Goats Milk Soap

[Kcryss]

For those that make Goats Milk soap, do you find that it's a nicer soap overall? I see a lot of people making it and I've never used goats milk, but some people swear by it.

Is it more moisturizing?
Does it have creamier bubbles?
Is it perception?

Just curious and wondering if I should give it a try.

Thanks in advance for any comments/opinions!

 

[Jersey Girl]

I like GM soap very much. It makes a very bubbly and creamy soap. I use 20% or less CO as well as Lard, Palm and either OO or RBO along with some Shea and it is not at all drying. GM does make a difference imo

 

[AliOop]

Hi @Kcryss ! Haven't seen you much lately; good to know you are alive and kicking soaping.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I make a high-lard goat-milk soap that is the ONLY soap I've ever been able to use on my face without either breaking out, peeling, or both. When I tried the high-lard without the goat milk, I didn't break out, but my nose did start peeling.

 

[Kcryss]

I like GM soap very much. It makes a very bubbly and creamy soap. I use 20% or less CO as well as Lard, Palm and either OO or RBO along with some Shea and it is not at all drying. GM does make a difference imo

Thanks for the quick response! Do you use gm from store that comes in cans or cartons, or do you get it from somewhere else?

Hi @Kcryss ! Haven't seen you much lately; good to know you are alive and kicking soaping.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I make a high-lard goat-milk soap that is the ONLY soap I've ever been able to use on my face without either breaking out, peeling, or both. When I tried the high-lard without the goat milk, I didn't break out, but my nose did start peeling.

Hi @AliOop! It's nice to be back and kicking soaping again! I had some health issues that caused a great deal of fatigue ... pretty much didn't do anything but sleep and work for about 6 months.

Looks like I will need to try GM!
I currently use coconut milk in all my batches. I think maybe I'll try the same recipe using gm instead and see how they compare. I love experiments!

 

[AliOop]

Sorry to hear you have not been feeling well, and so glad that you are doing better now!

I should have mentioned that I use GM powder. Although raw GM is available where I live, it is pricey. It is also time consuming to either use it ASAP or freeze it. I could not tell any difference in "feel" from the powder, and although it's not much cheaper, it's much easier for me to stick-blend the powder into the oils, rather than fussing about with ice cubes, ice baths, etc.

I actually made a batch last night using MB lye solution. So I added the GM to the additional liquid, and then SB'd that into the oils, before adding the MB lye solution. Worked great!

 

[Kcryss]

Sorry to hear you have not been feeling well, and so glad that you are doing better now!

Me too!

I should have mentioned that I use GM powder. Although raw GM is available where I live, it is pricey. It is also time consuming to either use it ASAP or freeze it. I could not tell any difference in "feel" from the powder, and although it's not much cheaper, it's much easier for me to stick-blend the powder into the oils, rather than fussing about with ice cubes, ice baths, etc.

I generally add coconut milk after the cook. I warm it up before adding and wait until the batter is at or below 180 F. Would I be able to do the same with gm or does that need to be added before the cook?

I actually made a batch last night using MB lye solution. So I added the GM to the additional liquid, and then SB'd that into the oils, before adding the MB lye solution. Worked great!

That's good to hear! Do you hp or cp?
I don't mb lye, but would like to add with additional liquid before cooking if it wouldn't cause it to turn brown.

 

[Jersey Girl]

@Kcryss I have used both the Concentrated GM in the cans and fresh goats milk combined with goat milk powder (using the split method). I like the result of the fresh/ powder better. I always get a darker color than I like when I used the concentrate although the finished product performs the same.

 

[AliOop]

I forgot that you HP! I do both, although mostly CP these days. You can definitely add it post-cook like any other milk. You would want to rehydrate it for that, since I've not had much luck adding any dry powders post-cook. Not sure about the browning; maybe another HPer like @Dawni or @msunnerstood can chime in about that.

 

[Kcryss]

I forgot that you HP! I do both, although mostly CP these days. You can definitely add it post-cook like any other milk.

Perfect! Sounds like I could add it with yogurt/water mixture.

 

[msunnerstood]

Me too!



I generally add coconut milk after the cook. I warm it up before adding and wait until the batter is at or below 180 F. Would I be able to do the same with gm or does that need to be added before the cook?




That's good to hear! Do you hp or cp?
I don't mb lye, but would like to add with additional liquid before cooking if it wouldn't cause it to turn brown.

Yes you should do the same with GM or it will turn your batter brown

 

[DKing]

I use goat milk regularly in my soap. I use just the goat milk sold in stores in the milk section and freeze it. I do a full water replacement and then run it through a mesh screen before adding it to the oils. I definitely feel like it makes a more luxurious feeling soap and my skin feels very nice after using it.

 

[Kcryss]

I use goat milk regularly in my soap. I use just the goat milk sold in stores in the milk section and freeze it. I do a full water replacement and then run it through a mesh screen before adding it to the oils. I definitely feel like it makes a more luxurious feeling soap and my skin feels very nice after using it.

Oh, ok. Great! Thank you! I will give it a try.

 

[TheGecko]

I make GMS...fresh if I can get it, from the health food section if I can't. I use it in place of water. I first freeze it into cubes and then measure out what I need into a bowl. I then put the bowl into an ice batch (ice cubes, some ice water and a tablespoon of salt) and let it sit a bit so the bowl gets cold. Then I add in about a quarter of my lye and stir until I can no longer feel the 'grit' of the lye. Before adding the next quarter of lye, I check the temperature...I like to keep GM Lye Solution to around 70F as I find it produces a creamier color. It's not a issue to let the temp go down as I can be doing other things like weighing out my Master Batched Oils, heating them to around 120F, dispersing my Kaolin Clay, weighing my FO.

One thing you should know about working with any 'fresh' milk product...is that your Lye Solution is going to thicken up. That's because the Lye starts binding with fats in the milk right away...aka saponification and why you see folks running it through a mesh before adding it to their oils. I dislike dirtying more dishes than I have to so I just give it a couple of quick bursts with my stick blender, then add it to my oils.

Another thing is that milk soaps can overheat and you REALLY do not want that. You get oil separation, the top gets a pock marky, it turns brown...and it smells; which is exactly what happened to me the first time I made it. I tossed the soap...it was gross. To combat that, I do the above and depending on the time of year, I may refrigerate it.

Whether it is better than using distilled water is fairly subjective. Some folks claim that 'milk' soap are better, some say that it's not worth the expense or the hassle (unless you are using powered GM). GMS is the reason I got into soap making. I bought it from this one gal for years and then she quit making it. The last dozen bars I bought I horded, only using it to wash my face with.

 

[Kcryss]

@TheGecko and @DKing it seems the trend is full replacement of the water with GM. Not sure how well that would work in hp, but thinking for me, the best option would be to use whole gm powder equal to what would be needed to reconstitute the amount of liquid in the recipe. Does that sound about right? I add my milks after cooking to prevent curdling and browning.

 

[AliOop]

@Kcryss that is exactly correct. You can use the amount of powder needed to equal "whole" GM, even if you add it to less (or more) water than you would use if you were making it for drinking, let's say, instead of soap.

I'll be interested to hear about and see pics of your first HP GM soap!

ETA: That's exactly how I used the powdered GM in my CP soaps - enough powder to make "whole" GM even though it is not added directly to my lye solution, which is master-batched. Instead, I add it to my additional water.

 

[Kcryss]

@AliOop thanks! That makes perfect sense!
Thinking about getting some Camel Milk as well and comparing all 3 milk soaps, coconut, gm, and cm! I'll post pics and results of all.

 

[lucycat]

I would encourage you to make a goat milk soap and evaluate. I make using fresh goat milk that is frozen. I find it has a different feel against the skin and some people love that. I have a couple of customers who swear it makes their skin softer. There are definitely people who have been told that goat milk is better and will only purchase goatmilk soaps. I use silk fibers in my soap with water and don't have a way to dissolve them in the cold milk/lye solution. I really like silk and prefer my soaps with water over goatmilk. Colors are more difficult with fresh goatmilk and I can't use some fragrances in goatmilk because they overheat so much I end up with splotchy color. So, more a personal preference and everyone is different. At fairs I sell about 1/3 in goat milk and try to keep about that percentage. My long term customers usually buy based on scent rather than liquid.

 

[AliOop]

@lucycat that is another advantage of using powdered GM. I master-batch my lye solution with silk in it, and then use the additional water to reconstitute enough GM powder to equal what would have been made "whole" milk if I take into consideration the lye liquid. That reconstituted liquid gets stick-blended into my oils, so there is no overheating, no need to freeze the GM, etc.

So I get both GM and silk in my bars. But I do agree with you about the colorants and scents. It can be tricky with GM, although I find that most people who want GM soap also want a more "natural" look and smell - no colorants, very light scents, only EOs, etc. Do you find that is true with your GMS customers, as well?

 

[lucycat]

I honestly think most people who purchase goat milk soaps at fairs think it is best and don't consider EO/FO. I do use EO's in some GM soaps but more because they don't always cause heating issues. My Tea tree soap is GM as well as a Cedar mint. However, my best selling GM soaps are Oatmeal, milk, and honey as well as Black Raspberry Vanilla.

My goatmilk soaps have a different surface texture and I know that is due to fresh GM. If you look at the scents on display you would quickly be able to pick out the milk soaps from the surface look. I have always thought that added to the feel difference and didn't really want to switch to powdered as a result. I have used powdered to increase lather but I don't consider it the same in the finished feel of the bar against the skin. Of course, if you are a wash cloth user then all of that is immaterial.

 

[earlene]

@TheGecko and @DKing it seems the trend is full replacement of the water with GM. Not sure how well that would work in hp, but thinking for me, the best option would be to use whole gm powder equal to what would be needed to reconstitute the amount of liquid in the recipe. Does that sound about right? I add my milks after cooking to prevent curdling and browning.

Even when you use liquid GM, you don't have to do a full water replacement. As one of those soapers who uses master-batch lye solution, I rarely do full water replacement for any soap. If I do, it requires mixing up a new batch of lye solution, which I'd rather not. So what I have done when I wanted more than just a few grams of added GM, is I'd buy concentrated GM in a can and add that for the extra water needed to get my lye concentration up to the desired amount. But I don't add it to the lye solution. I add it to the oils first, before other additives and before mixing in the lye solution.

I don't make GM soap very often, but I do also have some GM powder, which again, gets mixed into the oils.

I have only made it HP once, and I don't even recall how I added it; I think toward the end.

To answer your question about does it produce a better soap? Not IMO, at least for me personally, but some folks love it, so who can discount that? Not I.

I don't have goats, don't like the smell of their milk, and therefore have only used the canned and powdered. Perhaps fresh goats milk is better (for smell as a drink and for use in soap), but I've never tried fresh.

I do love goat milk cheese, however, so maybe it's not really the smell of the goat's milk that I don't like, but the smell of the canned goats milk that I don't like.