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mrjesmon20

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Hi, my name is Jess. I'm kinda newbie in this field. I would like to learn how to incorporate honey in making soaps since my friend who owns a beehive would like to collaborate in making products with the honey he harvests.
 
Welcome Jess, it would be best for you to start learning how to make soap first without colour, scent or additives to see how the process works. Start reading in the beginners section and go forward.
 
Hey and welcome!

If you are a total newbie to making soap, go read about 5-10 pages of threads on the Beginner Forum. ESPECIALLY the stickies. Then, when you have a recipe you want to try, post it up there, and we will help you tweak it before you make it. Or, we will be happy to share our best beginner recipes.
 
Welcome, Jess. You say you are new to the field. Honey can cause so much overheating, it's not something to try with your first or even first few batches, IMO. Not only will it create an overheating in your lye solution that can be pretty scary if you've little experience working with lye solution, but it can create over-heating with your soap in your mold and even cause a soap 'volcano' where your soap rises up and spills out over the sides. If you Hot Process with honey that volcano can make a huge mess of your work area (yes I have had that happen to me once, and I don't even remember if I was using honey at the time or not.)

So I strongly agree with the above recommendations to make a few simple soap recipes first that don't include honey, or even milk or any other additives that have natural sugars in them. Getting a good understanding of the process first goes a long way toward preparation to try new things later. If you haven't made a few batches successfully yet, that would be the next step after learning the safety basics and how to develop a recipe.

Later on down the road, there are a few soapers here on SMF who do use honey from either their own bee hives or from friends and neighbor's hives. So you should find a good resource for information about how to go about preparing said honey if it needs cleaning, etc. first. (I don't know; I've never used honey from anything but a jar.)
 
Thank you so much for the head start advice. I really appreciate the wisdom. I will read "how to make a decent soap first" then I'll try to make a few batches before I experiment. I know learning the basics is important.
 
If I use honey in a soap I use 1 teaspoon ppo and I mix it into the oils before I add the lye. It's not much but it colours the batter to a very light tan colour. It doesn't overheat and I lightly CPOP my soap as usual.
 
I would like to learn how to incorporate honey in making soaps since my friend who owns a beehive would like to collaborate in making products with the honey he harvests.

Hiya Jess! and Welcome!

My favorite recipe for using honey is a goat milk, oats and honey recipe that you can do either HP (hot process) or CP (cold process). But using milk and honey both take special care and, as others advised, best to make a few simple batches first.

Check the Beginners Forum for a list of sites where you can learn to make soap on line. You might like David Fisher's site "The Spruce". He has very basic information and techniques and I'm almost sure he'll have a recipe for goat milk, oats and honey -- it's a classic soap that people love -- especially good for those suffering from psoriasis and eczema.

Most importantly, have fun!
 
Welcome Jess! :wave:

I love honey in soap. One of my favorite soaps to make is my honey & beeswax soap (my method is spelled out in post #16 of the thread).... As the others have said, both honey and beeswax can be quite tricky to use in soap, so it will help tremendously to get the normal hang of soapmaking down and be comfortable with it before you attempt to use either one of them.


IrishLass :)
 
One of my favorite soaps to make is my honey & beeswax soap (my method is spelled out in post #16 of the thread)
Awesome, Irish! I especially like the look of the honey dripping down the side of the bars! YUM!

Jess, because you are new, I feel I should mention that you need to click on the words highlighted in gold in Irish's post -- it's a link to get to the thread -- then look for the numbers in the upper right corner of each post to find #16. When I first started here, I always read past those gold letters without realizing what they were and missed a lot of stuff! LOL Dumb me! It took me a while to catch on!

I'd also like to mention that the profit margin for products that use honey and beeswax is better for lip balms, herbal salves, and balms than it is for soap. The learning curve is shorter too! Feel free to PM me for recipes. (You do that by clicking on my name above my avatar. Choose "Private Message" from the drop down menu.)

You can also make Christmas ornaments from beeswax! Google it to learn how to do it.
 
Hello Jess and welcome aboard.
You will love using honey and beeswax in your soap. It will be a beautiful specialty soap for you. As others have stated they can be a challenge to use, but definitely worth it!
 

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