Goats Milk Soap

chibi-soap said:

LOL!

Now ... milk soap goes in the fridge right? No gel phase? Regardless of what type and when you add it?

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I use the split method and I gel all my goats milk soap the same way I do all my other soaps - CPOP at 100*F and turn the oven off when the soap goes in. Not a problem.

I too use the split method and gel all my soaps. I don't CPOP though. I just wrap them in a towel and let them do their thing.

I did 24 hours in the freezer then moved to the fridge for 24 hours. Now it's hardening up at room temperature. I tried cutting yesterday but it was a bit too soft so I'm going to try again tonight. It looks absolutely beautiful, no gelling at all. Nice light cream color.

cool. Soap finished. I'll leave it outside in a towel. It's only 14C/57F outside. is that OK?
I have a heating mat we used for beer, would it be better to put the soap on that.?

I now gel almost all of my soaps including beer and milk soaps. Two I have to put in the freezer are my OMH with honey, beeswax, propolis and Orange Clove EO's. The other is my Caribbean Coconut fragrance soap which is a severe heater upper
I just add in a scoop of GM powder to my oils and stick blend it in. I honestly do not find a diffence notice no difference other than lather between one made with milk or water, but customers seem to think it is the greatest soap on earth so I make it

Susie said:

Define best results. Exactly which results are you trying to achieve?

Then tell me who wrote whatever it was that you read, and what agenda are they pushing. Do they have goats, and therefore lots of raw goat's milk? If so, perhaps they are trying to claim that their stuff is better so they can sell more?
Are they, perhaps, one of those people who eat a "raw" diet?

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Hi Susie, by best results I meant, (from what I read), a creamier and more conditioning soap.
It does seem that most of these websites where I read that goats milk is "better" do have their own goats.
Here are a few of the sites I read this from
http://www.roseofsharonacres.com/raw_goat_milk_benefits
http://honeysweetieacres.com/why-use-goat-milk-soap/
https://goatmilkstuff.com/Goat-Milk-Soap-Benefits.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/040766_goats_milk_soap_personal_care_products.html
http://www.stethnews.com/2157/benefits-of-goat-milk-soap-and-how-you-can-make-your-own/
http://www.creamerycreek.com/why_goat_milk

Like I mentioned in the op, I am new to soap making and still waiting to try the soap from my first batch but am very interested with your thoughts on this.
Thank you

I made my milk soap this weekend with 1/3 of the liquid added at trace as milk, plus enough powder to make up the other 2/3 of the water into milk...if that makes sense. Milk, oat and lavendar soap. Bit stinky at first, but seems to have dissapeared already. I like the look of it.

chibi-soap said:

I made my milk soap this weekend with 1/3 of the liquid added at trace as milk, plus enough powder to make up the other 2/3 of the water into milk...if that makes sense. Milk, oat and lavendar soap. Bit stinky at first, but seems to have dissapeared already. I like the look of it.

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I add it to the oils rather than at trace because the GM sometimes needs a lot of mixing to get it evenly distributed.

Hope it works for you. Don't know why it smelt bad unless you soaped hot I guess?

Oh... trace... oils... this newbie didn't notice the distinction. Thanks. Well, it seems to have worked anyway.

All of this advice has been great. I have not yet tried powdered goats milk but I will be trying it this weekend (if I can find some by then). I didn't realize that I could add the goats milk at trace. So just to make sure I understand correctly, if I use 1/2 milk and 1/2 water, I would mix my lye with the water half and add that to the oil, then at trace, add the goats milk? Am I getting this right? And if I use powder, just add the powder content to the oil while heating it and mix the lye as usual then add it to my oil?

You can buy powdered goat's milk in the grocery store. It is generally found near the evaporated milk.

Lovin said:

All of this advice has been great. I have not yet tried powdered goats milk but I will be trying it this weekend (if I can find some by then). I didn't realize that I could add the goats milk at trace. So just to make sure I understand correctly, if I use 1/2 milk and 1/2 water, I would mix my lye with the water half and add that to the oil, then at trace, add the goats milk? Am I getting this right? And if I use powder, just add the powder content to the oil while heating it and mix the lye as usual then add it to my oil?

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No don't do that. Use 1/2 water and mix with the lye. Keep stirring as it heats up to make sure it all dissolves in. Mix oils and the GM (if it is goats milk or mix the GM powder with the remaining water) with a SB to ensure they are well mixed. GM powder may need to be mixed into a paste with a little water first. No need to heat the oil (if it is a solid oil that needs to be heated wait till it cools as much as possible and mix with other oils first) THEN add the lye. Wait for the lye to be cool or it will burn the GM and it will go brown or even smell off.

If you end up with spots in your soap you will know where they come from.

Re: splitting the liquid for your batch half and half.....Depending on your lye concentration/water amount, it may not be an equal 50/50 split. To explain, lye needs an equal amount of water in weight to be able to dissolve properly, so just make sure that when you split your water amount that you have enough water to be able to dissolve the lye, then use the remaining amount of water required as goat milk (fortifying it with GM powder as needed to bring it to the milk concentration you desire).

Believe it or not, I actually add my goat milk directly to my warmed oils, and I'll oftentimes even heat my goat milk/oils mixture if need be in order to bring it up to my favored soaping temp (anywhere 110F-115F) before adding my just-warm-to-the-touch lye solution. This works quite well for me with no lasting adverse issues (i.e., the batter may go a little orange while mixing, but my soap still ends up creamy/off-white).


IrishLass