Help with my GM techniques

I attempted my very first batch of GM soap using CP the other day. I used 60% EVOO, 10% shea butter, 15% palm and 15% coconut. Stupidly, I didn't realize until later that these don't yield the most ideal numbers on SoapCalc. Anyways, my recipe called for 8 ish (don't remember the exact number) ounces of water for my lye solution. Oh, and I ran it at 33% lye solution with 4% SF. I mixed 2 ounces of water with my 4 ounces of lye. Then, I let that cool (stuck it in the fridge). Once it was cool, I took it out, added my 6 ounces of GM - and it turned orange! I added it to my oils anyways (which were a bit warm from melting down everything) and soaped away. Added 1/4 cup of baby oatmeal and about 2 tbsp of honey at light trace, along with an ounce of FO with 1 tsp. of GSE.

Left it in the molds uncovered over night. No gel. My soaps are still a nasty orang-ey color and I THINK I have DOS, though I'm not exactly sure if it's just not oils that needs to be reabsorbed. 48 hours later, they smell fantastic, but are still kinda mushy-ish in the molds.

I think I have a failure here. Thus, I need help with two things:
1. I think my recipe wasn't the best to start with and I can tweak that tonight. But do you see anything horribly wrong with this?
2. What techniques can I use to add the GM to the soap without burning it and turning it that orange color?

Thanks, guys. I feel like you're my Soapers Anonymous support group!

I use fresh frozen GM for my batches, and the only think I can think of to give you for advice is add the GM more slowly, and make sure the gm is very cool to cold when adding, and it shouldn't scorch and the orange color.
As for the recipe, I can't help you with that as I rarely if ever use OO or shea in any of my soaps.
There are other GM soapers on this board that will probably chime in and give you more advice.

I use frozen GM also. I put my frozen GM in my lye mixing container than place the container in glass bowl and fill the bowl with ice. I make sure everything is nice and sturdy before I start adding my lye to my GM.
This keeps everything nice and cool. I also don't gel this soap and stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

I've only made 1 batch of GM soap thus far, but as per the posts above, I froze my goatsmilk (in an icecube tray). If I remember correctly, I may have had the mixing container in an ice bath when I added the lye (haven't got the notes handy). I added the lye verrrry slowly, probably over about 5 minutes. All of this may have been overkill, but I did end up with a nice creamy coloured soap. I soaped with the oils and the lye at somewhere around 80-90F (again, I haven't got my notes handy), rather than the usual 110-120F I usually go for. Oh, and I let the soap set up in the fridge overnight.

don't take the numbers given off the soap calc as gospel. they are there to guide but not written in stone. actual usage of your soap will determine if it works for you. i see nothing wrong with it, it should after cure be a good hard soap. ( the soap calc doesn't take into account that olive oil makes a hard bar of soap, it looks at it as a soft oil ). i tend to go by the fatty acid numbers/ information provided before i look at the other numbers. i know what kinds my skin prefer. i have mature element exposed skin that likes a good soap high in lineolic rather then oleic fatty acids.

you burnt the milk thus giving you an orange color, no dos. soap is still usable it just may smell like ammonia for a week or two but the smell will dissapate as the soap cures.

next time try freezing your milk into either cubes or a baggie that has been flattened out in your freezer so when you break up the frozen milk it isn't so thick.

you can do this one of two ways. mix the lye with the frozen milk slowly over a say a 15-20 minute period ( cold water bath for container helps ).

or me i just dump the whole amount on the frozen cubes and stir the pee-willies out of it till the cubes are melted. i usually at that point have a bright lemon colored lye mixture and end up with if it doesn't gel a light off white/creamy colored base.

KnitchyFingers said:

I mixed 2 ounces of water with my 4 ounces of lye.

Click to expand...

Woops- did I read that right, or did you really mean to say that you dissolved 2 oz of lye in 4 oz of water? I ask because from all I've read, one should always make sure to have at least as much water in weight as they have in weight of their lye in order for things to dissolve properly. I was just wondering.

Your basic formula looks perfectly fine to me. Like Barb said, take the SoapCalc #'s with a grain of salt. From where I stand, your recipe looks like it will make a very beautiful soap.

I make goatmilk soaps quite often and I do it either of these 2 ways:

1) Adding 1/3 of my total liquid amount as fresh, refrigerated-from-a-carton GM (either cool or at room temp) to the oils just before adding the lye water (2/3 water, mixed in with my lye), or just after adding the lye water to my oils. Either way works great for me and give me creamy, off-white colored GM soaps without any ammonia smells or burnt orange colors. The only problem I've ever encountered is that sometimes the coolness of the refrigerated (not frozen) GM tends to thicken up certain formulas too quickly, but I discovered that I can get away with heating my 1/3 fresh goatmilk along with my oils to 120 degreesF before adding the lye and it totally eliminates the premature thickening problem in those formulas (I add it to my heating pot last, after all my oils are already melted). I've made many batches this way and my soap still came out off-white with no ammonia smells. One-third GM may seem like such a small amount, but it really does make a nice, noticable difference in the feel of my soap.

2) If I want to make 100% GM soap, I just stir in as much GM powder into my 1/3 fresh GM that is needed to make my total liquid amount equal a 100% concentration, and then I add that to my oils either before or after the lye water is added; and I also lower the superfat in this particular kind (100% GM) to 3 instead of my usual 5.

Both of these methods eliminate all the fuss and muss of mixing the GM directly into the lye for me. I no longer have to go through the extra time and trouble of freezing the GM and adding it very slowly to the lye in increments, or experiencing the undesireable orange to brown colors and the initial ammonia smells that one can get from adding the goatmilk directly to the lye. Some soapers have the time and patience and expertise to do it that way and come out with absolutely beautiful soaps, and my hat goes off to them, but I'm telling ya, I must have a brown thumb or something when it comes to the Frozen-GM-Directly-To-The-Lye method. No matter how careful and anal I am with the freezing and mixing and all, my GM soaps done that way would still turn orange and then brown. :evil:

I refuse to do my GM soaps any other way than the 2 methods I mentioned above anymore, seeing as how these 2 ways are so much easier for me, not to mention that my GM soaps made these 2 ways come out so beautifully off-white with no fuss or muss or nasty smells. (aahhh!) 8)


IrishLass

I freeze my goat milk. I premeasure the exact amount (because I always use the same base recipe, so I know my gm quanitities). I label my bags, so I always use the FIFO method of taking out my gm. (First In - First Out). I don't pamper it in the freezer by laying it down. They all stand up in the door sections.

When using them: I cut the baggie away from the milk, and pour the lye ontop of it. It slowly melts, and as it does you swirl it around in the bowl until it is all melted and a beautiful mixture. If the initial start of melting is to slow, I add maybe 2 tbps of liquid milk and this gets the melting going.

My base soaps are light colored cream using this method.

I freeze the GM in ice cube trays. Works like a dream. When it comes time to measure, I just wiegh the frozen cubes. I don't pre-measure the milk and then freeze it. My soaps are coming out perfec-to, but I wonder, is this the accurate way to measure? The first recipe I ever tried stated:
6 oz. of milk, frozen. So I weighed 6 oz of GM ice cubes.

Anyways, once, when I thought I was a pro at the milk soap method, I became impatient, and quicky added the lye to the frozen GM. Bad mistake! Orange brew! So, there is something to adding it quite slowly, and stirring it quite briskly! Some people warm the milk to the cooled lye temp and then add it. I may try this someday.