soap?
You can get all my tallow soap recipes in my eBook Make Your Own Natural Soap, more information here.
Would you like to try making your own soap from natural ingredients, but don’t know where to start?
This eBook will take you through everything you need to know to make simple soaps from natural ingredients, including herbs, clays, charcoal, oatmeal and coffee grounds.
It also explains how to use tallow in soap. Tallow is cheap and locally available, and it makes long-lasting moisturising soaps, it is an under-utilised ingredient in home soapmaking in my opinion. This eBook includes 10 recipes specifically designed for tallow soap.
Basic Tallow Soap
Pink Clay Soap
Green Herb Soap
True Grit Soap
Black Magic Soap
Salt Spa Soap
Honey and Oatmeal Soap
Neem Oil Soap
Sustainable Shaving soap
Cleaning Soap
Formulate your own
It also explains how to use tallow in soap. Tallow is cheap and locally available, and it makes long-lasting moisturising soaps, it is an under-utilised ingredient in home soapmaking in my opinion. This eBook includes 10 recipes specifically designed for tallow soap.
Basic Tallow Soap
Pink Clay Soap
Green Herb Soap
True Grit Soap
Black Magic Soap
Salt Spa Soap
Honey and Oatmeal Soap
Neem Oil Soap
Sustainable Shaving soap
Cleaning Soap
Formulate your own
Thank you for this post! So many great links! Soap has been on my to do list for a few years now 😄 I am a bit closer now, I've bought new scales and caustic soda! Just need some child free moments to have a go!
ReplyDelete-Kelly B
That soap looks great, Liz. I still haven't used honey, beeswax or tallow in my batches. Too busy experimenting with aloe vera gel, spirulina etc. It is certainly addictive and I always look forward to making my next batch.
ReplyDelete