CP Goat's Milk Soap Questions

[Mothi]

I exclusively want to experiment with CP Goat's Milk soaps and have a few questions.

Most instructions for CP says to cover soaps so they can gel (correct me if I am wrong, I am a newbie still). But the problem with Goat's Milk soaps is that high temperatures can cause the sugars to burn (or something like that?) which causes browning in the soap's coloration instead of the creamy color. So insulate? Don't insulate? Insulate up to gelling then don't insulate? Immediately freeze after poured into mold?

Also, I was planning to add the Goat's Milk to my oil mixture before pouring in the lye solution, but I forgot (hey, first time making) and ended up adding it near light trace. The oil mixture was 115F. By the time the milk was added, it was closer to 105-110F. Will this cause problems? My soap turned out fine. At what point should you add the Goat's Milk? Or is it just personal preference? I don't plan to use it in the lye solution since that is where a lot of problems with milk seems to be at. I used bottled water this first time around. I bought aloe juice for the next try I will do today and goat's milk powder.

Is there a difference between using fresh goat's milk vs store bought goat's milk?

Is there a worry the goat's milk in the soap will spoil? Should I use grapefruit seed extract? If yes, how much?

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Lots of questions, cool! I am a goat milk soapmaker exclusively! Been making only GM soaps for nearly 2 years now. I do my CP goat milk soaps a tad different than most, but it works great for me! I DO NOT freeze anything, and soap at COOL, cool room temperature. I masterbatch all my oils/butters, soft and hard oils and combine them in a huge Gain Detergent bottle, the one with a spicket. I add my cold goat milk to my just emulsified batter. I get no burning at all when I do it this way. I do cover my TOG Mold with it's wood lid and let everything go to complete gel. This takes between 1-1/2 to 2 hours in my covered wood TOG Mold.
After complete gel, I remove the wood top and let it cool as quickly as possible under a fan. There is no need to use and natural antioxidant in your goat milk soap since the saponification process takes care of everything. I have some of my GM soaps that are over a year old and still look and smell great!

I think that was most of your questions. I will give you more details in another post as you need help.

Paul....."I'm In The TOG House Now!" :wink:

 

[CPSoaper]

I do gm soap too but I do mine differently than Soapmaker Man and actually have 2 different ways I will do it.

If I am soaping with frozen gm, I will slowly add the lye it. I might hold some back too and add it at trace.

If my lye is not frozen, I like it very cold and will use only a portion of my liquid as water in which I add the lye. I soap with my oils no hotter than 100 but prefer 90 degrees. Once my oils and butters have been added to the lye water and started to trace, I will then add in the remaining liquid which will be gm. I try to never let my gm soaps gel too by putting the mold immediately into the fridge. I love the look of the un-gelled gm soap; it looks so creamy. I also add sodium lactate to all my batches so it doesn't take my soaps long to harden up even though they don't gel.


When I soap with raw gm which I also prefer, I superfat at 4% because of the added fat in the milk. If I am soaping with store-bought, I soap at my usual 5% superfat.

 

[Mothi]

Thanks for your replies. Looks like I will have to experiment until I find the way I like it.

I did make another batch today of CP Goat's Milk soap. This time I used aloe juice for the lye solution and added powdered goat's milk to the goat's milk (get it? hehe). I mixed the lye solution into the oil mixture and stirred for a while and then added goat's milk solution. I got it to trace and when I put it in the mold, I covered it with towels this time. The whole thing gelled. Once gelled, I removed the insulation to let it cool. This one does have less essential oils and some other differences and smells a bit weirder. I wonder if it was the powdered goat's milk or what? I did a few changes this time around so hard to say.

Anyone use powdered goat's milk? Does it make the soap smell weird for a bit?

The color on this batch looks close to that of my other one. I was almost afraid it will be dark with the insulation and full gelling, but it seemed fine. It got up to 135F before being cooled.

Is there a scientific reason for letting CP soaps gel or not gel? Composition differences?

 

[Soapmaker Man]

I do add a little powdered GM to my farm fresh GM to make up the difference of using the aloe vera juice as my liquid to carry my lye into the mixture with, my lye solution. By adding more powdered GM to the fresh, I replace the difference of the aloe vera juice, and can morally say that I have a 100% goat milk soap. 8)
PS: Like CPSoaper, I superfat at 4 to 5% when using my fresh GM.
I like the texture a little better when I gel my GM soap verses ungeled. It's a matter of personal preference only, not really scientific. I think a geled soap cures faster than an ungeled one though.

Paul...."I'm In The TOG House Now!" :wink:

 

[Mothi]

I try to have my recipe of oils superfat at 5%, but with goat's milk having fat in it (plus the powder) is there any need to compensate? Do you need to lower the superfatting of the oils themselves?

Do you notice a particular scent to fresh made GM soaps that have dry powdered GM? Almost like sweaty sock smell or something. I know it has to be the powdered GM because the bag of powdered stuff smells very similar.