Adding Powdered Goat Milk

[jblaney]

I have just discovered something I wanted to share. I am not saying this is what everyone will experience, but this is what has happened to me.

I started using powdered goat milk about 4 months ago. I loved what it did to my soap. The creamy lather was amazing. At first I mixed it with water, but as I was testing different recipes, I started a short cut that I thought would be fine. I started adding my powdered goat milk to my oils before adding my lye water. I would stick blend the powder into the warm oils. I can't remember where I saw this, but I thought it would be easy to do a water discount this way.

Anywhoo, every soap I did this with is scratchy. I'm positive it's the goat milk because I made one batch and split it and in half the only difference was the goat milk...and the goat milk one is scratchy. I'm embarrassed to say how much soap I made like this and how much time I have wasted.

I do think I have heard of others doing this and it worked for them, but not for me. :-(

 

[paillo]

i typically use half goat milk or buttermilk,and half distilled water (or beer, wine, cider, pureed fresh produce etc). the milk i add at emulsion stage. if i want extra creamy goat milkor buttermilk i add powdered to the liquid milk, again at emulsion stage. no scratchiness, no problems.

sorry to hear yours went awry can you rebatch a bunch of it?

 

[jblaney]

I think if I had added the powdered to liquid I would have been fine too. You live and learn. Does your soap stay ivory or fairly light with your method?

No, they are all different fragrances and I don't like to rebatch.

 

[green soap]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Powdered is not an option for me, but I could see many people using this shortcut.

I wonder if the scratchiness might be due to some of the components in powdered goat milk not being soluble in oil. The fat should be, but perhaps the protein, and/or the sugars are not. Does anyone here know?

You could discount your lye water a little, use the missing water amount to rehydrate the powdered goat milk. Then add reconstituted milk to your oils either before or after the lye water. Just another little extra step.

 

[kdaniels8811]

I discount my water by about half a cup then mix my GM with the water and add when I add my essential oils. This has worked fine for me and I do not get the brown, scorched look when mixing GM with the lye. Sorry yours turned out scratchy, that is discouraging when you put so much time and effort into soap making and it does not turn out.

 

[jblaney]

Thanks Green Soap. This is what I was doing before my " short cut". I've started testing with fresh milk for now.

I'm in Southern California too. I would love to ask you a few questions, but not sure how out of the Forum.

 

[green soap]

Thanks Green Soap. This is what I was doing before my " short cut". I've started testing with fresh milk for now.

I'm in Southern California too. I would love to ask you a few questions, but not sure how out of the Forum.

You are welcome! Where in SoCal?

 

[jblaney]

Studio City.

 

[ikindred]

I made my first batch of goat's milk soap using powdered milk last night. I mixed with a cup of the oils and the titanium dioxide and stick blended and then poured it back into the batch at light trace. Was this not a good way to do it?

 

[2lilboots]

sounds like a good way to do it! Is the powdered goats milk whiter looking than the condensed goat milk? That was the only thing I didn't like about my goats milk soap. I cannot find fresh goats milk so I used the canned stuff and it darkened my soap a bit even with adding it at trace.

 

[TeriDk]

I added goat and butter milk powders to my oils before adding the lye/water mixture but only a tsp of each per lb of oils (4 tsp milk powder/2 lbs oil). Fortunately, it was below zero outside (no gelling) and the soap turned out. Still curing so won't know if it scratchy for a few weeks yet. I SB the powders really well before adding the lye. I used sandalwood infused oil for color but got more bits of sandalwood than color so was thinking that would be the cause should it be scratchy.