# Used Dairy Butter. Soap Stinks!



## eelizabeth (Jan 5, 2021)

Oh my goodness gals and guys:
Yesterday I made just one soap and I used butter. It reeks like feet! And I only used 20% of butter. 
Does anyone here know if that smell will go away? I didn’t use fragrance oil. 
I appreciate your response!
Thank you,

Liz


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## GemstonePony (Jan 5, 2021)

Welcome! Every story I've heard about soap made with Dairy butter is that it smells terrible. I've heard the smell may dissipate as it dries, but comes back when the bar is wet, i.e. when it is used. I've never been inclined to personally experience this, so I'm curious about the experiences of others who have.
If you really want to incorporate some element of dairy, a small amount of liquid can be replaced with cream or milk.


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## cmzaha (Jan 5, 2021)

There are posting here about using butter in soap and yes it stinks.


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## eelizabeth (Jan 5, 2021)

GemstonePony said:


> Welcome! Every story I've heard about soap made with Dairy butter is that it smells terrible. I've heard the smell may dissipate as it dries, but comes back when the bar is wet, i.e. when it is used. I've never been inclined to personally experience this, so I'm curious about the experiences of others who have. If you really want to incorporate some element of dairy, a small amount of liquid can be replaced with cream or milk.


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## eelizabeth (Jan 5, 2021)

Yes, it smells horrible. Like puke. I’ll eliminate butter forever.


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

What about experiences with ghee? Anyone tried that yet?


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## GemstonePony (Jan 5, 2021)

Eclypse said:


> What about experiences with ghee? Anyone tried that yet?


This thread compiles some others on that very topic:





						Will the soap smell bad from Ghee?
					

Yes this is the question.




					www.soapmakingforum.com


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

Not sure... waiting for someone else to try first


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

Good Luck


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## GemstonePony (Jan 5, 2021)

Eclypse said:


> Not sure... waiting for someone else to try first


I'm not sure what you mean. The thread I linked makes it pretty clear that ghee soap stinks.
The type, duration, and extent of stink is also detailed in the link.


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

GemstonePony said:


> I'm not sure what you mean. The thread I linked makes it pretty clear that ghee soap stinks.
> The type, duration, and extent of stink is also detailed in the link.


Sorry didn't link. Gee is a butter product, I was thinking along the lines of animal fat vs tallow.


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

I only saw 'yes is the question' or not an answer


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

Whoa!!! Please remind me not to raise anyone's hackles at this forum! I'm very sorry my post re: her were not posted as timely as they could have been for Gemstoneponey


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

Gee not her (auto correct)


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## dixiedragon (Jan 5, 2021)

My understanding is that dairy butter will always stink. Dairy butter isn't pure fat like, say, olive oil - it contains sugars and proteins.

To my nose, most milk soaps have that slightly pukey smell. It's easier to cover up when you are using milk vs butter - especially such a large amount!


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

It might stick awful bad, but does anyone know if I cleans? I mean if SHTF senecio? 
Just trying to be prepared for the worst, hope for the best, and accept what happens in between


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

Stink


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## cmzaha (Jan 5, 2021)

Ghee will result in stinky also


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

No worries about 'stink'. Just curious if it cleans the skin? 
Some people on the forum are artists, some seem to be 'let's keep clean', some are both.
I'm surely not going to make a butter or gee soap unless absolutely necessary. I truly want to know if (even if it stinks), does it still clean and function as all soaps should?


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## Misschief (Jan 5, 2021)

Eclypse said:


> No worries about 'stink'. Just curious if it cleans the skin?
> Some people on the forum are artists, some seem to be 'let's keep clean', some are both.
> I'm surely not going to make a butter or gee soap unless absolutely necessary. I truly want to know if (even if it stinks), does it still clean and function as all soaps should?


It's still soap so, yes, it will clean but do you really want to clean yourself with something that smells like vomit?? I know I don't, no matter how well it might clean.


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## Eclypse (Jan 5, 2021)

No, in a perfect world I never would clean myself with vomit soap. The world is not even close to perfect and there's a lot of nuts running around here where I live. Some of them tried to kill the Governor. I just wanted to know if milk fat's worked with lye. Thanks


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## GemstonePony (Jan 5, 2021)

Eclypse said:


> No worries about 'stink'. Just curious if it cleans the skin?
> Some people on the forum are artists, some seem to be 'let's keep clean', some are both.
> I'm surely not going to make a butter or gee soap unless absolutely necessary. I truly want to know if (even if it stinks), does it still clean and function as all soaps should?


It is a surfactant, yes. TBH, if I was soaping in an apocalypse, I'd imagine used frying grease would be the last available fat source, not butter. It also doesn't make a pleasant-smelling soap, but for different reasons.


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## Arimara (Jan 5, 2021)

Eclypse said:


> No, in a perfect world I never would clean myself with vomit soap. The world is not even close to perfect and there's a lot of nuts running around here where I live. Some of them tried to kill the Governor. I just wanted to know if milk fat's worked with lye. Thanks


If you're using milk or cream in soap, you'd be fine. Butter unfortunately will stink like feet and it will never go away. One might as well call a butter bar the "Bar of Eternal Stench" and chuck it. There is no saving that soap.


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## melinda48 (Jan 6, 2021)

Eclypse said:


> Sorry didn't link. Gee is a butter product, I was thinking along the lines of animal fat vs tallow.


Tallow is animal fat.


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## linne1gi (Jan 6, 2021)

Misschief said:


> It's still soap so, yes, it will clean but do you really want to clean yourself with something that smells like vomit?? I know I don't, no matter how well it might clean.


I'm with you @Misschief!


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## Arimara (Jan 6, 2021)

linne1gi said:


> I'm with you @Misschief!


My sister did comment that her butter soap lightened her skin a bit. I wouldn't mind it if the soap was fantastic with scar fading but I don't wanna smell like feet cheese either. Yes, you will stink after using that soap and it lingers.


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## marehare (Jan 6, 2021)

Eclypse said:


> No worries about 'stink'. Just curious if it cleans the skin?
> Some people on the forum are artists, some seem to be 'let's keep clean', some are both.
> I'm surely not going to make a butter or gee soap unless absolutely necessary. I truly want to know if (even if it stinks), does it still clean and function as all soaps should?


My question is why anyone would want to use butter or ghee to make soap when there are so many other great vegan oils to use. Why use animal products? My soap is the most wonderful soap and I never use animal products. No need to. Also why use FO when you have a bounty of wonderful real healthy EO's that actually help the skin? Just a question, not a slam.


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## marehare (Jan 6, 2021)

Arimara said:


> My sister did comment that her butter soap lightened her skin a bit. I wouldn't mind it if the soap was fantastic with scar fading but I don't wanna smell like feet cheese either. Yes, you will stink after using that soap and it lingers.


Add vitamin E if you want to make scars fade.


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## Arimara (Jan 6, 2021)

marehare said:


> Add vitamin E if you want to make scars fade.


It's wasted in soap. The right vitamin E is great in lotion though.


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## Misschief (Jan 6, 2021)

marehare said:


> My question is why anyone would want to use butter or ghee to make soap when there are so many other great vegan oils to use. Why use animal products? My soap is the most wonderful soap and I never use animal products. No need to. Also why use FO when you have a bounty of wonderful real healthy EO's that actually help the skin? Just a question, not a slam.


As Arimara posted in the last post, EO in soap may smell nice but it's generally agreed that the lye monster pretty much takes care of any healing properties. 

I use animal fats in a lot of my soaps and do so without guilt. Generally speaking, when an animal is butchered, a lot of the fat is considered a waste product. It makes fantastic soap so, by using it, I'm helping to keep it out of the landfill where it does no one any good at all.


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## GemstonePony (Jan 6, 2021)

marehare said:


> My question is why anyone would want to use butter or ghee to make soap when there are so many other great vegan oils to use. Why use animal products? My soap is the most wonderful soap and I never use animal products. No need to. Also why use FO when you have a bounty of wonderful real healthy EO's that actually help the skin? Just a question, not a slam.


The EO vs FO question gets hashed and rehashed a lot and has a number of threads dedicated to it. Here is my take: I like the smell of FOs, there are relatively few EOs I like the smell of, FOs are cheaper than the few EOs I like, and I prefer to save my skin-care EOs for lotion and other leave-on products where they will have more influence. And even when I do use EOs for their skin value, I still usually use a complementary FO because, again, I don't enjoy the smell of most EOs. Others can't use EOs because certain ones trigger migraines, skin sensitivities, or other complications, but they can use FOs instead. For some people, FOs trigger the migraines, skin sensitivities, and so on, but EOs don't for them.
100% agree on the butter, though, and my soap is mostly vegan as well (sometimes I add honey or beeswax).


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## linne1gi (Jan 7, 2021)

Misschief said:


> As Arimara posted in the last post, EO in soap may smell nice but it's generally agreed that the lye monster pretty much takes care of any healing properties.
> 
> I use animal fats in a lot of my soaps and do so without guilt. Generally speaking, when an animal is butchered, a lot of the fat is considered a waste product. It makes fantastic soap so, by using it, I'm helping to keep it out of the landfill where it does no one any good at all.


Again, I’m with you Misschief. Lard and tallow make wonderful soaps. I am a vegetarian in my daily life, but if the poor animals are butchered already, why throw away the byproducts?


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## Mobjack Bay (Jan 7, 2021)

The smelly culprit in butter is a short chain fatty acid called butyric acid (C4:O).  It’s present in butter, milk, cream and yogurt. I used leftover cream for half of the liquid in a soap I made last year and could not detect an off smell.  Many use yogurt for HP soap.  I think you can get away with a little bit of it in soap, but it may be nose dependent.  There’s another SMF thread with good information here, e.g. DeeAnna making the point that the short chain structure will up the cleansing of the soap.




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						Using Butter in soap
					

Has any of you ever used real dairy butter in your soap formulas? I am curious to know this. Other butters are used so frequently that I cannot help but wonder if this is possible.  If some soap makers actually use breast milk, using butter does not sound all that odd to me.




					www.soapmakingforum.com


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