milk soap

[renaissancemom]

I am going to be making some milk soaps using powdered milks; I've made a receipe using powdered milk before and it came out fine. I have buttermilk, goat milk, whole milk, and coconut milk, my question is: does anyone believe that any one of these milks create a better soap over another and why? I've looked up the benefits of the different milks and my research has shown that milk is a good exfoliant regardless the type of milk. But I am really looking for specific differences and benefits.

thanks in advance

 

[Black soap n candle lady]

My personal favorite is yogurt. I freeze it and use it as my lye liquid and then add even more at trace. I think the special ending properties in the soap has to do with the fat content. So, I go for that highest fat content no matter which milk I'm going to work with. :?

 

[dagmar88]

All those things are nice in soap and I don't think you can say any of these ingredient are better than the other. It's just that everyone has their personal preferences.
My favorite is buttermilk. I freeze it and use it as 100% of my liquid for the lye solution.
Gives a real creamy feeling and I noticed more lather than when I make the same recipe with water.
The lactic acid present in dairy products is supposedly what makes milk soap so nice, I'm told...

 

[whisks]

dagmar, does the buttermilk discolour the soap at all? i know you say you freeze it - any tips there?

 

[dagmar88]

Freezing is easiest in icecube trays. Those icecube freezerbags work well too.
I weight the icecubes and add some buttermilk from the fridge to come to the exact weight.
Stir the lye solution well & let both lye solution & oils cool down to room temperature (don't know if that's needed with buttermilk, but that's the only way I soap :wink
As soon as the lye touches the buttermilk it turns a bright yellow. In soap that mellows down to a lovely soft yellow.

 

[whisks]

dagmar, i don't suppose you've tried making the lye solution without freezing the buttermilk?

 

[Kat Soap]

Okay, here's a weird dairy thought...What about the whey left after cheesemaking? There's a little bit of fat left in that. I suppose the citric acid might cause problems, though. Any thoughts?

 

[ChrissyB]

I believe that butter in soap leads to a stinky cheese smell, not exactly what you would want your soap to smell like, so I would think that the whey would smell the same.
I do like Dagmar said, freeze the milk, or I use milk powders, super easy to work with.

 

[whisks]

i didn't know whey had citric acid in it - i thought it was lactic acid? lactic acid is fine in soap - silly me, i even bought some to put in soap not knowing i could have got it free if i let milk mature a little...

 

[Kat Soap]

Ah, let me clear this up a bit. To make mozarella, ricotta, and other soft fresh cheeses, citric acid and/or rennet are simply added to whole milk. The fats of the milk become the cheese, and the leftover fluid is the whey. I don't know where the acid ends up, though.
So, buttermilk is the fluid traditionally left after pulling the fats out of the cream to make butter, similarly, whey is the fluid left after pulling the fats out of milk to make cheese. That's why my mind made that jump...

 

[whisks]

thank you for that - i never knew. i guess the way to find out whether it has any effect, good or otherwise, is to try it out in a batch of soap. i'm sure that's how we all found out about the additions of sugar, salt, silk have had on soap. someone was self sacrificing. i can't self sacrifice in this instance - i don't have access to whey.

 

[CherryGardenGirl]

From all of my cheese-making research, I learned that most buttermilks on the shelf today are not true buttermilk. As someone said earlier buttermilk was the liquid left over from making butter . . . nowadays, pretty much all of our buttermilk has cultures added to it to create that sourish taste. Not sure if that helps at all!

 

[Half Caper Farm]

i can't self sacrifice in this instance - i don't have access to whey.

I have lots! But it won't be going into soap any time soon. The pigs enjoy it too much, and it cuts down on their feed bill.

 

[Kat Soap]

Chickens are supposed to like whey as well, but mine turn up their noses (beaks?) at it whenever I feed whey to them.

 

[dagmar88]

have you been spoiling them?

 

[Kat Soap]

heh hee...me?
(pics on my blog)

 

[dagmar88]

lol those chickies do look like they we're well prepared for winter! And they even got their names written on their house

Nothing wrong with spoiling them; my last chicken Smudgy got 12 years old with it. Can't wait to get a couple again after we've moved. All those little noises they make just make your garden seem so cosy :wink: