Beeswax Soap Recipe (Cold Process)

Beeswax and honey soap with moisturizing olive oil and shea butter plus a warm, sweet, homey scent - what could be better?

Truth be told: I wanted to make a honey/beeswax inspired soap for a very long time. Not because these are great ingredients for homemade soap, BUT because I wanted to try out this fun bubble wrap honeycomb technique (I didn't come up with it) for the top of the soap.

Turns out my bubble wrap was already a bit deflated by the time I got around to it. But if yours is nice and bouncy, your design will come out perfectly crisp.

I've used beeswax in lip balms and body butter, but never in soap before. Although I had heard many great things about it. So, here we go, let's make beeswax soap!

Benefits of Honey and Beeswax in Soap

• beeswax is a natural emollient that can help moisturize skin
• adding beeswax will produce a harder bar of soap: I'm using beeswax to my advantage in this soap recipe, since I've chosen a high amount of conditioning oils and butters that don't add a lot of hardness to the bar of soap. By adding beeswax I can get away without using palm oil or tallow and still have a fairly hard bar of soap after curing.
• beeswax can reduce soda ash by creating a barrier between the soap and surrounding air
• beeswax helps produce a stable lather
• honey helps boost bubbles and lather
• honey and beeswax have great label appeal, if your thinking of selling your soap

Working with Beeswax and Honey in Soap

• beeswax has a high melting point which means you'll have to soap at higher temperatures than you normally would
• you don't want to add too much beeswax to a soap recipe (1-2 % is enough), otherwise you might end up with a waxy or crumbly bar of soap
• beeswax makes soap come to trace very fast, stick blend as little as possible and then continue stirring to avoid soap getting too thick
• beeswax soap might be hard to cut, that's way I prefer single cavity molds over a loaf mold
• honey can cause the soap to really heat up due to the added sugar, that's why it's best to place the mold into the freezer right after pouring the soap

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Ingredients

makes 1 lb or 4 bars of soap, lye concentration: 35%, superfat: 5%

lye solution

• distilled water: 2.7 oz/ 76 g
• lye (Sodium Hydroxide): 1.4 oz/ 41 g

hard oils

• coconut oil: (30%): 3.2 oz/ 89 g
• shea butter (25%): 2.6 oz/ 74 g
• beeswax pellets (white or yellow beeswax, 2%): .2 oz/ 6 g

soft oils

• olive oil (37%): 3.9 oz/ 110 g
• castor oil (6%): 0.6 oz/ 18 g

add to melted oils

• raw honeycomb fragrance oil (from brambleberry): 0.4 oz/ 11 g
• raw honey: 1 tsp

Equipment

• goggles and gloves
• bubble wrap (optional)
• silicone soap mold
• cutting board
• immersion blender / stick blender
• digital scale
• 2 medium sized containers (not glass, not aluminum)
• small plastic spoon
• silicone spatula

How to Make Beeswax and Honey Soap

If this is your first time cold process soap making, please familiarize yourself with all the safety precautions and steps in my How to Make Soap Beginner's Guide

1. Gear up for safety! Put on gloves and goggles, wear long sleeves and make sure you're in a well-ventilated area
2. Into small plastic cup measure lye
3. Into medium sized container measure water
4. Create lye water solution by adding lye to water and stir until fully dissolved. Don't inhale fumes coming off the lye solution! Set aside to cool.
5. Prepare soap mold by cutting bubble wrap into 3 x 2 ¼ inch pieces, place on bottom of mold

6. Place mold on cutting board for easy handling later

7. Melt coconut oil, shea butter and beeswax over medium heat in a water bath or on short bursts in the microwave, make sure beeswax is fully melted

8. Add olive and castor oil

9. Add fragrance oil and honey to melted oils

10. Slowly and carefully pour lye solution into the oils

11. Stick blend briefly until soap batter is at very light trace (light pudding consistency)

12. Continue stirring using spatula until medium trace

13. Pour soap mixture into soap mold and tap down to release any air bubbles

14. Place soaps in freezer for 3-4 hours

15. Unmold bars of soap after 48 hours by pulling on sides first. Gently peel off bubble wrap

16. Let soap cure for 4-6 weeks

17. Store in empty shoebox away from heat and humidity up to 12 months

FAQ