How to make melt and pour soap; honey, oat and lemon winter blend

I'm really keen to try soap making from scratch but I don't have a lot of kid free time to be playing around with chemicals. For fun, I decided to try the melt and pour soap making method first to see if I liked. I LOVED doing this, I can't wait to have another go and learn more about soap making.

Materials 

• 453g bar of melt and pour soap base, I chose a palm-oil free white base
• 1 teaspoon of honey (As an aside, please buy 100% Australian honey! Some imported honey is made from sugar syrup, it's not even honey!). I use Beechworth. Learn more here 
• 2 teaspoons of Australian lemon essential oil
• 1/4 cup oats; I used Homebrand quick oats because that's what I had on hand
• Pyrex jug
• Wooden spoon
• Silicone mould; I used a cupcake mould I found at the op shop

I bought my soap base and essential oil here 

Process 

1. Cut the soap base into small cubes and place into a glass jug.
2. Microwave in 20 second bursts, stirring in between, until the soap base has all melted. This took me about 6 20 second bursts. 
3. Stir in the oats, honey and lemon essential oil. 
4. Pour evenly into moulds. 
5. You can apparently spray the top with rubbing alcohol here to remove bubbles but I hadn't bought any and didn't find it necessary this time.
6. Allow to set for 1-12 hours then remove from moulds and place in something airtight. 

Note: I've since read that in order to prevent the oats from sinking to the bottom of the soap mould you can cover the jug and wait for the base to cool slightly or keep stirring until the base thickens a little more. More information from Soap Queen here

Cost 

• Soap base; $8
• Oats, honey and lemon essential oil; approximately $1
• Mould; $2 from the op shop

Yielded 6 soaps. Definitely not your cheap everyday soap but a lovely gift or treat.

Time 

10-15 minutes.