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seandair

Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
5
Reaction score
5
Location
Arizona
I started making Goat Milk soap some years back when our little nanny gave us more milk than we could use. I did some research on the internet for recipes and from there was able to produce some fairly decent soap. For some reason I started having lye pockets (assuming undissolved lye) in my cured soaps, so over time I've been trying to figure out how to solve that problem. While I was researching on it today I came across this forum and was blown away by all the knowledge here. So here I am! I've spent most of the day reading on this forum and I'm enthused all over again at the prospect of not only being able to solve my lye-pocket-problem but expanding and trying new things.
I live in a very rural area, we keep chickens, horses, rabbits and usually a big garden. I also can and freeze dry food, work with stained glass, felting, oil painting and build rock walls.
 
Welcome Seaandair!

Assuming you were mixing your lye into your goat milk, it sounds like some of it may not have completely dissolved. I know of some folks that strain their milk/lye solution before pouring it into the oils just to make sure no straggler lye crystals make it in.

That's one of the reasons why I hate dissolving my lye into anything but water if I can help it. With water, it's easy to see if some of the lye did not dissolve, but with milk, it's more difficult.

When I make my milk soaps, I use what we call around here the 'split method', where the lye is dissolved in an equal amount of water by weight, and the remaining liquid required for the batch is added in as milk (added into the oils before adding the lye/water solution). It doesn't make a 'full-on' goat milk soap because the milk amount is reduced, but I compensate by fortifying my goat milk with enough powdered goat milk to compensate, thereby giving me a 'full-on' goat milk soap with the added assurance that all my lye has been dissolved.


IrishLass :)
 
Thank you for the welcome!!
IL, yours was one of the posts I was so excited to read earlier (in fact I copy/pasted it into word so I wouldn't lose it), it was posted in an AHA! Moment thread. Ahem, it gave me an AHA! Moment! =D Your suggestion is exactly what I'm going to try next. Though I gotta admit the MasterBatching concept really sparked my interest, I'll work this problem out first and then I can move on!
 
Thank you all for the welcoming posts! I'll be lurking and reading for a while, though I'll likely pop in with a question now and then. For now though, I'm simply thanking the many people in this forum for the sharing of your knowledge and experiences!
 
Welcome, seandair. So you build rock walls? Do you use natural rocks you find around Arizona on your property? I love the look of rock walls both in buildings and as retaining walls and as fencing.
 
Welcome, seandair. So you build rock walls? Do you use natural rocks you find around Arizona on your property? I love the look of rock walls both in buildings and as retaining walls and as fencing.
Hi Earlene, yes I use rocks that I gather from down in the wash on our place here. I love the looks of them too and the feeling that they've a kind of strength to them. We've been hit with freezing temps here now so I'll be starting back into it in the spring. I'll try to post a pic, if my computer is feeling agreeable.
20170823_093229.jpeg
 
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