I made my first batch of GM a couple of months ago and used canned GM that I had frozen first but not diluted in place of distilled water. It stunk to high heaven and turned somewhat orange. I soaped at 90 degrees but the odd thing was that I got lye spots throughout the soap. I've never seen that before. I tried to rebatch but it stunk again and worried me enough that I ended up throwing it out. The ammonia smell was super strong as I soaped and rebatched both times.
Dharlee- the ammonia smell and orange color are fairly normal when making goat-milk soaps with 100% canned goat-milk that's mixed directly with the lye. At least it was always that way for me back when I used to make my milk soaps by that method (I use a different method now,
see below). Good news, though- the ammonia smell goes away about a week into cure, and the orange color always cured to tan for me.
In regards to the 'lye spots' that you mentioned- are you sure they were lye spots? I ask because sometimes white spots in milk soaps can actually be fatty globules from the milk that didn't get mixed in well enough.
When it comes to milk-soaping, I personally like using the 'split-method where the liquid amount for my batch gets split into 2 parts: part water and part goat-milk. The lye gets dissolved into an equal amount of water in weight, and the remainder of my liquid amount is made up of refrigerated (not frozen and not canned) goat-milk which gets stick-blended into my oils either right before or right after adding in my lye solution. When I want to make a 100% milk soap with this method, I just fortify my liquid goat-milk portion with enough powdered goat milk to boost the milk concentration up to a 100% level for my batch. I really like doing it this way because there's no initial ammonia smell, my soap does not turn orange, and it cures out to a creamy, off-white color.
IrishLass
