DIY Candy Bark Homemade Bath Melts with Real Honey & Cocoa Butter

Designed to look like candy bark, these homemade bath melts are made with real honey and cocoa butter for a lush bath experience! These are perfect for when you need to take some time out for much needed self care. Or make and give these cocoa butter & honey homemade bath melts as unique homemade gifts throughout the year.

Inspired by Glitter & Candy Bark

I love glitter. I mean I REALLY love glitter. It’s not everyday, however, that I’m able to use glitter in one of my projects. So, I may have slightly overcompensated for that with this recipe. When I was formulating  these homemade bath melts, I figured at some point I’d end up with glitter in my coffee. That didn’t happen. It actually ended up in Greg’s coffee instead – two days after the fact. (Reminding us once again that yes, glitter is the herpes of the craft world.)

Should glitter vex you, don’t worry. It’s easy to avoid. You can use real candy sprinkles for the “sparkle” on these homemade bath melts in its place. Alternately, if you have concerns about the environment, be sure to use eco-friendly biodegradable glitter. It’s what I used for this project. After all, there’s more than enough plastic floating around in the ocean.

Continuous remnants of glitter aside, I did run into a few snags when creating my DIY candy bark homemade bath melts. Initially I ran into issues due to the mold design. I chose this silicone bee mold for this DIY because I thought it would make my homemade bath melts look like candy bark. However, I had to use more ingredients in particular this mold than I’d originally anticipated. The reason? I just couldn’t get my homemade bath melts out of the mold in one piece.

I wasn’t ready to give up on my idea of making my homemade bath melts look like candy bark however. I’ve been so inspired by all the DIY candy bark I’ve run across lately, the idea had firmly attached itself to the inner cortex of my brain. I’ve seen such creative designs and ideas. So I tweaked my homemade bath melts recipe. And then I tweaked it again. On my fourth try, I finally got it right. And while my cocoa butter & honey homemade bath melts may not look completely like candy bar, they do still resemble candy. More importantly, however, they make it out of the mold in one piece.

The other challenge for this project was incorporating the honey into my homemade bath melts recipe. I REALLY wanted to use actual raw honey for this recipe. The problem however, is that honey is aqueous. While cocoa butter, on the other hand, is basically an oil in solid form. Since oil and water don’t mix, I realized I needed to use an emulsifier for this project. It took some doing to figure out the best way to get the two to mix, but I found the perfect solution in the end.

In the end, I was able to pull my candy bark inspired bath melts together. The glitter being the icing on the cake. Keep reading to learn how to make my candy bark homemade bath melts for your own bath time ritual. Plus discover the perfect substitution for honey if you find you’re all together fed up with using honey as a crafting medium. (I promise it’s not ear wax.)

Cocoa Butter & Honey Homemade Bath Melts Recipe

© Rebecca D. Dillon

Ingredients for Homemade Bath Melts:

14.5 oz. unrefined cocoa butter (or dark cocoa butter)
4 oz. refined (high melt point) shea butter
1.5 oz. organic raw honey
1 oz. emulsifying wax (or polawax)
.05 oz. honey fragrance oil, optional (or try an essential oil)

Ingredients for Honey Drizzle:

3.5 oz. clear honey melt & pour soap base
1 oz. refined (high melt point) shea butter
sparkle color bars, colors of choice
fine & chunky biodegradable glitter, colors of choice

Supplies & Tools:

silicone bee mold
digital scale
double boiler
glass measuring cups
utensils, for stirring
immersion (stick) blender

Tips & Tricks for Making Homemade Bath Melts:

• You’ll want to use a double boiler to melt the ingredients in this recipe. This will prevent your cocoa butter from becoming grainy. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can use a glass measuring cup in a pan of water. Alternately, you may also melt your ingredients in a microwave at 30% power.

• It’s important to emulsify the honey with the other ingredients in this recipe. Otherwise, you’ll end up with honey in the “design” part of the mold. It won’t look pretty and it’s a mess to clean up. If you’ve struggled with honey before, I understand. You can substitute the honey in this homemade bath melts recipe with lanolin for easy sailing.

• The honey fragrance oil I used for this recipe is crazy strong. Thus I used less than I would with other fragrance oils. If you are easily bothered by strong fragrances, skip this scent and pick a favorite instead. I also recommend cocoa absolute for this recipe with a bit of coffee essential oil blended in.

• Refined shea butter does make a difference in recipes. As does high melt point shea butter. The melting point of shea butter ranges dramatically. Refined high melt point shea butter has a melting point between 104°F-113°F. While the melting point of unrefined shea butter ranges from 89°F-100°F. Which is why when you make substitutions for refined butter with unrefined butters in your natural skin care recipes, they don’t always perform as expected. Therefore, if you choose to use unrefined shea butter, you’ll want to experiment with bumping up the emulsifying wax to get the perfect fit.

• Because this homemade bath melts recipe is designed to melt in warm bath water, it has a low melting point. Therefore I recommend making this recipe during the winter months. Outside of this, I do not recommend trying this project unless you are able to store them in a climate controlled location of 75°F or less.

• You don’t have to use a clear melt and pour soap base for the honey drizzle on your cocoa butter & honey homemade bath melts. Try using a white melt and pour soap base instead for higher contrast and to make it look more like icing.

Instructions:

I highly recommend reading through the instructions for my homemade bath melts before you begin. Once you have all your materials, begin by weighing out the cocoa butter and high melt point shea butter. Place the cocoa butter and shea butter in a double boiler and heat until melted over medium-low heat.

In the meantime, also weigh out the emulsifying wax and honey. Heat separately, using the double boiler method, over medium-low heat until melted. Stir to combine.

Once the cocoa/shea butter and the separate honey and emulsifying wax mixture have both melted, remove from heat. Briefly mix the honey and emulsifying wax for about a minute using an immersion blender.

Now combine the melted cocoa/shea butter with the honey and emulsifying wax mixture. Mix together with an immersion blender for 1-2 minutes.

Lightly dust the inside of your bee mold with fine cosmetic glitter, if desired. (You can also dust glitter onto your homemade bath melts once they’re unmolded.)

Place the mold onto a cutting board or similar. Then pour the homemade bath melts mixture into the mold. Carefully transport the mold to your freezer, using the cutting board to support the mold.

Allow the homemade bath to harden for several hours. (I recommend resisting the urge to remove your bath melts from the mold sooner. I was impatient and did this only to find that the bath melts in the center had not completely hardened.)

Once your cocoa butter & honey homemade bath melts have solidified, remove them from the freezer. Then carefully remove them from the mold. (These are somewhat tricky to get out of the mold. I recommend pulling the mold away from your bath melts very gently working your way around the outside toward the center. If you go slow, it should all stay in one piece.)

If desired, you can brush additional glitter onto your bath melts. Glitter can also be used to cover any imperfections where small pieces may not have come out of the mold cleanly.

Once you’ve removed the homemade bath melts from the freezer, you can make the honey drizzle for the decoration. You’ll want to pour this onto your homemade bath melts while they are still cold. This way, the warm melt and pour soap base won’t melt your bath melts prematurely.

To make the honey drizzle, weigh out the shea butter and melt and pour soap base. Combine in a glass measuring cup. Then heat in the microwave (or in a double boiler) at 30% power until melted. Add a small chunk for a sparkle color bar (alternately you can use mica) to the melted soap base. (I used a brown sparkle color bar for this step.) If desired, you may also stir in some additional glitter. I added a bit of biodegradable gold glitter to  mine. Mix well to combine.

Once the soap base cools slightly, pour the base across the DIY candy bark homemade bath melts as desired. Then dust chunky biodegradable glitter into the melted soap. I used chunky bubblegum and chunky turquoise glitters for this step.

You can then repeat the process in the opposite direction using a different color.

My second pass across my bath melts, I mixed a small chunk from a crimson sparkle color bar into my container with the melted soap base. I reheated the soap base slightly first, then mixed in the color. Once the new color was completely combined into the soap base, I then poured the soap across the first pass at a different angle. I followed with more chunky glitter.

Once the soap base I’d poured on my homemade bath melts had solidified, I then used a Chef’s knife to remove the bath melts from the cutting board.

You’re DIY candy bark homemade bath melts are now ready to be packaged as desired for personal use or gifting.

To use your homemade bath melts, simply break off the desired amount and add to warm running bath water.

What To Do With the Leftover Soap Base

You can use the remaining soap base leftover from the honey drizzle to create solid sugar scrub bars. Simply remelt the soap base, then stir in sugar.

I recommend using just enough to thicken the melt soap base, but not so much that it doesn’t still pour smoothly.

Then simply pour the remaining base into individual cavities of the mold. Allow to harden, then remove.

To use your solid sugar scrub bars, simply massage onto damp skin the bath or shower, then rinse off.

More Homemade Bath Recipes to Try

If you enjoyed my DIY candy bark homemade bath melts recipe, then you may also enjoy some of my other homemade bath recipes. Following are my other homemade bath melts recipes as well as a few DIY’s for making DIY solid sugar scrubs.

Homemade Bath Melts Recipes

• Aloe Vera Bath Melts Recipe with Epsom Salt
• Chocolate & Rose Truffle Bath Melts Recipe
• Natural Lavender Bath Melts Recipe
• Natural Lemon Verbena Bath Melts Recipe

Solid Sugar Scrub Recipes

• Strawberries & Champagne Solid Sugar Scrub Recipe
• DIY Solid Sugar Scrub Snowballs
• Strawberry & Chocolate Fudge Solid Sugar Scrub Bars Recipe
• DIY Triple Butter Solid Sugar Scrub Hearts
• Solid Sugar Scrub Cubes Recipe
• DIY White Tea Solid Sugar Scrub Cubes
• Cardamom & Spice Solid Coffee Sugar Scrub Recipe

Now that you’ve made your own homemade bath melts, learn how to make more great giftable bath, beauty and soap recipes! Sign up for my semi-weekly newsletter to receive updates when new recipes are available. You can also follow me on Pinterest, facebook and instagram.