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Mead Soap vs Honey/Comb Soap

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CatSoCo

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 4, 2017
1
0
0
Middletown, NY
Hi there,

This is my first post, so please forgive me if I'm asking the wrong question or in the wrong spot. I did a couple of searches before posting, but didn't find what I'm here to have answered, which is What is the difference between Mead Soap and just Honey Soap or Honeycomb Soap?

I realize this may be just a soap question that belongs only on a soapmaker's forum, but perhaps not. My friend, who owns the company I work for, is interested in including mead soap in her product line, so we're in information-gathering mode. I thought this might be a good place to start.

Has anyone here ever made soap from their mead?



Thank you,
Maryann

Social Media Director
Catskill Soap Company (CatSoCo)
 

darigoni

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Jun 4, 2016
946
65
28
Brookline, NH
Have you checked the soap making forums?

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=39728

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=23030

Looks like the difference is that "mead soap" is made with mead, where as honey and honey comb soap is made with "honey and honey comb" :)

Mead soap sounds like an expensive way to get honey into your soap, but unless you control the fermentation the honey will have all been converted to alcohol. And I think you'd want to boil the alcohol off when you are making the soap. So, you'd probably end up using more honey during the soap making process.

Unless you use the mead before it is siphoned off the "lees", it will also have the dead yeast, nutrients additives (flavorings) that can go into mead.
 

Stasis

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 10, 2014
1,123
13
38
Malta
But the taste doesn't come from the sugars, so it's ok to ferment off most of the sugars. After fermentation there are still "plenty" of sugars left though.
By fermenting the honey into mead then evaporating the alcohol and water I think you might end up with a more concentrated end product aroma-wise. If excessive sugars are not needed then this is a plus. It seems expensive to ferment the honey since you're losing a lot of the sugars/honey, but if you want to remove the sugars anyway somehow then it might be equivalent in cost.
The aroma of a mead soap and honey soap would probably also be different even after you filter your mead. Or perhaps you might not want to filter your mead too much to create a more obvious mead-like soap. While we might ferment mead with a non-neutral yeast and say that the yeast did not provide esters of their own, I highly suspect the difference will be noticeable once you boil the mead down. In order to minimize this you might want to ferment with a very neutral yeast or you might have something with wine-like or beer-like flavors/aromas. or perhaps it is desirable to have some wine-like aromas in a mead soap..

Anyway, that's a lot of speculation because I never tried a mead soap before. I suspect you'll need a good mead maker and plenty of experimentation in order to really nail a mead soap.
 

Shelley

Honey Master
Registered Member
Sep 13, 2013
365
32
28
Harford, NY
MeadMagic.com
When I kickstarted Mead Magic, I gave my friend at Avital's Apiaries a bottle of mead, and she used it in a custom made soap that I then gave as one of the backer reward levels. Her other soaps and lotions use beeswax or honey. I'm sure if your friend contacted her (info@avitalsapiaries.com), she'd be happy to share her experiences.
 

Jomaryngs

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 21, 2022
1
0
1
Cardiff
Honey soap? It is the first time I've heard of such a thing. Do you think there's real honey in there?
 

dominicanhorse

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 8, 2022
1
0
1
USA
One of my friends had very severe hair problems. Her hair began to fall out, and very strong, and nothing could help her. Then she was advised to make an appointment with a trichologist. The doctor advised her to use the LUST SHAMPOO ORIBE FOR YOU shampoo and try the soap containing mead. The condition of her hair improved greatly, and the rash that was on her body began to disappear. But such soap is very difficult to get; you must look for it on particular sites. But the skin from it looks much better.
 
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