Peak Wild Mountain Honey

[kharmon320]

I've had this sitting in my cabinet for a couple of months, but just braved it this morning. I LOVE the smell! It smells just like the Orange Blossom Honey hand soap sold at B&BW a few years ago.

After reading about others experiences with this one (seizing, very quick, etc.) I decided to nix the stickblender all together. Used a lard-based recipe, soaped cool (90ish F), added FO with oils before adding lye. Used 0.5oz/ppo. I stirred with a plastic slotted spoon. Took at least 5 minutes of stirring to get to trace. I didn't color, but I think I could have gotten at least an ITP swirl. I added warmed honey at light trace, but even after stirring a while I still had small specks of honey. It was getting quite thick at this point, so I just poured into the silicone mold & insulated. I'm hoping the honey specks don't cause problems. It smells divine! I think it would be great in a beer soap.

I will update after I unmold. Hope that encourages someone to try it. I have another 1 oz bottle, so I may try it in a tallow based soap to compare (same scent, lard vs. tallow).

 

[my2scents]

I love this one as well, I can't keep it on my shelves! Its a best seller. I sell 8-10 bars each day at the farmers market. I press bubble wrap on to the top to give the honey comb look.
I've never had a problem with it seizing but I soap cool 100-110 & I don't add my fragrance until I'm really ready to pour & thats after I have mixed my batter to light trace & somtimes its been sitting for 5-10 minutes while I scent,color,layer & pour other soaps.
Its never been a problem. I stopped adding my fragrance oils to my oils because it just doesn't give me enough time to do everything I want to get done. It does discolor a bit, I never color mine it just looks like a natural honey comb, but as it cures it kinda goes a greyish beige.
my customers LOVE this scent.

 

[Shar]

Glad to hear both your reviews on Wild Mountain Honey, so I'll what to expect when I get around to soaping it. I just received this scent last week. Love the way this one smells oob, and hope to get it soaped sometime this week. Did either of you use GM in the recipe? TIA.

 

[kharmon320]

Hi Shar,

I did not use GM in the soap. As I feared, I now have dark honey "specks" all throughout the soap. I have another sample bottle that I would like to try with a tallow recipe, but I don't know what to do about incorporating the honey better.

My2Scents- you use a stickblender on this one? I think I'll have better luck if I stickblend the honey in first, then add the FO. I'm hoping the scent cures a little better. It's lost a lot of the complexity, but it's only 24 hrs old. Still smells like honey, but not same as OOB.

 

[my2scents]

yep I stick blend to a light trace then add my fragrance when I'm ready to pour

 

[morrainewoods]

I have this curing on my shelf right now, smells awesome! I did not use the gm and mixed the frag oil with my oils first and no bad behavior what so ever.

 

[Shar]

Hi Shar,

I did not use GM in the soap. As I feared, I now have dark honey "specks" all throughout the soap. I have another sample bottle that I would like to try with a tallow recipe, but I don't know what to do about incorporating the honey better.

My2Scents- you use a stickblender on this one? I think I'll have better luck if I stickblend the honey in first, then add the FO. I'm hoping the scent cures a little better. It's lost a lot of the complexity, but it's only 24 hrs old. Still smells like honey, but not same as OOB.

you're soap will probably be fine, as that once happened to me with another fo before, it was only an aesthetic problem, hated seeing those spots in my soap, but it was still great soap in the shower. I think I was soaping too cool and didn't incorporate the honey good enough. now I usually squirt a few TBSP in at trace a little bit at a time and make sure I mix it well. I may try a little bit when I soap Wild mountain honey if all goes well, if it thickens up on me though, I'm just gonna skip the honey all together. I appreciate your comments on this, and I'm gonna hope for the best..
I soaped Peak's Warm Vanilla Sugar last week and it smells Awesome! No problems either. I also soaped Black Canyon, it was manageable..Turning a funky color but nice and strong in the curing bars.
Another one I soaped was the Peach fragrance and it really acted up for me. kept separating, so I stick blended the heck out of it and would leave it for a bit and keep at over and over. finally after about 45 minutes I poured it and think it's gonna be ok. It sure is hard to find a peach fo that doesn't morph though. Will see how it does in a few weeks..

 

[kharmon320]

Thanks for all the feedback. It may have been that I was soaping really cool to try to keep any bad behavior from FO at bay. My husband said, "Why do you want sticky honey in your soap anyway???" What! It's honey soap you dufus! I didn't say that, but tried to explain it doesn't stay sticky.

 

[judymoody]

I add my honey to room temperature lye/water solution. It heats up again then but the honey gets fully incorporated and stays that way. I wait for it to cool and soap away.

DO NOT add honey to hot lye solution. A volcano is likely and the honey can get burned and separate into little burnt bits.

 

[honor435]

hey, how come yours worked, I have made this numerous times, usually hp, but every time I do cp it acc major!