How much honey is too much?

[Bubli]

I made a honey beeswax soap a while ago and it turned out great other than it being too dark for my liking. I used 1 Tbsp. per pound of oils. Also I added it diluted in water at trace. How much is enough and if you add it to lye solution, will that cause the lye solution to over heat, possibly boil? Also I want to know about how much honey and how to do this in lye water when you also dissolve silk and salt in the lye water. What about an ice bath like you would do for milk?

When I made the honey beeswax soap it did heat up and trace super fast, scary fast almost! The smell of the finished soap was so good, pumpkin spicey type smell. It smelled just like fall/thanksgiving baking. Heavenly.

I'm thinking I used to much honey or maybe the adding it to the lye water would have worked better. Please advise me, someone. I just don't want to end up with an even more dangerous mess. Also, will the lye water turn a horrifying color yet change once soap has cooled an cured? How do you guys/gals that make very light colored honey beeswax or just honey soap do it and it comes out so pale yellowish instead of light to darkish brown? The dark color I ended up with is what stopped me from making more honey soap. Also I would want the soap to gel. Would that make it darker?

Sorry, one more annoying question....what would be the order of dissolving honey,silk fiber,salt in lye water, or does it matter?

 

[lsg]

Honey and sugars will cause soap to heat up during the gel phase. You might try sticking the soap in the freezer to prevent overheating. I don't really think that 1 Tbsp. ppo is too much.

 

[Bubli]

I'm wondering too, if using less....say 1 tsp per pound of oil wold make it lighter?

 

[manny]

I use 1 tbsp ppo. I use individual molds, and the ones in silicone come out much lighter than the soaps in clear plastic molds.

 

[Bubli]

Thanks manny. Do you let yours gel or not?

 

[Jstar]

If you are looking for lighter color, have you tried maple syrup? Soaping101 has a great video on it.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNVrCG12iNg&list=UU6NFc1XyVdzuyQw-f9HG42g[/ame]

She puts hers in the fridge overnight to keep it from overheating, so no gel {or the least amount you can get because some soap will heat no matter what}

I would go for a light colored maple syrup diluted with water, and add at trace like shown in the vid.

For your last question, I add the salt into water first, {make sure it is dissolved} then the lye, then add the silk.

Hope this helps

 

[Bubli]

That does help a lot,thanks. The syrup is interesting, I never thought of that. Good idea. thanks for the video.

 

[KristaY]

Hi Bubli! When I use honey I like to add it to my lye water. It'll heat the lye back up so I wait it out until it's back down to the temp I want. I usually use 1 Tbsp ppo so I think you're good there. I like adding any sugars (like honey, fruit or vegetable puree, beer, wine, etc) to my lye so the heat spike takes place there and not in my soap batter. I haven't had a problem with acceleration or volcanos when I've used this method. The lye water color will end up a dark orange but during cure it mellows out to a light beige. Plus, the lye water solution will smell aweful but this also fades during cure. I wonder if the dark color of your soap is from your FO. My pumpkin spiced FO's have enough vanilla content to turn the batter medium to dark brown.

 

[Bubli]

Thanks, very good advice. You all are so helpful

 

[CaraBou]

I have only made a few honey soaps (none with beeswax), but they have all turned out creamy in color. The pic below shows a bar as it looks today after a 6 month cure.

I use 1/2 tablespoon honey ppo. My mold is a series of side-by-side cavities separated by a thin wall of silicone, and I freeze the soap for 24 hours. I'm sure the combination of these things is overkill in preventing overheating or darkening, so if I had to pick just one thing it would be the freezer. That's because the freezer has never failed me in countless batches of milk soaps, which are notoriously prone to darkening.

I should also mention I dissolve my honey in a little hot water and add it directly to my oils before I add the lye solution. I know other people add it directly to the lye without problems, so that's an option too.

At the 1/2 tablespoon usage rate, which is half of what has been discussed here so far, my honey soaps are still slightly tacky. I don't particularly care for that feeling so I was planning to use just 1 teaspoon ppo next time. I'm curious what others have found in this regard.

 

[Bubli]

Ooh that's a pretty soap. Yeah mine got much darker than that.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I only ever successfully used honey when making individual bars. They didn't gel and my soaps were left with nice tan colour. They stayed nice tan colour after a cure. When I made loaf size soap with honey, it tried to gel and it burned honey, whole thing turned into orange mess.