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Oatmeal and Honey Soap Recipe

Posted by Kelly Handmade Soap, Homemade Soap Recipes 36 comments
Please Share

This oatmeal and honey soap recipe has become a special favorite of mine. The oats and cinnamon give it a natural, fresh scent that I really like. The oats make it lightly exfoliating, and the cinnamon drip look is just beautiful.

I tried to wait until Spring to make any more soap, because my last batch was too cold and didn’t saponify properly so I had to hand mill it. It’s hard to get the temperatures right when it’s freezing outside and pretty cold inside too.  It turned out great in the end, but I enjoy cold-process soap more than hot process or hand milled soap, because I like the smooth texture and hardness of the bar.

All Natural Oatmeal and Honey Soap Recipe from Simple Life Mom

I couldn’t wait to make this oatmeal and honey soap recipe again, because it makes a wonderful Christmas gift or soap to have around the home for that cinnamon holiday scent.

I have a lot more Christmas soap recipes. Get them hereL

  • 6 Christmas Soap Recipes – Handmade Cold Process Soap Gifts
  • 9 Christmas Soap Recipes – Handmade Cold Process Soap Gifts
  • 7 Beautiful Holiday Soap Recipes
  • Handmade Frankincense and Myrrh Soap Recipe
  • Natural Candy Cane Soap Recipe -A Great Gift Idea
  • 4 Beautiful Holiday Soap Recipes

Soap Ingredients

Let’s talk about the drip effect of the cinnamon!

The thickness of the soap has everything to do with the end result. If the soap is very thin, the swirl will blend too much into the soap. Too thick, and the swirl will stay on top, which makes for a beautiful swirl, but it doesn’t create a drip effect. For a drip effect, you want the soap to be thin, but not watery thin. Have fun with it. It will turn out beautiful any way it ends up.

Adding honey to soap adds extra bubbles for the lather. It can make your batch heat up, so if you add cinnamon essential oil for scent, don’t insulate the batch too much (or at least keep an eye on it) becuase the hot essential oil plus the sugar in the honey can cause overheating and therefore buckling of the soap.

Oats added to this recipe gently exfoliate.  You can grind them or leave them whole. Your preference.

I did not add any essential oils because I like the natural oats scent that this soap has on its own, but feel free to add cinnamon leaf essential oil.

Cinnamon and Honey Soap Recipe

This recipe has 10% superfat and makes 3 pounds or 12 four ounce soap bars.

The oats are added to the entire batch, but you can also sprinkle oats on the top.

SimpelLifeMom
Pin Recipe Print Recipe

Cinnamon and Honey Soap Recipe

A natural cold process soap with cinnamon, honey, and oats.
Prep Time1 hour hr
Insulation Time1 day d
Cure Time21 days d
Superfat %: 10%
Keyword: christmas soap, cold process soap, honey soap
Makes: 3 pounds
Author: Kelly

Equipment

  • 1 large stainless steel pot
  • 1 large glass bowl
  • 2 small glass bowl
  • 1 large spoon
  • 1 scale
  • 1 measuring cups
  • 1 measuring spoons
  • 1 whisk
  • 1 stick blender
  • 1 3lb soap mold

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces lard
  • 8 ounces coconut oil
  • 6 ounces olive oil
  • 4 ounces cocoa butter
  • 10.9 ounces water
  • 4.6 ounces lye
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 0.75 ounce cinnamon leaf essential oil , optional
  • ½ cup ground oats , plus extra to sprinkle on top
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

  • Weigh and then add the lard, coconut oil, olive oil, cocoa butter to a large stainless steel pot. Melt and then cool to around 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
    16 ounces lard, 8 ounces coconut oil, 6 ounces olive oil, 4 ounces cocoa butter
  • Weigh the water and set aside. Wearing protective gloves, weigh lye into a zip close bag. Put on long sleeves, charcoal mask, and goggles and take lye and water outside. Pour the lye into the water and stir until dissolved. Let that cool until it's around 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
    10.9 ounces water, 4.6 ounces lye
  • When both lye water and oils are around 90 degrees, pour the lye water into the oils and blend on and off until light trace.
    0.75 ounce cinnamon leaf essential oil, 1/2 cup ground oats
  • Add honey, cinnamon leaf essential oil, and blended oats and blend.
  • Remove 1 cup of soap and set aside. Pour main batch of soap into prepared mold.
  • Add cinnamon to the 1 cup of soap and whisk until well blended. Pour back and forth over the soap in the mold. Insert a chopstick or skewer in one end and pull it back and forth in the soap. Don't over mix.
    1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • Sprinkle additional oats over the top if desired. Cover soap to insulate for 24 hours. Watch for overheating if your home is warm.
  • After 24 hours, remove from the mold and cut. Let cure for 3-6 weeks.


Please Share
36 comments

About Kelly

Kelly is the author of number one best seller The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners and Easy Soap Making. She's also written multiple ebooks on herbal remedies and natural bath and body DIYs. Her journey toward better health has inspired her to make things in and around the home from scratch, start a homestead, and become more resourceful when it comes to health and home. She shares her recipes and DIYs here on Simple Life Mom and has a shop where she sells products for those who would rather buy than make (SimpleLifeMom.com/shop).

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36 comments

Leave your reply.
  • hettychatters
    · Reply

    November 16, 2012 at 3:21 PM

    that looks gorgeous!

  • Una-Melina
    · Reply

    November 23, 2012 at 5:27 PM

    Thank you for sharing your creativity. Initially I thought we might use this in our homeschool during our handicraft time (with my daughter especially). But I also love the idea that we could make them in time to give as Christmas gifts! You mentioned your preference for cold processed soap. Might that be easier for us to try first as beginners?

    • simplelifemom
      · Reply

      Author
      November 24, 2012 at 3:49 AM

      I also homeschool! This is a cold processed soap recipe. There are a lot of things to do during and at the end. You can definitely go for it, but as beginners you may want to try the basic recipe, just adding your lovely smells at the end. As long as you treat the lye with respect and lots of ventilation it’s fine to do with older kids. I would not recommend doing it with young children because even after you mix the lye/water mixture into the fats the mixture will burn if it splashes onto you. If you want to make it for Christmas, make it soon, because it needs 4-6 weeks to cure. You can also make it and then reprocess it in a crockpot with a very low setting and it will be ready to use right away. I’ve done that and it turned out great.

      • Worthy Books and Things
        · Reply

        November 24, 2012 at 4:55 PM

        Well my crafty girl is almost thirteen, so that’s np. 🙂 Thanks for the crockpot idea. I think that’s what we’ll try first. Yay! Looking forward to trying this.

        • simplelifemom
          · Reply

          Author
          November 26, 2012 at 1:01 AM

          Great. Let it set up fully before adding it to your crockpot. Melt it down slowly. When it starts to heat up, stir until it’s thoroughly cooked. It never liquifies. You can find lots of places on the internet that talk about it. I hope it turns out great.

  • Jamie
    · Reply

    March 23, 2013 at 3:40 AM

    I have really enjoyed your blog! So far, I have made your castille soap w/o the peppermint, as I only wanted a base. I then made a castille version of your honey oatmeal soap, I have collected all the ingredients to make the lard version, just have not made the time. I’ve also made your chocolate several times and have varied by adding melted peanut butter prior to freezing. Thank you so much for posting your wisdoms. All of your recipes that I have used have worked with out fail.

    • simplelifemom
      · Reply

      Author
      March 25, 2013 at 8:44 PM

      Wow, you’ve been busy. I’m glad you’ve benefited from the resources. 🙂

  • wiwikbasuki
    · Reply

    June 13, 2013 at 9:36 AM

    hhmm oatmeal and cinnamon…why not? I love both of them. Good idea for my next weekend 🙂

  • Sarah
    · Reply

    June 14, 2013 at 1:19 PM

    Will this recipe work without the oatmeal? I’m worried about washing it down the drain and clogging my pipes.

    • simplelifemom
      · Reply

      Author
      June 14, 2013 at 8:27 PM

      It will work great without the oatmeal. It is ground almost to powder so that it gives the soap a little texture, so there is no possible way it could clog pipes.

  • Jason
    · Reply

    March 25, 2015 at 9:06 PM

    Considering making this soap…. I have lard, however I rendered it myself from my own pigs… I have stored it to use for cooking and plan to keep it for that use. So the second question, i know a local butcher shop, however they charge a silly amount for the fat. Being that so many folks around here make their own sausage it is rather expensive for soap making…

    My wife says that she saw some at a box store, it seemed to be affordable for soap making… However I just wanted to check with you if this processed lard would work? I am not sure what is in it to give it a shelf life, I think DHT…. I have no idea what that is….

    So you mentioned to think of your soaps in three ways, I thought that was great advice. So if we think of the fats here, could any oils be used instead of lard? A related question, can I add some different oils ie; avocado, castor, cocoa butter, shea butter to a basic castile soap recipe as long as the olive oil amount is correct? If the recipe required 26 ounces of olive oil, could I add 1 ounce of shea butter, 1 ounce of castor oil and 24 ounces of olive oil? This formulation would still give me the required 26 ounces of fat needed for the recipe.

    Every recipe you have shared has been perfect so far…. I have enjoyed making soap under your instruction and am learning a lot. Thank you for your help, assistance and continued support…. Jason

    • Kelly - Simple Life Mom
      · Reply

      Author
      March 25, 2015 at 9:31 PM

      You can use commercial lard. It will make great soap, but yes, you need to figure out what’s in it. Some local grocery stores will save the fat that they trim and give it to you, or sell it for pennies.
      Secondly, seeing the fats in that way sometimes works that way, sometimes not. I’ve had some success doing that, but also odd soaps that didn’t turn out like I wanted in terms of hardness, lather, etc. Different oils have different properties that will really effect your soap. There are some great sites to give you more info. into the breakdown of oil properties so you can make your own. If you want the technical side, you may want to check out http://www.millersoap.com/soapdesign.html

  • Marci
    · Reply

    April 29, 2015 at 3:15 PM

    Hello. I really like your site and quite a few of your soap recipes.

    I’m going to start making my own soaps and like this oatmeal recipe with the exception of the lard (I want to make all vegan soaps). Could I not replace the 64 oz of lard with 64oz of a solid vegetable oil at room temp, like Shea Butter or Avocado?

    I was reading the the question above mine with replacing the lard and I thought I read that bottom line when you make soaps you should have 60% hard oils, 40% soft oils…if you stick to that hard to soft oil ratio you can replace oils and the soap will always turn out and cure as a hard bar of soap with the suds/lather being the main difference….Is this not true?

    Also why would anyone want to use animal fat or crisco to clean their body…that just doesn’t seem right…..actually sounds gross…

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      April 30, 2015 at 12:35 PM

      Hi Marci,
      The short answer – no. It is more complex than just 60-40, though that can often work with various recipes that you know are successful when you tweak them slightly. For example, I just changed a recipe that I love to add more shea and less of something else, and the soap turned out hard as a rock. It’s a fine soap, it just doesn’t lather like I want it to. The reason is that different fats give different qualities to the soap. Within the soap making process, the oils are completely busted open and transformed into soap molecules by the lye. There are properties that remain in the soap, which is why we choose various oils.
      I have 8 Palm Oil Soap Recipes that you can use instead: https://simplelifemom.com/2014/04/07/8-homemade-palm-oil-soap-recipes/

  • Melissa
    · Reply

    August 10, 2017 at 2:35 PM

    Could this recipe be made in a crock pot ?

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      August 10, 2017 at 7:34 PM

      Yes, you can hot process this recipe.

  • Kelly
    · Reply

    Author
    August 10, 2018 at 6:44 AM

    This is the correct recipe.

  • Sandy
    · Reply

    January 22, 2019 at 1:37 PM

    Hi Kelly
    I don’t know what doing wrong. I’ve tried this recipe twice. It falls apart when I cut it. My second batch was better, it didn’t come to trace as soon as I added the lye! I used a different scale. I didn’t add the cinnamon. And I used different oils, but only an ounce like your recipe calls for. When I plugged the oils in the soap calculator, the water and lye were high, but I’m too new to understand the percentage of water to oil ratio.

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      January 23, 2019 at 6:41 PM

      Sandy, the plugin I use for the recipes went crazy a few months ago and everything was switched around. I thought I caught all of them, but this one wasn’t caught. I’m sorry. There is definitely too much lye!! It’s fixed now.

  • Linda K Fisher-Berlanga
    · Reply

    September 10, 2019 at 9:42 AM

    4.6 oz is the correct amount of lye?
    is it ok to make this recipe in the crock pot?
    Thank you!

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      September 15, 2019 at 4:52 PM

      Yes, and you can make it in a crockpot to hot process.

  • Tammy
    · Reply

    June 26, 2020 at 8:48 AM

    What do you mean by “Fats” in your recipe and how much?

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      June 29, 2020 at 6:50 PM

      Any type of oils, butters, waxes, and animal fats are usually classified in soap recipes as “oils” or “fats”.

  • Nicola
    · Reply

    August 28, 2020 at 3:59 AM

    Hi there. I was just wondering how much shea butter i could use instead of lard

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      August 29, 2020 at 8:43 PM

      You can’t just replace lard with shea butter. Your soap will be sticky if the shea butter percentage is too high. If you want to replace lard, you can use tallow or palm kernel oil. Or you can use another recipe with these additives.

  • Laura
    · Reply

    September 30, 2020 at 6:49 AM

    Hello Kelly :). Thank you so much for sharing this soap recipe! I just wanted to share something about the Cinnamon Leaf EO though. The recipe size is 34 oz. of oils (including the beeswax) and recommends 1 oz. of Cinnamon Leaf EO. EOcalc.com doesn’t even recommend a 1% usage rate or .34 oz. because it is a hot oil. I just thought I would check because I don’t want anyone having a skin reaction with this amount of EO. I hope that is okay to share. Thank you again for all you have freely taught us! 🙂

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      September 30, 2020 at 7:47 AM

      Definitely use the cinnamon leaf, not bark. It has a beautiful cinnamon scent and is gentle on the skin. The cinnamon bark has a stronger cinnamon scent that people love but it can be irritating to sensitive skin. If you have cinnamon bark then use less. It’s a stronger scent anyway so it’ll still smell great.

  • John
    · Reply

    November 13, 2020 at 11:15 AM

    What type of cinnamon is used in the Oatmeal Honey Soap recipe? Is it essential oil of powder?
    Thanks!

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      November 15, 2020 at 4:00 PM

      Cinnamon powder

  • John
    · Reply

    December 28, 2020 at 9:11 PM

    Should the Coco Butter be the deodorized or unrefined?
    Thanks!

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      December 29, 2020 at 3:54 PM

      Just make sure it’s pure cocoa butter (no extra ingredients). It can be deodorized and still work well in the recipe.

  • Lyuba
    · Reply

    April 21, 2021 at 1:20 PM

    Hi Kelly,
    I am really want to try this recipe but wondering if I can skip beeswax here as I don’t have any on hand or is there something else I can use instead?

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      April 23, 2021 at 10:28 AM

      You can leave it out. It adds some hydration, but the soap is still great without it. Add the equivalent in cocoa butter if you have it, or in coconut oil.

  • Leslie
    · Reply

    January 26, 2022 at 12:32 PM

    ???, I don’t have any lard rendered.
    Would Palm Oil be a substitute for lard in this recipe?
    Thank You for All You Share

  • Frank
    · Reply

    July 5, 2024 at 11:14 AM

    I am very confused, this is a cinnamon and honey soap with no honey in the ingredients?

    • Kelly
      · Reply

      Author
      July 5, 2024 at 11:33 AM

      I recently updated the recipe block and somehow missed that. Thank you for the catch! It’s fixed now.

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