Are these goats milk bars scorched beyond use?

[MissTorrie]

So last night I made some more goat's milk soap. I've done this twice. The previous goats milk soap was made in a log mold with frozen milk and lye and turned pink. I think from the allspice essential oils. Weird, but it's actually pretty.

Last night's batch was sadder. I used the "milk in oils" method for the first time. I put the milk I was adding to the oil in the freezer until it was ever so slightly slushy, mixed the concentrated lye solution and allowed it to cool for 25 minutes, added the slushy milk to gently heated hard oils and room temperature soft oils, added the lye and went to blending. The tutorial I was following did not specify any temperatures and said that this method was easier and should keep temperatures down. I don't think it did. First of all, I blended to too thick a trace before pouring, like I always do (kicking myself) so they're messy, be warned.

Second of all, they turned BRIGHT DARK ORANGE! I put them in the fridge and overnight, they've lightened up considerably. First pic is right after pouring (So gelatinous! Ugh, when will I learn to pour the first second I get to trace?) and second after overnight in the fridge. Are these still good? Do they still have all the benefits of goats milk soap? What can I do to not end up with this color? My family is assuring me that they look fine, but I'd like to get some opinions from Those Who Soap. Have you ever seen this color? I haven't, not in any of my other milk soaps.

Thanks everyone!

 

[shunt2011]

So last night I made some more goat's milk soap. I've done this twice. The previous goats milk soap was made in a log mold with frozen milk and lye and turned pink. I think from the allspice essential oils. Weird, but it's actually pretty.

Last night's batch was sadder. I used the "milk in oils" method for the first time. I put the milk I was adding to the oil in the freezer until it was ever so slightly slushy, mixed the concentrated lye solution and allowed it to cool for 25 minutes, added the slushy milk to gently heated hard oils and room temperature soft oils, added the lye and went to blending. The tutorial I was following did not specify any temperatures and said that this method was easier and should keep temperatures down. I don't think it did. First of all, I blended to too thick a trace before pouring, like I always do (kicking myself) so they're messy, be warned.

Second of all, they turned BRIGHT DARK ORANGE! I put them in the fridge and overnight, they've lightened up considerably. First pic is right after pouring (So gelatinous! Ugh, when will I learn to pour the first second I get to trace?) and second after overnight in the fridge. Are these still good? Do they still have all the benefits of goats milk soap? What can I do to not end up with this color? My family is assuring me that they look fine, but I'd like to get some opinions from Those Who Soap. Have you ever seen this color? I haven't, not in any of my other milk soaps.

Thanks everyone!

I'm not understanding what you mean by putting milk in the oils and freezing until slushy? Are you using 50/50 - water to mix your lye then adding milk for the rest of your liquid?

You may be soaping too hot. I don't freeze my milk, I add it to the melted oils and mix it in well, then add my lye/water solution to the oils/milk. I soap just barely warm. Enough to have my oils melted or at room temp. Add cooled lye mixture and stick blend. Mine is usually a off white but never orange or dark.

Please explain your procedure a bit more clearly and we would be happy to help trouble shoot.

 

[soapygoat]

It really looks to me like your milk just go too hot. I've never gotten them quite that orange (the darkest I've gotten was a couple shades lighter than that), so take my words with a grain of salt, but they should still be usable. If you are a believer in the properties of raw goat milk, then these bars will likely not have those properties, because the milk got so hot. I imagine they will still be beneficial, however, and will probably have properties similar to a bar made with store bought cow's milk.

I prevent this by using frozen milk.

 

[MissTorrie]

I'm not understanding what you mean by putting milk in the oils and freezing until slushy? Are you using 50/50 - water to mix your lye then adding milk for the rest of your liquid?

Sorry I wasn't clear. I put the goat's milk in the freezer while I prepared everything else so it would be super cool. It got slushy but not frozen. I did not cool the oils at all. And I did use 50/50 water and milk. It made a super concentrated lye solution that I let cool while I was doing everything else, and the other half of the liquid (milk) went into the oils and then blended. Then I added the lye solution.

I hope that helps.

 

[Obsidian]

Did you add anything besides oils, liquids and lye? It looks like there are specks of something in the bars. I use the same method as you except the milk I add to the oils is just cold, not slushy and my bars are very light colored.

How cool was your lye solution? when using milk, I put my lye into the fridge until its chilled, really helps keep the temps down. I also place my filled soap molds in the fridge so the soap doesn't gel.

Your soap is perfectly safe to use. Curious as to how is smells? I scorched a honey soap once and it smelled like toasted nuts and caramel.

 

[Susie]

And what is the rest of your recipe in weights, please?

 

[cmzaha]

You mentioned you use a high concentrated lye solution. How are you mixing your lye solution? You cannot go higher than 1:1 water to lye ie, 50% lye concentration. I actually chill my 50/50 lye solution a bit, add my balance of liquid, gm, to the oils and pour my cool lye very slowly into my oils. If you hit the oils all at once with the lye solution it tends to kick up heat quicker. At least in my experience. I alternate stilling and pouring in the lye slowly.

When mixing lye with full gm I freeze the gm then slowly add the lye on top of the frozen gm stir, then add a little more lye etc. I also have my lye pitcher sitting in a ice and water bath. This method will sometimes leave a little frozen gm but it will melt as the lye heats back up a tad. I also follow this same procedure if using 100% fruit puree for liquid

As for losing the good properties of the gm in scorched milk, I am still not convinced we get a lot more than label appeal with the addition of milks. JMO

 

[shunt2011]

I do the exact same thing as Carolyn. And I too am skeptical as to what properties remain from using milk in our soaps. I use it as label appeal as customers ask for milk soaps all the time.

 

[Arimara]

The sugars in your milk caramelized. I suggest using a thermometer and keeping your temps for your lye around 100 and for your oils as well. The hottest you may want to soap is 110 and I think I'm being very nice there. Try to steer clear of warming fragrances and essential oils unless you really want to use them. If you use those cavities again, I STRONGLY suggest putting the mold on a cookie tray or in a 9-by-13 cake pan (whatever you have that is sturdy to carry really).

Another thing you could do is to make a 50% lye solution up, add that to your soap, PULSE with a stick blender until you get to thin trace and then add your goat milk, stir and pour into a mold.

 

[MissTorrie]

Did you add anything besides oils, liquids and lye?

Two tablespoons of oats and same amount of honey.

My recipe:

Coconut oil- 10 oz--31.25%
Olive oil- 10 oz--31.25%
Canola-2.5 oz-- 7.81%
Avocado Oil- 2.5oz--7.81%
Safflower Oil-2.0oz--6.25%
Shea butter-2.5 oz--7.81%
Sunflower-2.5oz--7.81%

Goats Milk-4.5 oz
Lye--4.5oz
distilled water--4.5 oz.

That's actually way more oils than I normally use, but I figured with this new method I was probably better off following the recipe almost exactly (substituted oils that are mostly interchangeable and halved it). I don't like using that many soft oils.

My lye solution was at 90degrees F, which I'm thinking was too hot.
The oils after I added the milk was 70 and QUICKLY dropping.

The idea to put the lye mixture in the fridge is a good one. Wish I had thought of that yesterday.

I do the exact same thing as Carolyn. And I too am skeptical as to what properties remain from using milk in our soaps. I use it as label appeal as customers ask for milk soaps all the time.

What I like about milk soaps is the lather. The milk soaps I use seem to have this really nice, creamy lather. I don't think that goats milk is this magic beautifying milk or anything.

Oh, and to answer another question, they don't smell like anything. Not even the faint ammonia scent that faded in the other goat bars I did. I don't use that much fragrances. Trying to get the basics down first.

 

[Arimara]

Now I'm thinking it might have been the honey if memory serves me right. I've never used it in any of my soaps.

 

[shunt2011]

I think it's the combination of the milk and the honey. Got way too hot. Honey will turn orangish. The sugars in the milk and the honey will attribute to your lather. Either way it's likely just cosmetic and as long as it doesn't zap it should be fine with curing.

 

[MissTorrie]

Awesome! Thanks!

I'm trying that technique tonight with a simplified recipe and buttermilk. No honey tonight. Lye solution in the fridge. Here's hoping I have a not ugly color.
I thought you'd all appreciate seeing the results I got using your advice. This was 50/50 water/buttermilk with lye in the fridge. I'm much more pleased. My other bars are now a sort of tan/beige, much better then that orange, although I prefer this ivory color.

(Yeah, my mold bows out in the middle. Drives me nuts! Is it my cheap amazon mold or am I cramming too much in there? It was two pounds of base oils. 12 oz liquid. Right now it goes into my mom's narrow shoebox with thin books crammed on either side to keep it a consistent width throughout.)

Anyway, thanks so much for the help!

 

[lenarenee]

I thought you'd all appreciate seeing the results I got using your advice. This was 50/50 water/buttermilk with lye in the fridge. I'm much more pleased. My other bars are now a sort of tan/beige, much better then that orange, although I prefer this ivory color.

(Yeah, my mold bows out in the middle. Drives me nuts! Is it my cheap amazon mold or am I cramming too much in there? It was two pounds of base oils. 12 oz liquid. Right now it goes into my mom's narrow shoebox with thin books crammed on either side to keep it a consistent width throughout.)

Anyway, thanks so much for the help!

If that's the mold I think it is you just have the liner, there's a pine box to go with it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YBRTZFY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 Love these molds and the size/shape of bar!

 

[MissTorrie]

If that's the mold I think it is you just have the liner, there's a pine box to go with it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YBRTZFY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 Love these molds and the size/shape of bar!

Oh, I'm a genius lol. My husband found this on amazon and ordered it for me like "Here! I found you a three dollar mold!". That makes more sense now. I feel kind of stupid now. lol

My husband is offering to cut a box to fit with some wood fencing.

 

[lenarenee]

Oh, I'm a genius lol. My husband found this on amazon and ordered it for me like "Here! I found you a three dollar mold!". That makes more sense now. I feel kind of stupid now. lol

My husband is offering to cut a box to fit with some wood fencing.

That would be awesome! Then, you can buy another $3.00 mold since as long as he's doing all the measuring...he may as well make 2 boxes!

 

[MissTorrie]

That would be awesome! Then, you can buy another $3.00 mold since as long as he's doing all the measuring...he may as well make 2 boxes!

Hey! Good idea!

 

[Nikolye]

My first goat milk soap went just the same color, i had it in a ice bath too! I couldn't believe it. I've also had a soap with honey get pretty crazy on me too like that. Now i do what someone mentioned above and just freeze my milks solid and slowly add the lye to the cubes and they slowly slush away. so far (fingers crossed as i'm not expert) this seems to work well for me. I'm not sure what goodness is left over in milk soaps, but i always love them too in the end.

 

[lovinglife]

I have never tried that method with goat milk. I just freeze the amount of milk in need in ice cube trays saving enough for a little liquid milk to start mixing in the lye. I usually have a sink with some ice water in it to put my bowl of milk cubes in as I mix, this way it stays nice and cool and I can use full milk for the liquid. I can always tell if I mix the lye in too fast because it will start to turn a little orange but usually I can get a nice creamy white-ish bar of soap. However my few batches of orange soap were fine to use.

 

[cmzaha]

I have never tried that method with goat milk. I just freeze the amount of milk in need in ice cube trays saving enough for a little liquid milk to start mixing in the lye. I usually have a sink with some ice water in it to put my bowl of milk cubes in as I mix, this way it stays nice and cool and I can use full milk for the liquid. I can always tell if I mix the lye in too fast because it will start to turn a little orange but usually I can get a nice creamy white-ish bar of soap. However my few batches of orange soap were fine to use.

Put you lye mixing container in an ice bath also to keep your lye/milk solution a nice creamy color. You may end up with a few pieces of frozen that do not melt immediately but eventually they will melt. This is also my method when using full fruit puree.