Raw Milk Soap

[scrubbie]

I have some raw milk and I dont want to scorch it. Can I use 30 percent water in my lye and then 70 percent milk at trace? I just am freaking because it is lovely and raw and from a nice farm. Is there a better way than milk and lye? While this may not be a big deal to some, I am originally from a big urban international city and I never have seen, smelled raw milk before.

 

[Soapy Gurl]

I have never made milk soap so I can't advise you on that. But my friend makes one from raw milk and it is an amazing soap! So rich and creamy. You will love the soap it makes.

 

[scrubbie]

Thank you. I am excited to work with it. To me it is special because I growing up in urban sprawl used to dream of bed and breakfasts and a simpler life. I didnt even know until last year people drank or even had raw milk. All I ever knew was what was in the store. I ate a raw milk cheese.
So I am waiting to see if there are any tips maybe spiliting water and milk . I am concerned about burning it or it going orange. The raw milk is to precious to me.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

You can freeze the milk and dissolve the lye into the frozen milk or you can split the liquid and dissolve the lye into water and then add your raw milk at light trace. You need to use enough water to dissolve the lye. Write your recipe down telling us how much lye and how much liquid and someone will help you to calculate the least amount of water you can use for dissolving the lye if you want to do it that way. :wink:

 

[Soapy Gurl]

Okay, I emailed my friend. She makes a 50/50 lye solution and then adds the rest as milk.

edit - she adds the milk at light trace and soaps at 33%, milk at fridge temp.

 

[thesoapfairy]

remember, you need at least a 1:1 water to lye ratio for it to completely dissolve.

 

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

I only use raw goats milk in my soap. My milk is frozen solid when I add my lye and as long as you keep it moving (stirring) it doesn't scorch. I often have a hard time with a small amount that won't defrost and have to sit my container of lye/milk in my oil pan to get it back up to temperature before combining with oils. This is also a good way to make sure oil and milk/lye is at the same temp.

I freeze my milk in the same container I am going to mix my lye in. When it is frozen, I pop it out and store in the freezer in gallon size zip lock bags. When I make soap, I just pop the frozen milk in the plastic container and add my lye and stir.

 

[lsg]

I usually use a little more than half water and the rest cream as my liquid. I dissolve the lye in water and add the cream at thin trace.

 

[carebear]

I have some raw milk and I dont want to scorch it. Can I use 30 percent water in my lye and then 70 percent milk at trace? I just am freaking because it is lovely and raw and from a nice farm. Is there a better way than milk and lye? While this may not be a big deal to some, I am originally from a big urban international city and I never have seen, smelled raw milk before.

as the soap fairy said, you need at least as much liquid to dissolve the lye as you have lye. any other liquid you can add whenever you like, but it might take some practice to get the technique, timing, and temps right since you would add such a highly concentrated lye solution at first.

when it comes to soaping, I'm afraid you will find that milk is milk, and that raw won't be any different than pasteurized.

 

[scrubbie]

Thanks for the tips on this. It never occured to me it could adjust trace. Probably faster or slower.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Thanks for the tips on this. It never occured to me it could adjust trace. Probably faster or slower.

My experiences:

If you add cold milk @ light trace then it may speed up trace.

If you add warm milk to oils first, then trace may be closer to normal.

 

[Seventeen Soaps]

I haven't made a milk soap in four years but would it not be better to add the milk to the lye solutions when it has cooled before mixing it into the oils rather than mixing it into the oils separately??

 

[carebear]

that would be almost the same as adding the lye directly to the milk in the first place - it'll be a concentrated solution and the reaction will still produce a lot of heat quickly.

 

[lsg]

I haven't made a milk soap in four years but would it not be better to add the milk to the lye solutions when it has cooled before mixing it into the oils rather than mixing it into the oils separately??

I haven't had much luck adding milk to the lye solution as it sometimes curdles the milk and turns it orange, even when I freeze the milk to the slushy stage. Ever since I have started adding cream at light trace, I get much lighter soap.

 

[Seventeen Soaps]

Yes it heats up but this is how I did it...

1. Mix the lye solution up with a water portion
2. Let the solution cool down to the desired temperature or a little cooler than what you like to mix into the oils at.
3. Place the lye jug in the sink in a ice bath and add the milk slowly while it is still slushy.

I never had the milk burn this way. It never went orange (only golden due to the sugar in the milk) and never had that bad smell. I just feel safer doing it this way so I know it is fully combined in and I won't end up with a rancid soap.

But that's one of the things I love about soaping there is no real right or wrong way...other than mixing the lye into the water

 

[Kleine Teufel]

Definately save your raw milk. Unless, of course, if it's cheaper to buy. Raw milk is cheaper here, however, some places people pay an arm and a leg for raw milk over pasteurized. Either way, you're destroying the whole point of the raw milk anyways. Not to mention, you wouldn't be getting the benefit anyways, even if it weren't being destroyed, unless, of course, you plan on eating your soap, which I wouldn't recommend.