I want to make a soap with honey, will it volcano?

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Confused_Penguin

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I want to make an unscented soap with oatmeal and organic honey. I've read that 1 tablespoon per pound of oil is rule of thumb when doing so, but I have never added any sugars to my recipe before and I'm scared that it might volcano. I'm trying to make a 4 pound batch. My mold gets pretty hot after 3 hours as it starts to gels and I soap around 80-85 degrees ( i have some hard oils in my recipe).

I always gel my soaps but for adding honey, do you guys think I should stick it in the freezer instead? Any suggestions or tips to prevent my soap from exploding haha.

Also how much oatmeal should I add? I don't want it to be to scratchy I was thinking half a cup to a cup of oatmeal.
 
I'm still a newbie, however, I added honey to four batches so far and none of them did anything strange. I cp at low temperatures also. I put mine in the freezer so they won't gel. I don't measure my oatmeal. I grind them up fairly well (I like a little texture left) and just put in whatever amount I think I would like. If I had to guess how much I used, I would say about half a cup. Enough to know it's in there but not too much to over take the bars. I only make small batches.
 
I add up to a tablespoon of sugar to my lye water routinely, I also gel as a rule, and Ive never had a volcano. Many people add sugar to their lye water to increase bubbles, and sugar has more sugar per tbsp than honey :)

I've done precisely one batch that didn't gel, and I wont do that again - it took forever to harden up enough to cut, and I don't care for the pastel look.

I would vote soaping cool, adding the honey to the water before the lye and allowing the soap to gel. Keep an eye, you probably won't even need insulation and a lid, but just wing it.
 
I agree with SeaWolfe - add the honey to the water before the lye. I always add anything with sugars (honey, beer, wine, fruit or veggie puree, etc) to my water first. Once the lye is added, (which you should do very slowly and carefully), it will change color, smell ugly and heat up. By heating up in the lye, it doesn't heat up as much in the batter. Don't worry about the smell and color though, it'll go away with cure. When I use this technique working with sugars, I've never had a volcano or major crack.

Good luck!
 
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