This skin soothing oatmeal & honey soap bar is filled with gluten free oats & fresh honey. It’s perfect for those with itchy irritated skin!
Not long after my children went gluten free for celiac disease, they came down with chicken pox. It sounds silly, but I couldn’t stop dwelling on the sad fact that I couldn’t use the traditional oatmeal baths and lotions that are so helpful for itchy skin afflictions.
I determined I’d make my own skin-soothing oatmeal & honey soap free of gluten, dairy, and soy. (My son was also allergic to wheat, milk, and soy.) This recipe is the product of that quest!
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Here’s a video of me making oatmeal and honey soap! (Often an ad plays first, but the video will be right after. If you have an ad blocker enabled, you won’t be able to see this video player.)
Oatmeal & Honey Soap Recipe
(Recipe can be exactly doubled.)
- 22.5 ounces (638 g) olive oil (75%)
- 7.5 ounces (213 g) coconut oil (25%)
- 9 ounces (255 g) distilled water
- 4.16 ounces (118 g) lye (sodium hydroxide) (6% superfat)
- At trace add: 1/2 tbsp finely ground oats and 1 tsp honey mixed with 1 tsp warm water
- Optional: You may wish to add 1/2 tablespoon of your favorite oil or butter at trace too. This will make your soap more moisturizing for dry skin.
For full details on making handmade soap, be sure to visit my article: Soap Making 101: How to Make Soap (+printable checklist).
For a vegan version, replace the honey with an equal amount of agave nectar.
Where to buy supplies: You can buy the oils needed for this recipe at local health or grocery stores. Oats (we use gluten free), honey, and distilled water can be found at most grocery stores. I like Essential Depot’s food gradelye fromAmazon.com.
To make ground oats: Just take regular rolled or whole oats (I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats) and grind them in a small coffee grinder.
Tips for making oatmeal honey soap: Soaps containing honey do not need to be heavily insulated or covered, because the natural sugars in honey makes the soap warmer than usual. If you see a crack forming across the top, that means the soap is getting too hot in the mold. If that happens, move the mold to a cooler place or in front of a box fan for several hours to help.
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Oatmeal & Honey Soap Recipe
This skin soothing oatmeal & honey soap bar is filled with gluten free oats & fresh honey. It’s perfect for those with itchy irritated skin!
Keyword gluten free, honey, oatmeal, soap
Cook Time 1 hour hour
Time in Mold 1 day day
Total Time 1 day day 1 hour hour
Servings 8 bars
Equipment
pair of gloves (dishwashing gloves work well and can be reused)
safety goggles to protect eyes from splashes
a digital scale
a small cup for weighing lye
a 1 quart container for mixing lye solution
a 2 1/2 quart container for mixing soap
a saucepan for melting coconut oil
an immersion blender (stick blender)
a soap mold (that holds 40 to 50 oz of soap)
Ingredients
- 22.5 oz olive oil (638 g) (75%)
- 7.5 oz coconut oil (213 g) (25%)
- 9 oz distilled water (255 g) (2.16 times as much water as lye)
- 4.16 oz sodium hydroxide lye (118 grams) (6% superfat)
- 0.5 tbsp finely ground oats
- 1 tsp honey, mixed with 1 tsp warm water to dilute
- 1/2 tbsp optional extra: your favorite butter or oil (such as melted shea butter, or rosehip seed oil)
Instructions
Assemble your ingredients, equipment, and safety gear.
Make sure kids and pets can't access the area you're working in, and you're able to devote your full attention to making soap.
Prepare your mold.
Weigh out the water into the 1 quart mixing container.
Make sure you have on gloves and goggles.
Weigh out the lye into the small cup.
Sprinkle the lye into the water and stir until completely dissolved. There will be momentary strong fumes released that you don't want to breathe in.
Set the lye solution aside in a safe spot to cool.
While the lye solution cools, melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan.
Weigh the olive oil into the larger mixing container, and add the coconut oil once it's melted.
When the lye solution is around 90 to 115 degrees F, pour the lye solution into the container of warmed oils. (You don't have to have the oils and lye solution the same temperature – it's okay if the oils are a little under 90 degrees.)
Use the immersion blender (stick blender) to mix the oils and lye solution together in a few short bursts.
Add the ground oats and diluted honey. If adding the extra oil, do so now too.
Stir by hand a few seconds, then burst the stick blender a few seconds. Alternate hand stirring and the stick blender. Don't run the immersion blender continuously.
Mix until you reach trace. Trace meanswhen you drizzle a small bit of the soap mixture over the surface of itself, it will leave a faint pattern or 'trace' before sinking back into the mixture.
Pour into your soap mold. Because this soap has honey, it may heat up quicker than other soap. Cover lightly with a piece of parchment paper and then a light piece of cloth, like a pillowcase or dish towel.
Keep the soap covered, but peek at it every so often. If you see a crack forming in the top, it's getting too hot and should be uncovered. You may also want to place it on a cooling rack to allow cooler air to circulate underneath.
Keep the soap in the mold for at least 24 to 48 hours.
Unmold and slice into bars right away, or if the soap is on the soft side, you can wait a few days before cutting into soap bars.
