Family farm

[Soapnewbie]

Hi, my name is Michael and I am from Angola. I appreciate your passion of soap making. Right now I'm back in my families farm and we have goats and honey here. So I was thinking soap made from goats milk and honey would be perfect for my family and our neighbors. I already know honey is great because it cleared my acne problem before. I will of course also include oils in this soap recipe. But how will this recipe look like for 30 bars the same size as Dove? Especially when using more than one table spoon of honey ore one cup of goats milk like many people do? It's just that we have honey and goats milk available and I want to use this two fantastic ingredients as much as possible making 30 bars of soaps.
Your helpful comments are much appreciated, and your feedback will help us to continually improve our daily lives.

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum. Honey in a soap recipe is great, but be careful to use SoapCalc and use weight measures and not volume. I think 1 tsp to 1 tbsp. per pound of oils would be a more appropriate use for honey. Too much honey and indeed, any type of sugar can lead to overheating of soap. Goat's milk also contains sugar, so I would go for 1 tsp. honey per pound of oils when using in conjunction with milk. I like SoapQueen tutorials. Here is info on using honey in cp sooap.
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...oney-to-cold-process-soap-tips-tricks-recipe/

 

[Soapnewbie]

Welcome to the forum. Honey in a soap recipe is great, but be careful to use SoapCalc and use weight measures and not volume. I think 1 tsp to 1 tbsp. per pound of oils would be a more appropriate use for honey. Too much honey and indeed, any type of sugar can lead to overheating of soap. Goat's milk also contains sugar, so I would go for 1 tsp. honey per pound of oils when using in conjunction with milk. I like SoapQueen tutorials. Here is info on using honey in cp sooap.
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...oney-to-cold-process-soap-tips-tricks-recipe/

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[Lin19687]

I would search on here how to make soap, then look up Honey and Goats milk and how they behave in making soaps. There are a lot of ways to add these into soaps
The Soap Queen has videos on these are well. I don't have a link, just google soap queen videos

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Don't try to run before you even know how to crawl, much less walk.

Start with making recipes for about 500g of soap, which is enough for 4 bars. Once you settle on a recipe that you like and are confident in the process, scale up.

Thirty bars is easily enough soap for one person for an entire year, so it's a big investment. If the first try is bad, you've wasted everything, and even if the first try is decent-but-not-perfect you will still be using not-perfect soap for a LONG time.

Better to make four and judge them, tweak a bit if necessary and make four more, then repeat until you have the recipe that you like and are ready for big production.

 

[dixiedragon]

Do you have access to a scale? We recommend a digital food scale - not a postal scale. This is because food scales are designed to weigh as you pour or add more ingredients. Postal scales are not.

I agree 30 bars is a lot to start with. I think a 10-bar batch is a good starting place. Small enough to be manageable but large enough to give you a decent margin for error.

What oils/fats do you have access to?

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hiya Michael!

I agree with BW! First things first. Soap is made from Water + NaOH (lye) + fatty acids (oils, fats, butters, etc)

1) First find a soap recipe you like and make a small batch.
2) Making soap using goat milk is tricky! It makes the batch heat up too fast so you need to understand how to prevent that from happening. So, once you understand the technique, make the same recipe only this time, substitute goat milk for all or part of the water portion of the lye solution.
3) Then make the same soap with honey. Adding honey to the soap batch is also tricky! It makes the batch heat up too fast also. Add 1 tablespoon honey to 1 tablespoon water and warm it before adding it to the batch. Either at the end or to the melted oils/fats before adding the lye solution.

There are many Newbies and Semi-newbies here so you are in good company. You might want to take some time to read info posted on the Beginner's Forum -- especially the Stickies. There's lots of good information there to help you. Once you create or find a recipe you'd like to try, run the recipe through a calculator like SoapCalc or Soapee then you can get feedback by starting a new thread on the Recipe Feedback Forum.

Hope this helps!

 

[soapmaker]

Welcome Michael. What a wonderful idea to use your goat milk and honey for a great soap for yourself and neighbors. I do agree with dixiedragon that a 10 bar batch is a better starting point.

 

[Soapnewbie]

I really appreciate your advice and knowledge you guys. If I am late with my replies I'm sorry. Right now there is so much things I have to do. But I feel like the President of America getting intelligence report about the latest stock market report.
I have to admit I thought making soaps was very easy and that I could easily make 30 soaps. And confidence is great but sometimes we need someone who can tell us you need to walk first before you can run. Using wisdom and knowledge everyday is how we can improve our lives and I try to live by that even though some of my friends are maybe the opposite of optimism in life. Even when I talk about soap making they think it's a joke. But someone told me making soaps is like bakery but thanks to you guys I understand it better now.
Lin19687: I spent many hours just reading about soaps today and I agree Soap Queen is a really great site.
BrewerGeorge: You are absolutely right about that. I have to start small.
DixieDragon: thank you and I will use digital food scale. I haven't thought about this. We have sesame oil and olive oil here by the way.
Zany_in_Co: One thing I totally forgot and lsg reminded me of is honey turns into sugar when cooked or heated so I will try to find the right recipe to preserve the honey beneficial properties. There is lots of information but its like a jungle outout there. But thanks to people like you I found the right direction.
Soapmaker: Yes, you are right I have to start small.
Guys, tomorrow I will be without internet connection. But I appreciate your help and I will be active member of this forum. Hopefully I can also share my knowledge with newbies. Take care.

 

[dixiedragon]

Olive oil and sesame - what else? Coconut? Palm? Castor? Soy?

 

[Soapnewbie]

Olive oil and sesame - what else? Coconut? Palm? Castor? Soy?

I can probably get coconut oil from another town but yes we have palm oil for cooking food. I'm not sure about castor oil. But would you say oil is the second most important ingredient after lye? And why do people use so many different types of oil?

 

[SaltedFig]

Hi Michael,

The peroxide benefit of honey (which maybe what helped with your acne) is lost to the lye during the saponification process, but the honey brings benefits from the plants the bees had access to, which can come through into the soap (a bit like essential oils, this is very variable and can also temperature dependent).

Cooler temperatures tend to preserve more, but a gelled honey soap is a beautiful thing (there's always a compromise with soap making)

(Added: Each oil brings benefits and downsides - coconut brings bubbles and solubility, but can feel harsh on the skin in high amounts, palm makes a strong, hard white soap that is waxy when too much is used ... and on.)

A simple blend of olive, palm and coconut would make an excellent first soap

Good luck!

 

[Soapnewbie]

Hi Michael,

The peroxide benefit of honey (which maybe what helped with your acne) is lost to the lye during the saponification process, but the honey brings benefits from the plants the bees had access to, which can come through into the soap (a bit like essential oils, this is very variable and can also temperature dependent).

Cooler temperatures tend to preserve more, but a gelled honey soap is a beautiful thing (there's always a compromise with soap making)

(Added: Each oil brings benefits and downsides - coconut brings bubbles and solubility, but can feel harsh on the skin in high amounts, palm makes a strong, hard white soap that is waxy when too much is used ... and on.)

A simple blend of olive, palm and coconut would make an excellent first soap

Good luck!

You are absolutely right my friend. Preserving this benefits is important to me. Gelled soap? You gave me more homework I appreciate that
I will definitely start with olive, palm and coconut soap and gradually get my black belt. There's no cheating here

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I will definitely start with olive, palm and coconut soap and gradually get my black belt. There's no cheating here

 

[SunRiseArts]

welcome, and ditto to what everyone said. Making soap with milk and honey is an advance stage.

Why not try a simple recipe of a small batch? Say 1 pound, and practice? Then you can play with more stuff!

Welcome to the obsession, soap is exciting!

 

[Sandra@SS]

I wish you all the best,
I like Goats Milk Soap,
and I like Honey as an additive, in small amounts.