dairy soaps

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Patrick

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All the soaps I make are dairy based, although it didn't start out that way. After my first attempt (half and half soap) I was HOOKED. So, if anyone has anything to add about using evap. milk, cream, half and half, goats milk, powered milk, etc. I would like to hear more.
 
I recently made a soap with half water half full fatted greek yogurt, and it has wonderful creamy lather. I also love coconut milk soaps.
 
The only issue I have with milk soaps is that I can smell the milk, even if I use 2 ounces in 2.5 pounds of soap. I actually love the toasty milky smell (I LOVE milk and would never be able to live happily without it), but it can make other fragrances smell different. I've used goats milk, heavy cream and half and half, all with good results, except sometimes I don't get the fragrance I want.
 
I love milk soaps too. I have made goat's milk soaps with full fresh milk, goat's milk with powdered milk, half and half GM and water, long life (UHT) goat's milk, canned coconut cream, fresh cream, buttermilk, cow's milk, and yoghurt. :wink:
 
wow, I'm interestendin knowing how you guys use fresh cream in soaps and what it adds to it... do you use it as part of the liquid? Do you add it at trace or with the water and lye? And what does it add to the final soap?

Thanks a lot, and BTW I'm a big dairy soap lover too.
 
My first attempt with canned coconut milk failed. I used 100% coconut milk as the liquid to mix NaOH with and it curdled and changed color. I continued to add it to my oil mixture and blended until trace and poured. I learned from the forum not to insulate so I just cover it with saran wrap. A couple hours in, the middle part of the soap changed color from cream to grayish except for the edges. It was weird.

Anyways, I decided to re-make the recipe but this time, I mixed the lye with water instead of coconut milk and added the coconut milk later once the lye mixture was already added to the oil. Soap changed color to creamy yellow and changed to creamy white once poured. No grayish shade in the middle of the soap. Yay!!
 
Sugah, did you keep that first soap that went grey? It will probably change back to cream and be fine. My first coconut cream soap had a nasty green line in the middle and I thought it was doomed but it went away and turned out beautifully.

Zhuliya, I add cream or yoghurt at light trace. The soap is creamy, mild and not drying.
 
I recently made two test bars of a facial soap. One is made with water, one with heavy cream. They are still curing. I'm really interested in seeing how they compare to each other.
 
For those of you that add dairy at trace or to the oils, how much are you adding? Does anyone have a good buttermilk soap recipe?
 
y'all inspired me about buttermilk! i made a batch last night with fresh carrot puree, buttermilk, clays and calendula. can't wait to see what it's like cured, thanks for the tips!
 
SoapBee said:
For those of you that add dairy at trace or to the oils, how much are you adding? Does anyone have a good buttermilk soap recipe?

my standard small-ish recipe uses 11 oz liquid. i usually use 6 oz of distilled water (juice, puree, etc) in my lye solution, and 5 oz of liquid milk (goat, coconut, half-and-half, whatever) mixed with additives (often including more milk in powdered form) at trace. works like a charm, and no scorched milk using this method :)
 
Bubbles Galore - I did save the darken center soap. I wanna be able to compare result of both soaps when the coconut milk is added at different stages once they are cured. From the initial appearances, they are definitely different. The ones with the lye added to milk are creamier than the one with milk added trace, they're chalkier.
 
I freeze fresh goat's milk into ice cubes, and use that as 100% liquid (replacement for water). Freezing keeps the milk from scorching when you sprinkle lye on it, as long as you stir like a maniac. As soon as it drops a couple of degrees after rising steadily, I combine with the oils.

A friend of mine first condenses the milk on a warm stove for a couple of hours before freezing. However, if you leave uncovered ice in a freezer for a few weeks, it will also evaporate-condense. I have not changed my recipe at all when I do this to account for the more concentrated milk
fat. If I were more scientific, I'm sure there is something else I should be tinkering with, but so far, so good.

I do find scents from essential oils are subdued in goat milk.

I also add 1 tablespoon of rosemary to a 5 lb batch at trace because I read it preserves it from going rancid. I've not been soaping long enough to have rancid soap. I'm very curious about how long it will keep.
 
newbie said:
The only issue I have with milk soaps is that I can smell the milk, even if I use 2 ounces in 2.5 pounds of soap. I actually love the toasty milky smell (I LOVE milk and would never be able to live happily without it), but it can make other fragrances smell different. I've used goats milk, heavy cream and half and half, all with good results, except sometimes I don't get the fragrance I want.

I too, smell the milk, and I don't like it. Though I do want to try coconut milk in a salt bar. That won't have the same dairy smell. The facial bars I made in Janurary were okay (I needed to tweak the recipe a bit), but I didn't like the smell. The tweaked version also smelled, so I'm just giving up on dairy milk soap.
 
I only smell the milk in unscented bars, and get just a light sort of "dairy" kind of smell. Not in the least unpleasant. Some FOs don't mesh well with milk, like the citrus ones, although after about 3 months ginger and orange is OK; grapefruit is still stinky no matter how old it gets. Spices and vanilla seem to be great. Have a customer who regularly orders peppermint (EO for that one) in goat's milk soap. She's addicted to that one.

I use double-strength milk in place of half the water, and blend the milk into the oils BEFORE adding the lye solution. No scorching or caramel, and no freezing mess. Never could get frozen milk to work. Hats off to those who do!
 
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