Tried coconut milk in soap for the first time

[Syllvviiaa]

Been reading about adding milk, specifically coconut milk, and finally tried it in a plain soap; no fragrance and no colours. My typical recipe is 70% OO, 27% CO and 3% caster oil and that is what I used for this coconut milk batch. I decided on replacing all the water with milk, so I froze the coconut milk (was not low fat). Then I mixed the frozen milk and lye. Noticed it started to get more colour, I put the container in a bowl of cold water to help keep it from burning. I think it helped. When I was ready to mix the lye and oil together, I noticed that the lye was 'thick' and lumpy. I guess the fat in the coconut milk was saponifying. I stirred it up and added to the oil and started stick blending. I also added 1 tsp of salt this time because I usually have problems with unmolding because the bar is still soft, so thought maybe this will help. All this so far did not really surprise me, but what did surprise me next is how slow it came to trace. Usually, I have the problem of batter coming to trace fast so, I use minimal stick blending so I can get colour and FO in and pour while it is still thin enough for a design. So there I am blending and stirring. Which was actually kind of nice not being in a race with my soap. When I got a thin trace I poured in the loaf and left it. No fancy design... just want a plain soap. I still had little white bits which stick blending never got out. Not much I could do about that I suppose. Next day, about 26 hours later I unmold it and WOW, it was the easiest unmolding I have had. Not sticky and soft. Next surprise was when I went to cut it, wow, never had a bar that hard to cut. Still can see the little white spots which I'm ok with, but I was really wanting those smooth white bars that I see other people make.

First question, does coconut milk make bars harden fast, or was it just the 1 tsp of salt? I once tried Zaney's castile soap recipe and that did come out clean from the silicon mould so I thought it was the imitation seawater but I also used that seawater other times with FO and colours and it didn't harden up in 24 hours like the castile soap.

Second question, how can I do coconut milk soap without getting those little spots? Does this happen with goat milk too?

The third question, does adding colour (mica, TD etc) make the soap soft when unmolding? I ask because the castile soap and this plain soap, I did not have a problem with unmolding and neither of them had colour added, but I have always had a hard time unmolding because of sticky/soft bars when I do add FO and colours.

Thanks for reading this far if you have. Sylvia

 

[Dawni]

Most people mix their lye with enough liquid to dissolve it (1:1) and the rest of the liquid, which is coconut milk they mix in with the oils. This also gets you a lighter colored soap.

Chickens like me use powder haha

As for the spots.. Did you zap test?

I wanna see your soap

 

[shunt2011]

I make mostly coconut milk soap. I dissolve my lye in an equal amount of water. I then add my liquid milk fortified with powdered to make full milk and add that to my oils and stickblend before adding my lye mixture. The fat in the milk saponifies and can cause lumps otherwise. Plus I don't have the time or patience to add lye to frozen liquids.

 

[Syllvviiaa]

Here is a picture of the coconut milk soap. I still like how it turned out. But maybe will try adding milk to the oil next time round. Did just remember that I did a water discount at 25%. That would also account for a harder bar. So if I do add milk to oil I probably shouldn't do a water discount as much so I can get more coconut milk into the soap, right?

 

[KimW]

I add coconut milk at emulsion or light trace and, for batches over 500g, discount some water and adjust the lye in my lye solution in accordance with the water and fat content of the coconut milk.

For batches 500g and under, I don't bother adjusting the water or fat, but I do calculate my lye at 0% SuperFat and make my water:lye ratio 1:1.

 

[alkalineSeamoss]

Did you put your lye straight on the ice? And it started melting?

 

[earlene]

The longer the lye is in contact with fat the more saponification will occur. So maybe you could have decreased the saponification of the fats in the lye solution you made by adding it to your batch oils sooner. But you would still have had some of those spots even then. Lye waits for no woman (or man) when it finds a fat with which to tango.

The split method (as describe by shunt2011, Dawni & KimW above) is the best way to avoid them and get a smooth white bar. Using liquid or powder is a personal choice. But if you want more coconut milk in the soap, then the powder might be the better choice because it won't matter as much how much water you use, as the powder can be directly added & blended into the oils.