# Goat Milk Soap Recipe



## LeahMcK3 (Sep 4, 2012)

Hi,
I'm new to soap making & wondering if someone can help me figure out measurements to use (I'm not great with the lye calculator since I'm so new to this). I know the ingredients I want to use, & can't find a recipe to meet my needs.
I want it to include:
goat milk
olive oil
castor oil
palm oil
coconut oil (or good substitute)
honey
beeswax
& possibly oatmeal (not sure yet)
Also, is there a good replacement for coconut oil if I decide to do something different there? My son has a small sensitivity to coconut products. I have a loaf mold that says it will hold 4 to 5 lbs. How do I know how many oz of soap to make to fill my mold well?
Thanks so much for the help


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## new12soap (Sep 4, 2012)

Hello  I am not the most experienced soap maker, but until one comes along I will give you my two cents worth!

First of all, since you are new to soapmaking, I am going to suggest that you NOT use beeswax or honey. Both are extremely difficult to work with and cause overheating. Milk soaps can also be very tricky, but I can tell you what I know about using it.

As intimidating as it can be at first, lye calculators are your friend! Soap calc has a very good "how to use" page here http://www.soapcalc.net/info/helptext.asp  Just play around with different things until you get a bit more comfortable with it. You will be surprised at how much you learn just by taking the time. Good (and safe!) soapmaking requires taking your time and getting comfortable with what you are trying to do, there are no shortcuts.

Since your son has a sensitivity to coconut products, a good alternative is palm kernel oil (not the same as palm oil) or babassu oil. Both are very bubbly/cleansing. If you plan to try coconut oil anyway (and I have no idea how sensitive he is or if using it in soap would be a problem or not, up to you) I would say keep your percent low.

As for the goat milk, are you using fresh (or refrigerated), canned condensed, or powdered? The split method is probably the easiest, where you divide your total water for your batch in half and use one half of the water for your lye and the other half you replace with milk and add it directly to your oils. If you search for split method on this forum you will find a lot of info. If you want to use 100% goat milk for your liquid (and again, I don't recommend that for a beginner), freeze it first and add your lye to the frozen chunks very very slowly a little at a time. If it gets too hot it will turn orange and stink to high heaven but if that does happen don't worry, it still makes perfectly good soap and it won't stink when it's all done.

I would not start with a 4 or 5 lb batch, I would start smaller, say 2 lbs. Things can go sideways and until you have a few batches under your belt and a recipe you are comfortable with it's better to start small. The way you figure out how much oil to use for your mold is W x H x L = Volume, Volume x 0.40 = total oils. I know that can sound confusing, but first you measure the volume of the mold. I will use mine as an example. My mold is 8 inches by 3.5 inches by 2.75 inches, so 8 x 3.5 x 2.75 = 77 (my mold is 77 cubic inches volume). Now I want to know how much oil I need to use for my soap, so 77 x 0.40 (the amount of oil I need is a constant, I don't know why) = 30.8 ounces of oil. So I will use 31 and have a small container ready for any extra.

Now on to a recipe! There are a lot of good recipes posted on this forum, but you should always run ANY recipe through a lye calculator. Sometimes the information on the internet is wrong, and anyone can make a typo entering it, so always always ALWAYS check!

Based on the ingredients you want to use, I would do something like this:
Olive Oil 40%
Palm Oil 40%
Coconut (or PKO) 15%
Castor Oil 5%
50/50 goat milk/water

When you enter this into soapcalc you will see the cleansing isn't very high, but it is still soap and will work just like soap but be gentle. If you want it to be even milder you could increase the Olive oil to 50% and decrease the palm oil to 30%. Play with soapcalc until you have the properties you want! I like a milder conditioning bar, my husband (whose skin is not as dry as mine) likes more cleansing.

Whew! That was a long answer! Hope this helps  Good luck and be sure you keep us all posted on how it comes out. Someone is always around if you have more questions.


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## LeahMcK3 (Sep 4, 2012)

Great!! That is SO helpful! Thank you 
I just ordered some babassu oil to give that a try in place of the coconut oil. I am using powdered goats milk, so I'll just mix it at a lower rate of powder to water to be safe. When you explained how to figure the volume of oil for your mold, is the 30.8 ounces you calculated JUST the amount of oil? And if so how do you figure amount of water/ goat milk? Or is the 30.8 total ounces of liquid? Sorry if that's a silly question... & thank you for all your help!!


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## new12soap (Sep 4, 2012)

Not a silly question at all  the 30.8 oz is OILS, the weight of the oils only is considered your batch size, even though after you add water and lye you will end up with a bit more than that. The formula takes that into account. Most of the water will evaporate out with the cure. Remember, tho, that 30.8oz was just an example based on the measurements of my mold, that won't work for a 4-5 lb mold! You will have to do the math for your measurements, whatever mold you use.

The way you figure out how much water or goat milk (and lye) is to use a lye calculator! Once you enter your superfat % and all your oils, the calculator will give you the total lye amount and water amount required. I forgot to mention that it is important to have a good scale and measure everything by weight.

If you are using powdered goat milk (which is what I use), what I would do is this: Measure out the total water needed for your recipe, then use 1 or 2 ounces of that water to mix up your goatmilk powder (say one scoop or however much you would want to add to your total water) into a very thick liquid (not quite a paste). Use the rest of the water to mix your lye, then make soap. Add your thick goat milk mixture to your soap at light trace and stick blend it in.


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## LeahMcK3 (Sep 5, 2012)

Great idea with the goats milk adding at trace! Especially for a beginner  Thanks for all the tips! I've been playing around with the soap calculator & am getting the hang of it too. Yay! Thanks again for all your expertise!


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## new12soap (Sep 6, 2012)

You are very welcome  please let us know how it turns out, we especially like pics!


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