# Goats Milk SOap HELP!



## dixilee (Jun 11, 2013)

HI

I am making goats milk soap. How long do you leave it in the freezer for?

When do you cut the soap unfrozen or frozen

Thanks


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## Ruthie (Jun 11, 2013)

I use the fridge and leave it 48 hours.  I've never used the freezer but have read about leaving it there 24 hours then the fridge another 24.  

You'll want to wait at least another 24 to cut, to avoid crumbling.


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## Aunt Polly (Jun 11, 2013)

I freeze for 24, but 48 wouldn't hurt.  Let it thaw for 24 hrs---check to see how soft it is--if it is still soft, just let it sit for some days to harden up before cutting.  If you cut too soon, it will be too soft and mess up your cut. (Been there).


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## dixilee (Jun 12, 2013)

thanks for the relpies


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## dcornett (Jun 12, 2013)

I must just be the odd-ball here. I don't put my milk soaps in the fridge or freezer because I don't like how they do when you bring them out. I keep a pretty cool house though and use a good fan, but if I did use a freezer I'd let it thaw before trying to cut...


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## Candybee (Jun 12, 2013)

No you're not an odd ball. I don't freeze or chill my gm soap either. I just cover my mold and set it in a cool dark place. I don't force gel either, just let it do its sap thing and after 24 hrs unmold. If its still soft I may place in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour before unmolding.

But then I use a slab mold and that may be the difference.


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## SueSoap (Jun 12, 2013)

I chill mine, but have never put them in the freezer.  No room in there.


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## Lynnz (Jun 12, 2013)

I have placed my mold in the freezer for 30mins before soaping the goats milk but never put the soap itself into the freezer I keep mine in the fridge for 12hrs then umold but I guess that depends on peoples individual recipes


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## Ginka (Jun 15, 2013)

Very interesting. I made my first goat soap last week. Didn't put in the fridge initially, but it started to jell. I remember from watching soaping101 that heat will caramelize sugars in the goat milk, so I put it in the fridge. After an hour it kept jelling and I moved it to freezer. Took out after 24 h and cut after another 24h. It has darker circle in the centre from partial jelling, which hopefully will fade with curing. 
Now my question is should I left it jell compleatly? Would jell destroy soap with sugar? Beer soaps ussually put in the fridge too. 
I apologize in anvance for any spelling mistakes, I am not a native English speaker.


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## Yooper (Jun 15, 2013)

I freeze my goat milk before using, and mix the lye with the frozen goat's milk. I soap at a cool temperature, but let it gel at cool room temperatures. The soap comes out ivory colored, instead of white, but it's pretty and it doesn't have any partial gel issues.


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## FarmerMom (Jun 15, 2013)

I freeze my gm also and use the cubes to mix the lye 50/50 with ice cubes and it keeps it a nice white color as long as I add the lye slowly


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## Myava (Jun 16, 2013)

*Goats milk soap*

So who was it that said their goat milk soap came out ivory? Would u share the recipe? I let mine gel, it didn't darken a whole lot but its not ivory.


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## dcornett (Jun 16, 2013)

@Ginka-If I knew my soap was gelling, I would not try to stop it because a full gel is much better than a partial one. The gel phase will not destroy your soap, it will only make it darker (and other things) but many force gel...it's not a bad thing. And sometimes it's pretty much inevitable so you just have to go with it.


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## Relle (Jun 16, 2013)

Myava said:


> So who was it that said their goat milk soap came out ivory? Would u share the recipe? I let mine gel, it didn't darken a whole lot but its not ivory.


 
Just use your usual recipe, soap cool, use all GM and don't let it gel, put it in the frig  that will give you a light colour. Mine come out an ivory colour but I'm not willing to give you my recipe.


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## jean1C (Jun 16, 2013)

I agree with the above poster. I've done some searching on line and found a few nice recipes. One I had was a bunch of what I consider to be "exotic" oils.  But the bottom line is to use your regular recipe and substitute GM for the water. Mine also comes out a nice creamy ivory. But I add the lye SLOWLY and keep a watch on the temp. Add the lye to the GM while it is in an ice bath. This can take time, so have something else to do. (laundry works for me...lol). After I pour into the mold, I put it in the freezer for a few hours, then in the fridge for 24. I absolutely love how it looks/feels.


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## Yooper (Jun 16, 2013)

As the others mentioned, any soap recipe can be used.  You can just substitute goat's milk in place of the water.

For an ivory soap using goat's milk, I freeze my goat's milk.  Then I add the lye to the frozen goat's milk, stirring well.  It will be slushy until it tries to warm up.  I do this in a bowl that is in a larger bowl of ice water.  If you keep this solution cool, the goat's milk won't turn brown (or worse, orange!).

Using white oils also helps keep the color white- I use tallow and olive oil primarily but castor oil (up to 8%) helps with lather/bubbles.  

One very very nice goat's milk recipe (I've posted this in the forum before, with other goat's milk recipes):

10% shea butter 
20% coconut oil
12% tallow
50% olive oil, pomace
8% castor oil
Frozen goat's milk for water 
Superfat 8%
Don't gel.    

This is an ivory soap, that is rich and wonderful.


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## thegriffiths (Sep 18, 2013)

I just came across this post because we were looking in to why our GM soap is starting to darken during curing.

It was a really while ivory color for the first two weeks.  We went out of town and came back to it turning a light tan.  Its still very nice.  But we would like it to stay the light ivory.

Anyone else have this issue?


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## Ginka (Sep 18, 2013)

I find if you let it jell, it will turn tan/ yellowish color, if it doesn't jell, the chances it to stay white much better.
And also depends on oils that you used. Lard/ coconut/ palm kernel will help you to preserve white color.


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## sistrum (Sep 18, 2013)

I think the problem with goat milk turning orange is not the heat but how fast you add the lye and the quick change in PH.  After all when you boil milk on the stove it doesn't go orange and that's a lot hotter than my lye gets.  When you add lye to frozen milk its getting into solution at a little bit at a time so the PH is changing slowly.


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## Ginka (Sep 18, 2013)

Well. All I know, I had a batch that I split in half. Part jelled in loaf and part not jelled in individual forms. Non jelled one almost white, jelled one looks like crem br?l?e color.


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## thegriffiths (Sep 18, 2013)

I slowly added my lye to the goat milk ice cubes.  It never reached a temp over 65 degrees.  After molding the soap, we then froze it and it didnt gel.  It was a beautiful ivory white color for two weeks while it cured.  Sometime during the third week it started going tan on us.  

My recipe had only goat milk soap instead of water, coconut oil, castor oil, olive oil and shea butter.  With a lemon grass EO.


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## sistrum (Sep 18, 2013)

OK, I'm back.  I went out and grabbed a goat and mixed my lye with it ( the milk not the goat, sorry) here's a picture at a 33% lye solution 

 milk not frozen just added the lye slowly.  

If you gel or HP your milk soaps they will darken.  Just like any gelled or HP soap is darker than non gelled.  HTH


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## kazmi (Sep 18, 2013)

^^^ interesting!  how slowly (ie how long did it take you to get all of the lye added to GM)?


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## sistrum (Sep 18, 2013)

I didn't time it but it was kind long.  At least 15 to 20 min. But it was faster than the other one I had going which was with frozen milk.  But the frozen one I did get to walk away and let it melt on its own.


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## oh58ac (Jul 9, 2017)

Kinda new to this and I'm taking in all that everyone says. Great stuff. Just completed my first batch of GM soap. Added lye to frozen milk in ice bath, beautiful ivory cream colored milk. Actually almost too cool to add to oil for a little while , let it warm up just a little. I added and noticed it took quiet a long time to trace, kept mixing and blending until good medium trace just to be sure. But to the subject at hand, put in refrigerator for two days and I'm going to take it out today. Since the soap was cooled what are the chances of there being lye problems or does this just slow saponification and will the process eventually utilize all the lye?


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## Arimara (Jul 9, 2017)

oh58ac said:


> Kinda new to this and I'm taking in all that everyone says. Great stuff. Just completed my first batch of GM soap. Added lye to frozen milk in ice bath, beautiful ivory cream colored milk. Actually almost too cool to add to oil for a little while , let it warm up just a little. I added and noticed it took quiet a long time to trace, kept mixing and blending until good medium trace just to be sure. But to the subject at hand, put in refrigerator for two days and I'm going to take it out today. Since the soap was cooled what are the chances of there being lye problems or does this just slow saponification and will the process eventually utilize all the lye?



You would have been better off posting this in a new thread. This thread has been inactive for 4 years and the OP Hasn't been around for a while, from what I see. You'd also be more likely to get responses and helpful critiques by making your own threads as needed and reading through the first few pages of at least the Beginner's forum.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=645560&postcount=25


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## Buckscent (Jul 9, 2017)

I add honey to my GM soap so I do frozen GM to lye. Add honey to my oils. The part I add TD to still comes out a darker white/tan. I do freeze right after pouring in mold


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