making a goat milk castile CP soap - tutorial

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green soap

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http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/how-to-make-a-goat-milk-castile-bar-soap/

The link above is for a blog that I have been writing for Hoegger supply company (supplies for goat farmers). The tutorial assumes that you have plenty of fresh goat milk around but no knowledge of soap making. It is way more detailed that most of you need. If you have never made a goat milk soap you might find it useful though. The previous blog was about using infused calendula in soap making.

Comments or feedback are appreciated as I have been asked to write one for November. Not sure what I will write about yet.

Green soap
 
I liked your thorough instructions and found them very clear!

However, I do have a question - I have never heard that goat's milk Castille requires only three months' cure time as supposed to regular Castille made with water. What is the basis for this?
 
I liked your thorough instructions and found them very clear!

However, I do have a question - I have never heard that goat's milk Castille requires only three months' cure time as supposed to regular Castille made with water. What is the basis for this?

Thank you Judy. To answer your question, the basis is my own experience. I can speculate on the explanation. With the technique described in the tutorial, soap forms with the capric-capryllic fatty acids in the goat milk (before the straining process). These fatty acids are very short molecules, even shorter than coconut. The shorter the molecule, the higher the cleansing power and lather. So the soap ends up being sodium olivate of course, but with enough sodium (caprillate? sp??) from the goat milk fat to alter the properties a little bit. In my experience this makes it lather better and reduces the cure time. After 3 months my goat milk castile is rock hard and it lathers reasonably well. It is very possible (likely) that is will be even better after six months, but is it nice enough to use after 3. Since I observed this I thought it might be less discouraging for a beginner to wait 3 months rather than 6! In retrospect I should have said it will get even better after 6 months though.
 
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