goats milk soap

[kpduty51]

I have a question about how my first batch of goats milk honey oatmeal soap went last night. I froze the milk and added the lye to it, but it never got hot-like I expected it to -only to about 74, but it did seems as though the lye was well dissolved. I think it should have been slushy instead of frozen solid, which is what the recipe called for. Since I am a novice at soap making, I felt I needed to heat it up to the 92 degrees the recipe said to shoot for to match the oil temp of around 92 degrees before mixing. I used my blow dryer on the outside of the lye/milk bowl and heated up to 84 degrees before mixing it with the oils so they were close in temps. I know this sounds like desperation, but I was trouble shooting and trying not to explode or blow things up.
When I decided to just go ahead with the lower temp lye, I added the lye/milk mixture (around 85 degrees) to the oils and mixed to a light trace, which happened easily, then added the honey and ground oats and poured into molds. I had read the milk soap book and also seen a posting from the creator of my recipe recommending pouring into shallow trays instead of my bigger box mold to avoid over heating and browning of the milk sugars. Well, I put the soap outside for half an hour (Wisconsin cold) and then into my unheated porch for a few hours, then into the house. I didn't cover it. Tonight I cut it--seems like it worked and is not brown at all. But it did not have a gel phase or heat up. Here is my ignorant question: did I make soap? It looks like soap, smells great and the scraps make lather. It needs to cure now. Should I worry about it not having gotten hot enough? Should I test the ph later on before using?
This is only my second batch of soap and first with milk. My first batch was CP and worked perfectly. I am just hoping the low temp will not give me a bad result. Can anyone reassure me? thanks

 

[2lilboots]

Congrats you have made soap. I soap at low temps all the time.

 

[kpduty51]

Thank you! you are so nice.
Do you mean that the lye can do what it is supposed to do, even when it doesn't heat up much? more ignorance...

 

[CaliChan]

like 2lilboots said you did in fact make soap! i dont know about reheating the lye tho. i make most of my batches with goats milk thats frozen solid and my metal bowl is icy cold to the touch even afer all the lye has been disolved for a while. I after my oils are about room temp i add in the lye. i wouldnt worry a whole lot about how warm every thing is (when i first started i soaped at 100degrees) soaping at low temps just means it takes alittle longer to get to trace (more experienced soapers are more than welcome to correct me if im wrong)

 

[new12soap]

Congratulations! You did indeed make a milk soap! And welcome to the addiction... A few things to try to answer your questions...

First of all, you say you were using someone else's recipe. Always always ALWAYS run ANY recipe through a lye calculator! ANY recipe can contain errors or typos, you have to check it!

Next, the temp. The lye needs to be completely dissolved in your liquid, and that is sometimes hard to accomplish at cooler temps. It is also hard to see it in milk. When using milk for your lye, you may want to pour your solution through a very very fine stainless steel mesh strainer to catch any undisolved lye crystals. While "cool" lye solution is usually fine, you don't want to add COLD solution to your oils, that can harden your butters and solid oils too fast and you will get false trace which will then separate on you. So, your instinct to warm it up a bit to bring it closer to the temp of your oils was a good one! Next time, just set the container of lye in a larger bowl or sink of hot water for a bit while you measure out everything else. Yes, lye is a caustic catalyst at any temperature!

Another concern about temps is that if your oils are significantly hotter than your lye solution it can cause a volcano effect. You do not want that. Trust me.

Also a good idea to put the soap outside, a lot of soapers put their milk soaps in the freezer to keep it from gelling. It will still saponify, it just takes longer. For that reason, I would have recommended waiting another day or two before unmolding it, then let it sit another day after that before cutting it. Cure time should be the same as a gelled soap.

Again, congrats, and we LOVE pics! let's see em!

 

[kpduty51]

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful, helpful advice. I am quickly getting addicted to soap making. When I tell people I am making soap, they have no idea how dicey, dangerous and fun it is--this goes along with the incognito status of peri-menopause and my grey hairs....

I did stir and stir the lye mixture--and peered and peered at it, so feel pretty confident I dissolved it but I like the idea of straining it to be sure. Also, I used lye from Menards (the guy said "all the gals get their lye for soap here!). I thought about trying the flakes from Brambleberry with my next batch of milk soap --wondering if it is easier to see if it has dissolved.

thanks again!

 

[danahuff]

You definitely made soap. Not gelling it only means it will take a little longer for the water to evaporate and for the soap to fully saponify.

I often find my milk is around 74 or so. If you want to warm it up, you can put it in a hot water bath. The way I do that is that when I soap with milks, I put the lye and milk in a stainless steel pot (easy to control temps) and place that pot in a baking dish. If the lye seems to be getting too hot, I add cool water to the baking dish. If it's too cool, I add hot water. Seems to work pretty well.

I have used the flakes from Bramble Berry, and the only advantage I saw was that the flakes were a little easier to pour. You don't have to worry about lye beads flying anywhere. Of course, I order beads from the Lye Guy now, and I haven't noticed his lye scatters at all. I ordered some pure lye from Amazon, and it was horrible. The stuff seemed to fly everywhere when I tried to pour it. I think the Bramble Berry flakes take longer to dissolve.

 

[sandymcphee]

I can attest that it is quite possible to not fully dissolve those lye crystals in icy cold milk. I had quite the surprise when I cut into one batch of soap made with frozen coconut milk cubes/slush. However, it was pretty obvious when I cut into the soap as there were little crystals scattered throughout the loaf. I ended up rebatching it hot-processed and actually saved it, but it was a lot of extra work and I will be especially careful from now on not to repeat that mistake. It is harder to tell with the milky color and I think I just was too careless with the stirring.

 

[Pepsi Girl]

I say "If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck it's a duck!" Yes you made soap and we need pictures!

 

[Genny]

Ooh, another Wisconsinite?

It sounds like your soap will be okay. I put my soaps outside in the snow a lot of times for a little bit to keep them from overheating. Just make sure that an animal or person can't get into it.

Now we need to see pics

 

[TangledFrog]

Another concern about temps is that if your oils are significantly hotter than your lye solution it can cause a volcano effect. You do not want that. Trust me.

So glad I looked at this thread! I just bought some goat's milk this morning to attempt my first batch of goat's milk soap...and this thread answered so many questions. Also, I've seen photos of the volcano effect, but had no idea what caused that. As a relatively inexperienced soaper, who is starting to experiment a bit, I'm really grateful for that bit of advice!

 

[memphishiker]

trust me volcano = bad day big clean up!

 

[kpduty51]

Here is a picture of my first two soaps.
The first was made with golden palm oil (which is why it is orange) and canola and palm oil. I added almond oil as a super fat. I used lemon eucalyptus and tangerine essential oils. It smells great, but I wonder if the fragrance will fade, as I have read that can happen with citrus.
The second soap is the oatmeal, honey, goats milk soap which gave me such fits. It does seem to have worked well. I used the milk, oatmeal, honey fragrance oil from Brambleberry.
I am in Madison, WI, by the way. Cold here today.
I am pretty excited about soap making.
I am interested in making a shampoo soap bar next. Any suggestions?
Thanks for looking.

 

[2lilboots]

I really like your soaps. The orange coloring of the lemon eucalyptus/tangerine soap is quite fitting!