Horrible Goat's Milk Soap Accident

[danahuff]

I had a horrible accident making goat's milk soap today, and I was hoping more experienced soapers might be able to help me figure out what I did wrong so that I can do it right next time.

First of all, I was using a can of evaporated goat's milk that I had frozen. I added the lye slowly, maybe no more than a tablespoon at a time, stirring well. The goat's milk slowly melted. I put my thermometer in the mixture and set it aside while I put my oils together. Maybe a few minutes into this task, I noticed the goat's milk/lye mixture had turned orange and solid. It looked a lot like canned pumpkin puree.

First of all, I read on About.com's Candle and Soapmaking site that I should have mixed the evaporated milk with water. So, if I needed, say, 10 oz. of liquid, then 5 should have been the evaporated goat's milk and the other 5 should have been distilled water. Is that right? Or is it fine to use only evaporated goat's milk?

Second, did I just let it get too hot? One of my books cautioned to watch that the goat's milk/lye not get above 140º, and it never did. I think it may have reached 125º.

I made soap with whole cow's milk a few weeks' ago using the same process, and I had no problems. However, I did put the cow's milk/lye in an ice bath and actually had some problems getting it to reach a high enough temperature to mix with my oils. It stalled out around 80 or 85º, so I put it in a warm water bath until it heated to around 100º. Should I have done that with the goat's milk? My thinking in not using the ice bath this time is that my goat's milk was frozen, and last time I actually had trouble warming the milk/lye up, so I thought perhaps I could avoid fiddling with the temps so much.

I was so bummed out because I don't have enough lye to try again, and I had already measured about half my oils out. I had also already ground up oats to add in and had prepared my mold. I can't buy lye anywhere. We called every hardware store in town, but I guess they won't stock it because of meth issues.

If any folks experienced with using goat's milk can chime in and help me figure out how to avoid the mess I made this time, I would be so grateful.

—Dana

 

[judymoody]

First of all, don't panic. Do you still have your block of orange goat milk lye? If so you might be able to save it.

Could you post your entire recipe including oil weights and amount of lye/milk? There may be a way to trouble shoot this.

Turning orange is no big deal; when this happens, the finished soap will end up tan or light brown but will still be good soap.

 

[danahuff]

Oh, shoot. I figured it was a total loss, so I disposed of it. :roll:

Here is my whole recipe:

15.2 oz. olive oil
12 oz. coconut oil
6.8 oz. palm oil
4 oz. shea butter
2 oz. castor oil

13.2 oz. evaporated goat's milk
5.691 oz. lye (my scale measures only to the hundredths place, so I had 5.69 oz.)

I was going to add honey and ground oatmeal, but I didn't even get as far as the oils.

I had mixed the olive oil and shea butter and was just preparing to add the coconut oil, when I noticed the lye/goat's milk mixture looked bad.

How would I save it if it hardens like that again?

 

[danahuff]

It looks like David Fisher at About.com makes a double-strength lye solution with half the required amount of liquid using distilled water, and adds the goat's milk to the oils when he uses evaporated goat's milk. I think I will try it his way next time and see if I have better luck.

Here is his tutorial: http://video.about.com/candleandsoap/Ma ... t-Milk.htm

 

[KD]

Don't ever throw it out! There is usually a save.

 

[danahuff]

But how would I save it? It was a thick, globby mess by the time I noticed it seemed to be solidifying. I would hate to use it in soap and make it worse. At least this way, all I really wasted was my lye and goat's milk. However, I do want to learn how to fix it if it happens again, so I am all ears.

 

[judymoody]

How to save?

When I've used straight coconut milk, I got a semi solidified orangey, partially saponified mess. I added a tiny bit of water, attacked it with the stick blender, and it smoothed out to a pudding like consistency. As I added my oils, it continued to thin out.

As long at the amount of water is equal to the amount of lye you are using, your soap should turn out fine.

And yes, the mix equal parts of lye and water and then add the balance in milk is a great method which I highly recommend.

Good luck with your next batch!

Edited to add a picture of sludgy coconut milk lye goop:

 

[danahuff]

Thanks! I appreciate your help! I wish I could try it again right now. Part of what I enjoy about making soap is just seeing what will happen. I wish I could have found this information you shared about how to fix it. I searched everywhere!

 

[gypsyarmadillo]

Hi Dana,

I make a lot of milk soaps, although I use fresh milks. I use a 50/50 h2o to milk method. I divide my total needed liquid by 2 and use half as h20 and half as previously frozen milk cubes. To mix I grab a bowl of ice water and nestle my lye container with the needed h2o in it. I slowly add a portion of the lye and stir well, then measure the temp. Once the temp is about 130 I add a couple of the milk cubes and stir welland then check temp again. If the temp is 130f or lower, I add more of the lye and stir well again and then measure temp again. I do this until all of the milk is dissolved. I try to keep the temp between 110-130 so that the milk does not scold and to keep the mixture as fluid as possible (some of the fat in the milk will undergo soapafication and is normal) If the temp goes below 110f I just take it out of the ice bath and continue the process. So far this process works best for me and all my batches have come out great. I also put the mold into the fridge for about 5hrs to prevent the temp. from getting too high and causing cracking or a volcano from erupting. Good luck in your next batch

 

[danahuff]

Thank you! I will try that next time, although I think I want to try to find a source for fresh goat milk rather than evaporated. I will use what I've got for now, but maybe in the future I'll see if we have it at Trader Joe's. I just moved to MA and haven't scoped out all the stores in my area, although I did quiz one of my colleagues who has a farm—bad luck for me, no goats! The closest goat farm I could find just looking on the Internet is about 70 minutes away, which is a little too far for me to worry with.

 

[gypsyarmadillo]

*I should clarify that I am alternating between the lye and milk until both have been fully dissolved. Also, you can do this with a milk slush but I pre-freeze my cubes, but for me it works both ways I'm making a new batch tomorrow and I'll snap a few pictures of what my lye solution ends up looking like for a reference point.

 

[danahuff]

I forgot to say before that I actually made a chocolate milk soap with cow's milk that came out beautifully. I used baker's chocolate and whole milk in addition to one of my standard recipes. I used all milk for the liquid. It was frozen (slushy), and I added the lye very slowly and had my container in an ice water bath. I think perhaps I did two things wrong with this soap: 1) no ice bath (I thought frozen goat's milk would be enough on its own), and 2) didn't take into account that the milk was evaporated milk not fresh.

And thanks so much for your help! It helps to see a step-by-step method.

 

[gypsyarmadillo]

That sounds lovely! I think it's perfectly fine to use milk for all the liquid, although I would probably not do a water discount if using full milk just because of the fat in the milk. The only reason I don't usually use full milk is because the milk tends to scald when adding the lye (even in the bath water) and turn all kinds of odd shades of brown and I like a very milky white bar, but with a chocolate bar that wouldn't be an issue

 

[danahuff]

OK, everyone, I gave it another try this weekend, and I have pockets of oil! There is a pinky-finger sized pocket that runs all through the top part of the soap. I am posting a picture so you can see what I mean.

The bar looks like it's weeping, but I think all the oil is just from that pocket.

I did not insulate my mold. I did put a piece of bubble wrap on the bottom of the mold and on the top of the soap. I used honey. I know that can do funny things to the temp. I heated the honey and took maybe two teaspoons of my water out before I added the lye to it and added that water to the honey. I wanted to try to dissolve it so it would mix better. Then I added the honey to my oils.

I used evaporated goat milk, but I put it in with the oils. I did NOT blend the oils and goat milk, but just stirred it, which I think was a mistake. I think I should have blended them. Then I added the "double strength" lye/water to the oils and goat milk. This is a method I had read about when you use evaporated goat milk.

It seemed to trace fine.

I think what I did wrong had to do with temperature. My lye and oils were about 100º. Should they be more like 90º? Also, should I have prevented it from gelling? There seem to be conflicting thoughts on whether it's OK to let goat milk/honey soaps gel or not.

Also, is this just an aesthetic issue, or could the soap spoil unless I rebatch it?

I have never rebatched before, so this may be a dumb question, but is it OK to put rebatched soap in a PVC pipe to mold it again? I don't have any cute little molds to use.

Any advice on how to fix this and prevent it from happening again is appreciated. I really want to save this soap because it smells wonderful, and it looks fine aside from the one major flaw. I washed my hands with it during clean up, and it feels heavenly.

 

[ilove2soap]

I'm sorry everything went so bad. I have made lots of goatsmilk soap with fresh, frozen, and evaporated goatsmilk but prefer the evaporated. Love that it is shelf stable so I can make it whenever the mood hits. To avoid burning the goatsmilk, I mix my lye with water and add the cold condensed goatsmilk at trace. You sound pretty experienced, but I would be glad to share my easy recipe if you want...it is nothing fancy but seems to make a decent bar of soap. Now this recipe would not help if you want to make 100% milk soap or you could use this easy recipe as a base and change it up to suit your preferences (just run the numbers back through Soapcalc).

8 oz distilled water
6 oz lye
Mix lye and distilled water

20 oz olive
12 oz coconut
9 oz crisco (with palm oil)

I prefer to soap cooler at about 100 degrees

6 oz cold condensed/evaporated goatsmilk added at very early trace. When you add the goatsmilk, it will move to heavy trace pretty quickly so you may want to have your mold ready and fragrance oils already added your other oils before adding the lye water. Hope that helps!

 

[danahuff]

My rebatched soap looks, well, the kindest word is "rustic." I think next time I will just try to put it in the fridge and see if that keeps it from overheating. :cry:

I didn't add the goat milk at trace. I put it in with the oils. Next time, I think I'll blend it first, because the goat milk baby bastille soap I made that way turned out better. I also tried soaping it at a cooler temp and cooling it near an open window over night after it went through gel, but next time, I think I'll just put any goat milk soap I make in the fridge. Seems like a lot of folks recommend that.

 

[danahuff]

Just wanted to let everyone know I tried again with a different mold and less honey, and the results were great!

I know that many of you have had fine results with a log mold and 2 T of honey, but I reduced the honey to 1 T and used a tray mold. I also didn't insulate. Of course, I didn't insulate the first batch, but it still overheated.

 

[judymoody]

Looks terrific!

 

[danahuff]

Thanks, Judy! I am really happy with how it came out. Smells great! Just like an oatmeal cookie.

 

[Pepsi Girl]

That is beautiful I love the honeycomb look. Sorry you had so much trouble but the results are "Marvelous Darling"