Oatmeal Honey Lavender Soap Recipe For Beginners (& Kids)

Sometimes, the little rabbit holes that we wander down as part of our homeschooling curriculum are just as much fun for me as they are for the little guy. This happens to be one of them…

Over the winter, the little Mr. inquired about the process of making medicine from various plants. It was a subject that we had discussed briefly as part of his History curriculum, but he wanted to dive deeper. Because I love hands-on learning, I made the decision that once we had enough sunshine to grow a true herb garden outdoors, we would explore learning to make handmade products using everything that we grew. I’m definitely not a homesteading professional by any means and my knowledge is very limited, but I thought it would be neat experience for him to make some of his own wellness products to start. He seems to really enjoy it, so we just keep expanding our knowledge through experimentation.

I’m primarily dropping our recipe here on the blog to share with friends because making soap was surprisingly easy, super quick and very rewarding and fun for the little guy! I’m no expert, not even somewhat seasoned, but if you’ve never done it before (like ever) and you want a quick and easy method, you’ve landed in the right place! We hope you enjoy!

Why choose oatmeal, honey and lavender?

Well, oatmeal is known to have exfoliating benefits, making it a perfect ingredient for homemade soap. Honey is known to provide moisture and has antibacterial cleansing benefits. And lastly, lavender just smells great. In fact, its fragrance is said to aide in stress relief and relaxation… But, if I’m being honest, I killed our lavender plant, so it seemed like a good time to salvage what I could and put it to good use!

Disclaimer: Please Read

For this recipe, I used a melt and pour soap base, thus removing the dangers of handling lye in the traditional soap-making process, but not removing all risks entirely. This is a much more kid-friendly and family-friendly way of making homemade soap, but as with any process that involves heat, boiling water, hot products, or stove-top cooking, please supervise any children and aide them where needed, based on their abilities. Second, always test the ingredients of your soap on a small area of skin to check for allergies. Next, I always recommend adding any extra protective layers, as desired. For example, you may want to use glasses or goggles, gloves, an apron, and/or arm protection such as long-sleeve attire. We didn’t personally find any of this necessary, but extra precautions are sometimes needed, so we mention this as a consideration.

Ingredients & Supplies:

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• 1lb. Melt & Pour Goat’s Milk Soap Base (we used this one)
• 3 tablespoons oats
• 5 teaspoons honey
• 1-2 tablespoons dry lavender
• 5-10 drops lavender essential oil
• Silicone soap molds (we used these)
• Mortar and Pestle, optional (we used this one)
• 20oz double boiler melting pot, optional (we used this one)
• Small cooking pot, optional
• Glass measuring cup, optional
• Small Pyrex bowl, optional
• Silicone spatula or similar, optional

Instructions:

Many online instructions for melt and pour soap base will have you do the prep work while the soap base is melting, but we decided to do it first. I wanted to make sure that our melting process would have our full attention since the smell of burnt soap base is almost as bad as burnt chocolate! Been there with both!

So, the first thing that we did was use the mortar and pestle to to grind our oats. As you can imagine, there are many things that you could use to grind the oats if you do not have a mortar and pestle, but for my little guy’s hands, this was an easy and effective method.

Next up, we poured the crushed oatmeal into a small Pyrex bowl and added the honey. We used a silicone spatula to thoroughly mix the two.

Now it was time to prep the soap base. We chopped it into small cubes and placed it in the double boiler. (If you are prepping with a smaller kid, like mine, you can do the cutting and allow them to place it into the double boiler, as pictured, before moving it to the heat source.)

Lastly, we used our fingers to gently strip the dried lavender.

The next step is advised for adults only. I placed the double boiler with the soap base over a pot of water and brought the water to a boil. While the soap base was slowly melting, I regularly stirred it to keep the bottom from burning. As a side note, there are many online instructions that include heating the soap base in the microwave to melt. This is absolutely an option, but it burns far easier and faster using the microwave method, so that is why I prefer to melt the soap base over the stovetop.

Before the soap base is fully melted, sprinkle the lavender into the silicone soap molds.

Adults-only step: Once your soap base is completely melted, carefully remove the double boiler from the boiling water and pour the base into your small Pyrex bowl. Working quickly, gently stir the oatmeal and honey mixture together with the soap base and add 5-10 drops of lavender essential oil. Once thoroughly combined, pour the mixture into a glass measuring cup. I suggest the last step because my glass measuring cup has a spout and it makes pouring into the molds a much cleaner process.

Lastly, gently pour the mixture into your soap molds and allow to sit for 45+minutes to solidify.

You’ll be left with some beautiful homemade bars of soap with the most incredible fragrance. They were simply heavenly in the shower and they make great gifts too!