Milk and Honey Soap

Getting ready for a class on making soap, I was digging out a few recipes today and came across one for milled soaps.

Milled soaps are easy! It's just a fancy way of saying "grate whatever soap you have laying around the house and melt it down."  But milled soap sounds so much more romantic. It is also sometimes called "rebatching".

I have made the old-fashioned lye soaps and while it can be fun to create with different oils and fragrances, it can be a little tricky working with the lye.  If you'd rather not be quite so adventurous, and scared of highly toxic chemicals,  you could go to your local hobby store and buy cubes of "melt and pour" soaps which you just melt down and pour into molds.  Pretty, but not overly crafty, but a nice way to spend an afternoon.

In making the milled soaps, you start off with any kind of traditional soap and grate it.  Some use leftovers bits they have been saving, others buy a specific brand of soap.  Some will make lye soaps, and then grate them down.  Whichever way you choose, for this first recipe, you need about 12 ounces of a grated soap and 9 ounces of water.  Melt the soap in the water, adding 1/4 c instant powered milk and 1/4 c honey.  Stir until thick before pouring into molds, or the honey may sink to the bottom of the molds (which could give it kind of a cool look). Options to include may be up to 1 T of ground toasted oatmeal, food coloring, or essential oils of your choice.  Let the soaps cool and cure, or place in the freezer, before taking out of molds.

Milk and Honey Soap

12 oz of basic soap, grated

9 oz water

1/4 c instant powdered milk

1/4 c honey

Instructions: Melt together the 12 oz of basic soap and 9 oz of water.  Add the milk and honey, stirring until fairly thick.  Put into molds and allow to cure.

Hope you all are enjoying a wonderful new year.  The beekeeping season is right around the corner, and I can't wait!