Dried milk replacement?

[Obsidian]

Yep, fresh gel from the plant itself. No reason to go in search of expensive additives, just use what you have access to.

What kind of things grow local? Most veggy/fruit juice can be used but some can turn the soap ugly colors. Beets, blueberries, anything that is purply/pink will go ugly brown or grey.

 

[Chris_S]

Animal milk always has a bad smell to it, doesn't matter the animal, I know its in there. I also see absolutely no benefit from milk, it doesn't make the lather creamier or more bubbly. Coconut milk does add to the density and creaminess of lather but honestly, I prefer aloe juice over any milk. Helps create larger bubbles and is easy to use, mix the lye in it just like water. No burning or weird smells.

See i really like milk soap it feels much smoother and creamier to me but maybe my water soaps just sucked lol i mean i like them but prefer all the goats milk ones so far but the water soaps were my first attempts at soap so its possible they just arnt as good for that reason.

Do you mean the actual soap has a bad smell too it or when you put the lye into the milk? iv made a fair few bars with goats milk granted they are still fairly new only one has got to the normal cure time but that is needing more time because its still pretty soft but the others dont have any smell that i can detect on them that arnt on my non milk bars or is it as they age they start to smell so persumibly what im smelling is the oils

When adding aloe vera iv got a plant i can use but surly to get enough juice out you would have to use a fair amount of the plant to get enough? or would you just add like 10g to get the benifits of it.

 

[shunt2011]

I too like aloe juice. I get a jug from Walmart. Don’t have enough plants to use my own. I don’t notice a difference with goats milk in my soap either. It’s mostly there for label appeal.

 

[Obsidian]

I can smell the milk in the finished, cured soap. It smells like sour ammonia to me, goat is the worse but I very much dislike goat milk. The smell and taste just isn't edible to me.

I really don't know how much fresh aloe you need to use to see a difference, I only used it once before switching to the bought juice.

I used a couple large leaves, filleted the insides off the skin and blended it into the water, strain to remove any big chunks. Maybe a ounce or two, just depends on how big your leaves are.
Some grocery stores sell huge leaves, I'd love to find some to try.

Do not ever try to put aloe through a juicer, it doesn't work and leaves a terrible mess lol.

 

[Chai]

What kind of things grow local? Most veggy/fruit juice can be used but some can turn the soap ugly colors. Beets, blueberries, anything that is purply/pink will go ugly brown or grey.

The only thing you’re able to grow locally here is potatoes and berries, but the winters are hard and long here (I live very far north), so I guess it’s no problem to buy fresh produce from the convenience store.

Pretty colours, ugly colours, doesn’t matter to me, as long as it smells good and is good for the skin, I’m happy Ü

 

[Jill B Blasius]

The recipe I’m going to try is;

Original recipe:
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup sunflower seed oil
3/4 cup distilled water
1/4 cup lye (60 grams)

Additives:
2 teaspoons ground old fashioned oats (dry)
2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons dry milk

Do you guys have any tips on what else I can use instead of the "additives"?
I've tried different essential oils and cold coffee/tea instead of water.

My favorites additives are:

• Colloidal oatmeal (Aveno)
• Plain Greek Yogurt (I make my own)
• Cucumber (skinned and blended to a "liquid" in a Nutribullet)
• Avocado (skinned and pureed in Nutribullet)
• Canned pumpkin
• Cinnamon (pumpkin and cinnamon makes a pretty fall soap)
• Cocoa powder (ditto)
• Coconut milk (you can refrigerate it and separate the "water" from the oil and use the oil as part of your oils and use the "water" as part of your water, added to oils after adding your lye/water)
• Coffee water made with distilled water
• Fine Coffee Grounds, used, from above (makes a scrubby soap - looks nice in an all white soap)
• Poppy, Cranberry seeds
• Infused Turmeric, Paprika, Rosemary (most any herbs or spices, really. Used as a colorant, herb smell usually doesn't last. Gel for a nicer color.)
• Finely crushed dried dill weed
• Activated Charcoal
• Pumice

PS. If I use frozen coconut milk - as I add the coconut/lye to the oils, I strain the liquid through a Tea Strainer. It is a small, fine sieve, which will keep any lye solids out of the soap.

 

[Chai]

My favorites additives are:

• Colloidal oatmeal (Aveno)
• Plain Greek Yogurt (I make my own)
• Cucumber (skinned and blended to a "liquid" in a Nutribullet)
• Avocado (skinned and pureed in Nutribullet)
• Canned pumpkin
• Cinnamon (pumpkin and cinnamon makes a pretty fall soap)
• Cocoa powder (ditto)
• Coconut milk (you can refrigerate it and separate the "water" from the oil and use the oil as part of your oils and use the "water" as part of your water, added to oils after adding your lye/water)
• Coffee water made with distilled water
• Fine Coffee Grounds, used, from above (makes a scrubby soap - looks nice in an all white soap)
• Poppy, Cranberry seeds
• Infused Turmeric, Paprika, Rosemary (most any herbs or spices, really. Used as a colorant, herb smell usually doesn't last. Gel for a nicer color.)
• Finely crushed dried dill weed
• Activated Charcoal
• Pumice

PS. If I use frozen coconut milk - as I add the coconut/lye to the oils, I strain the liquid through a Tea Strainer. It is a small, fine sieve, which will keep any lye solids out of the soap.

Oh my, thank you so much for your input! <3 I’ll try out as many as I can :’D

 

[Dawni]

The only thing you’re able to grow locally here is potatoes and berries, but the winters are hard and long here (I live very far north), so I guess it’s no problem to buy fresh produce from the convenience store.

Pretty colours, ugly colours, doesn’t matter to me, as long as it smells good and is good for the skin, I’m happy Ü

Potatoes are very good for your skin! Berries too! Potato soap supposedly helps with wrinkles and dark spots too lol and berries have loads of antioxidants.... So just in case any of those benefits do actually survive saponification, I say it's worth a try.

How about herbs and flowers and weeds? A lot of them are good additives too, especially if you're not worried about color like I am coz most will turn some shade of brown lol

Rice is also good. The water and the powder both. I have a feeling most grains will work as well but never tried. Pureed carrots, too. I have used soaps with lemons or limes too, depending on the formula they're not drying and claim to brighten skintone.

 

[Chai]

I have used soaps with lemons or limes too, depending on the formula they're not drying and claim to brighten skintone.

Lemon/lime soap sounds dreamy.. How much of the fruit do you actually use (zest/juice)? Do you dry the zest first?

 

[Dawni]

Lemon/lime soap sounds dreamy.. How much of the fruit do you actually use (zest/juice)? Do you dry the zest first?

Oh it wasn't me who made it hehe I'm also new to soaping.

But I believe it's the zest they used in the ones I had, coz that's where the good oil is, and I saw bits of it. And since they sell, probably used lemon oil and/or additional powdered zest. Maybe. It had slight exfoliation btw.

If it was me, I would try heating the zest in the oils I'm gonna be using to maybe get that oil and add some more for exfoliation. It's on my to do list as well but I still need more research hehe

If you're gonna use the juice, DeeAnna has a good post on soaping with citric acid - - > https://classicbells.com/soap/citricAcid.html

 

[Obsidian]

I've made potato soap before, boiled the tatos and used the water for the lye and also added a couple tsp mashed directly into the soap.
It wasn't a good recipe so I never properly tested the soap but it had a very nice silky feel and large bubbles. I need to try again now that I have a good recipe.

 

[penelopejane]

My favorites additives are:

• Colloidal oatmeal (Aveno)
• Plain Greek Yogurt (I make my own)
• Cucumber (skinned and blended to a "liquid" in a Nutribullet)
• Avocado (skinned and pureed in Nutribullet)
• Canned pumpkin
• Cinnamon (pumpkin and cinnamon makes a pretty fall soap)
• Cocoa powder (ditto)
• Coconut milk (you can refrigerate it and separate the "water" from the oil and use the oil as part of your oils and use the "water" as part of your water, added to oils after adding your lye/water)
• Coffee water made with distilled water
• Fine Coffee Grounds, used, from above (makes a scrubby soap - looks nice in an all white soap)
• Poppy, Cranberry seeds
• Infused Turmeric, Paprika, Rosemary (most any herbs or spices, really. Used as a colorant, herb smell usually doesn't last. Gel for a nicer color.)
• Finely crushed dried dill weed
• Activated Charcoal
• Pumice

PS. If I use frozen coconut milk - as I add the coconut/lye to the oils, I strain the liquid through a Tea Strainer. It is a small, fine sieve, which will keep any lye solids out of the soap.

Does the avocado colour stick? If so, for how long?

 

[Iluminameluna]

Just to add my 2 cents' worth:
There's a lady who soaps in North Eastern Canada with local seawater. She's also mentioned that she'll sometimes use fresh dried seaweed in her soaps.
Can't for the life of me remember her name. I'm pretty sure someone here will know.
Whenever you can use local ingredients. They're cheaper, easier to find and you'll have an easier time keeping them in stock for whenever soapy inspiration strikes.
I'm a fairly new soaper too, but I live in a semi-tropical area so I use fruits in season and local coffee in my soaps. I also use spices like smoked paprika, turmeric and bay leaves for olive oil infusions. I just reuse glass jars, add the oil and spices in them and stick them on a shelf. Labeling them helps me keep track of which I need to use first.
I hope this helps. Those in Europe, England and the U.S. have an easier time finding a greater variety of ingredients, but we in the more remote or poorer regions can get creative. Just experiment, you won't lose much more than some cheap ingredients but the amount you'll learn is priceless!
Happy soaping!

 

[Chai]

My beautiful husband found a can of milk powder <3 I’ll show the result in a couple of days! For fun, like some of you suggested, I’ll try the cream powder in a smaller batch next week and see how it goes ( * 3*)

Thank you guys so much for all the inputs, tips and tricks! I’ll try them all ( ^ 3^)-b

Oh, and have any of you tried freeze-dried berries (like strawberry)? Is it «soap friendly»?

 

[shunt2011]

My beautiful husband found a can of milk powder <3 I’ll show the result in a couple of days! For fun, like some of you suggested, I’ll try the cream powder in a smaller batch next week and see how it goes ( * 3*)

Thank you guys so much for all the inputs, tips and tricks! I’ll try them all ( ^ 3^)-b

Oh, and have any of you tried freeze-dried berries (like strawberry)? Is it «soap friendly»?

Will likely turn brown in soap. I don't add much to my soaps. Coffee grounds, pumice, oatmeal, milks, honey. Sometimes beer, pumpkin, aloe.

 

[Iluminameluna]

Oh, and have any of you tried freeze-dried berries (like strawberry)? Is it «soap friendly»?

I'm not sure about freeze dried fruits in general, mostly because the high sugars would be hard to keep from scorching/burning and turning brown. However, using FROZEN fresh fruit works! I know this because during the last mango season here I pureed some, strained the puree twice, then froze it. I was using filtered local seawater and so froze that too. I added the lye to both, slowly, and there was NO discoloration at ALL! Plus I added olive oil infused with both turmeric and smoked paprika and the result was GORGEOUS, imho. But then, I like orange.
Last night I made liquid milk from whole milk powder and froze it in ice cube trays. Liquid milk is expensive here, more than powdered, so that's what I'm using. Today I'll use the 50g of lye I have left to make a 350g batch of soap. We'll see.

 

[Hendejm]

There's a lady who soaps in North Eastern Canada with local seawater. She's also mentioned that she'll sometimes use fresh dried seaweed in her soaps.
Can't for the life of me remember her name. I'm pretty sure someone here will know.

I believe the person you are talking about is
Ariene Arsenault. She is wonderful to watch and provides some great info! She has many YouTube videos.

 

[Chai]

Here they are! They smell like honey and cinnamon <3

 

[Dawni]

Looking good @Chai!

 

[KiwiMoose]

My friend in Norway says she can get Viking Tørrmelk, can you not get it in your area?
Just be careful with your coconut milk too, as it often contains different additives that you may not want - check the label.
@shunt2011 do you find that the additives - emulsifiers and/or stabilisers and preservatives in the coconut milk affect the soaping process in any way?