Dairy butter

nframe · Aug 4, 2013

Hello everyone,

Is it possible to make soap using dairy unsalted butter? I saw a recipe that uses coconut oil and olive oil as well as dairy butter. The trouble is that I cannot find butter in any of the lye calculators so it is difficult to calculate the amount of lye needed.

Thanks in advance to whoever replies.

DeeAnna · Aug 4, 2013

Yes, I have. Look for "milk fat" in the calculators. I have a milkfat saponification value of 0.161 for NaOH.

You'll need to look at the nutrition label to see what % fat is in your butter. The butterfat (aka milkfat) goes in your oils list and the whey (the water part of the butter) will be part of your water phase. For example, my recipe calls for 318 g of butter. Of that, 250 g is butterfat and the rest (68 g) is the whey that I used as part of my water phase.

IMO, I'd limit the butterfat to about 20% maximum of the oils. There will likely be a distinct odor from the butyric acid in the butterfat. It's hard to describe, but you can smell it in mild cheese -- a bready, yeasty, dairy, beery kind of thing.

This odor will fade some with time, but I would suggest using a bold fragrance (if scenting your soap) that compliments it rather than fights with it. I used mint (peppermint type) and that was nice. Spice, pine, herbal notes would be good. I'd avoid citrus, sweet, or floral scents.

I hope this helps!

nframe · Aug 4, 2013

Thank you so much for this information.

Dairy butter

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