Homemade Honeysuckle Soap Recipe with exfoliating bits! This seasonally inspired homemade honeysuckle soap recipe is the perfect way to savor the scent of honeysuckle year round! And it makes a great family weekend craft project that's also perfect for DIY gifts for teachers, neighbors and friends.

Soapmaking

Homemade Honeysuckle Soap Recipe for Savoring The Last of Summer

August 16, 2018

This seasonally inspired homemade honeysuckle soap recipe is the perfect way to savor the scent of honeysuckle year round! Plus discover 34 more homemade melt and pour soap recipes that you DIY as your next weekend craft project!

Honeysuckle, A Childhood Favorite.

One of my favorite childhood memories is the smell – and taste! – of fresh honeysuckle. When I was growing up we had huge bushes of honeysuckle and boysenberries that grew alongside our property line. I would always pluck the flowers from those honeysuckle bushes when the blooms turned from white to yellow and suck out the nectar hidden inside. How wonderful it would be if we could simply bottle this amazing, sweet liquid to enjoy year round!

Here in Southwestern Virginia I’m accustomed to seeing Japanese honeysuckles throughout our region. It’s easy to find honeysuckle both in backyards as well as along the Blue Ridge Mountains that surround the valley I reside in. While honeysuckles aren’t currently blooming in my neck of the woods, most honeysuckles will bloom not only in the spring, but also continue to bloom through summer into early fall.

However, you don’t have to wait for spring to come back around to get a taste of honeysuckle as we slip into fall. You can enjoy the sweet scent of honeysuckle year round by making your own homemade honeysuckle soap! My homemade honeysuckle soap recipe is crafted using a detergent free baby buttermilk soap base. Not only is this base gentle on skin, it’s one of the few melt and pour soap bases that I actually like. (Cold process soap is still my all time fave!)

To make this soap a little more interesting than just melting a base then adding color and fragrance, I created scrubby exfoliating embeds to bring in the colors of the honeysuckle leaves and vines. So, this melt and pour soap tutorial takes a little bit longer to make. However, it’s the perfect weekend project to craft with the kids. It also makes a great back to school gift for your child’s teacher.

Homemade Honeysuckle Soap Recipe

Ingredients:

30 oz. detergent free baby buttermilk melt & pour soap base
.75 oz. wild honeysuckle fragrance oil
.2 oz. sea kelp powder (natural colorant)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder (natural colorant)
1 teaspoon pumice powder
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon walnut shell powder
.1 oz. vitamin E oil, optional

Soap Notes:

I chose to create my homemade honeysuckle soap recipe using natural colorants. However, for brighter colors you can use liquid soap dye instead. Simply start with 1-2 drops of liquid colorant and mix, slowly adding more until you reach the desired color. (It is important to note that using too much of a soap colorant can stain your skin or tub.)

Alternately, you can also tint your honeysuckle soaps using cosmetic mica powders. Or try a combination of natural colorants with a pinch of similarly colored cosmetic micas to boost the natural color without going overboard.

In addition to the soapmaking ingredients called for in my homemade honeysuckle soap recipe, you’ll also need a rectangular silicone soap mold and a digital scale to weigh out the soap base, fragrance and sea kelp powder. You’ll also need heat safe containers for melting and mixing your soap base, along with utensils for stirring. Further, a cutting board to transport your soap is recommended but not required.

If you are a self confessed soapmaking addict, it’s possible you already have many of the materials required for my homemade honeysuckle soap recipe on hand. However, if you haven’t caught the soapmaking bug quite yet, you can easily make substitutions for this project to save money on supplies.

While I love my baker’s math scale for cold process soapmaking and beauty DIY’s, you can simply use a less expensive digital kitchen scale to save money. You can also substitute out the exfoliants in this recipe – the pumice, poppy seeds and walnut shell powder – for scrubby ingredients you already have on hand. Alternately, you can choose just one exfoliating option and triple the quantity called for.

Soapmaking Instructions:

You’ll begin by making what will be the soap embeds for my homemade honeysuckle soap recipe. To do this, start by weighing out 12 oz. of the baby buttermilk melt and pour soap base. Cut the soap base into chunks, then place in a heat safe container. I recommend using a glass Pyrex measuring cup for this.

Heat the soap base in the microwave in 20-30 second increments until melted. You’ll want to stir your soap base between heatings.

Now weigh out the sea kelp powder and stir into the melted base. Mix well, until all of the powder is evenly distributed throughout the soap.

Now use a measuring spoon to measure out the pumice powder, poppy seeds and walnut shell powder. Stir these ingredients into the melted soap base. Follow with .05 oz. of vitamin E oil and .25 oz. of the wild honeysuckle fragrance oil.

Now allow the soap base to cool somewhat. As the melt and pour soap base used for this project isn’t a suspending soap base, your additives are going to want to sink to the bottom of the soap. Therefore, by cooling the soap until a thin film starts to form on top, then mixing again, you keep them better mixed throughout the soap. (Alternately, you can use a suspension soap base for this step.)

Place your soap mold onto a small cutting board. Once the soap has cooled down, but not solidified, remix then pour evenly into each of the six cavities of your silicone soap mold. Spritz the tops of the soap with rubbing alcohol, if desired, to remove any air bubbles.

Now, using the cutting board to transport your soap, place the mold in the refrigerator until the soap has fully solidified.

Once your soap has hardened, remove the soap from the mold. Then cut the soap into square chunks and set aside.

Now weigh out 18 oz. more of the baby buttermilk soap base. Cut into chunks then combine in a heat safe container. Heat in the microwave in 20-30 second increments until melted.

Weigh out .05 oz. of the vitamin E oil and .5 oz. of the wild honeysuckle fragrance oil. Stir into the melted soap.

Now, using a measuring spoon, measure out the turmeric powder. Mix into the melted soap base until it is thoroughly incorporated and their are no clumps. Set aside.

Add an even amount of the green, exfoliating soap embeds to each of the mold’s cavities. Then, pour the yellow turmeric tinted soap base evenly into each of the mold’s cavities, over the green soap embeds.

Spritz the top of the soap with rubbing alcohol, if needed, to remove any air bubbles. Then transfer your homemade honeysuckle soaps to the refrigerator to cool.

Once the soap has cooled completely and hardened, remove your soaps from the mold. Then wrap your soaps tightly in foodservice film. Your homemade honeysuckle soaps are now ready for personal use or gifting!

More Melt and Pour Soap Recipes

If you like my homemade honeysuckle soap recipe, then you may also want to try some of these other fun melt and pour recipes from Soap Deli News!

For more great projects like my homemade honeysuckle soap recipe, be sure to follow Soap Deli News on Pinterest, G+, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Alternately, you can subscribe to Soap Deli News via email for future updates, DIY projects and recipes.

Homemade Honeysuckle Soap Recipe for Savoring The Last of Summer

Honeysuckle, A Childhood Favorite.

Homemade Honeysuckle Soap Recipe

Ingredients:

Soap Notes:

Soapmaking Instructions:

More Melt and Pour Soap Recipes

Rebecca D. Dillon

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