Goat milk recipe help

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Bluecheetah

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Carlisle, PA
Hi everyone. I’ve made soap and lotions a few times and I am trying to find a specific goat milk soap recipe for my special needs son. We have been buying this handmade soap for him and it’s rather expensive so I wanted to make it myself. He has certain allergies and doesn’t use anything other than this soap. Any help would be greatly appreciated on finding a recipe with these ingredients:

Coconut Oil
Sunflower Seed Oil
Safflower Oil
Olive Oil
Rice Bran Oil
Goat Milk
Citrus
Sodium Hydroxide
 
By any chance is it this product? https://www.amazon.com/Unscented-Goat-Milk-Spray-Formula/dp/B07JK3SBXM

I see something quite like it is also on Etsy, but the seller doesn't provide an ingredients list there -- https://www.etsy.com/listing/491426883/unscented-goat-milk-soap

If this is not the correct product, please give a link to the actual product if possible. That way people can be as informed as possible so they can provide good advice.

"Citrus" as an ingredient is not enough information. It needs to be more specific -- citrus essential oil, citrus peel, citrus juice, etc.? And what kind of citrus if possible -- lemon, orange, etc.?
 
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The "naked" soap is a basic, not especially unusual soap. The seller is saying a few misleading or incorrect things in the product description. The ingredients list isn't in the correct order (by weight in descending order). because sodium hydroxide and goat milk have to be higher on the list to make soap properly. Ignoring those issues, it's just a simple soap and there is nothing magic about the 5 fats used.

Coconut Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil, Safflower Oil, Olive Oil, Rice Bran Oil

Let's assume the oils are in correct order by weight. There are 5 fats. Each fat could be 20% of the total and the list would be correct --

Coconut 20%
Sunflower 20%
Safflower 20%
Olive 20%
RBO 20%

That would make a nice soap that would bubble well but not be overly harsh on the skin. I'd superfat it at 3-5%, but not any much higher than that -- the goat milk will increase the superfat by several more percent, even if the milk is fat free, because the sugars consume some of the sodium hydroxide.

You can use 100% goat milk for the water based liquid or you could use the "split method" as described in the Lovely Greens tutorial. The split method is the way I make milk soap, although with one change. She's instructing you to dissolve more NaOH (109 g) in the water (100 g) than can actually dissolve. I would make the water weight equal to the NaOH weight and reduce the goat milk weight accordingly.

Or the coconut could be a bit higher than 20% of the fats, and the others could be adjusted to lower percentages accordingly. If that's what you want to do, decide on the percentages of oils that you want to use, and it's straightforward to design your own recipe from there.

I realize inexperienced soapers often think they have to use other people's recipes, but that is so not true. You do NOT have to use or modify someone else's recipe -- it is honestly very easy to create your own. And even if you do choose to use others' recipes, you should always run them through a soap recipe calculator before you use them to confirm there are no errors, so you need to know how to use a calc regardless. Many people really like soapee.com for being clear and easy to use. There's a new calc here on SMF that you can use too.

We can make sure your recipe is safe and correct before you make it if you share it in this thread for feedback.

edit: There is no particular magic to adding citrus juice, unless you want the soap to contain sodium acetate for added hardness. If you don't, I would omit the juice. The implication, I think, is the juice lowers the pH, but their claim that the soap is "low pH" is not remotely correct. If it's soap made with lye, it's going to have a pH in the 9-11 range. No reasonable amount of citrus juice added to the soap is going to change that.

another edit: Because this is going to be a soap high in oleic acid, it may want to stay soft in the mold for longer than you'd like, and it may not come to trace very fast. These problems are more likely to happen if you use a larger amount of water/milk in the recipe. To reduce the chance of trouble, I would use a lye concentration of 33% to 40% for a recipe like this. The 33% concentration will give you more "room" for more goat milk. The 40% concentration will help the soap become firmer faster in the mold and maybe trace a little faster.
 
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Thank you so, so much! I seriously can’t thank you enough. I know it’s a hot process soap and the ingredients but that’s about it. I will try to put together a recipe and use the lye calculator and see what you think. Again, thank you from my son and I
 
Please do post your recipe before you make it -- there are many soap makers here who can give you feedback. You might get as many variations as there are soapers who reply, but you might see a trend in the answers that will guide you into making a good soap for your family.

Another tip is to not make a big batch with an untested recipe. Maybe make a batch using 16 ounces or 500 grams of fat at the most. If you make a large batch, you might end up with 5 pounds (or whatever) of soap that you hate and don't know what to do with.
 

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