Goat Milk

[SouthernEssence]

Fresh or Powdered???

What do you use?

Do you add it at trace or do you make lye/milk (instead of lye/water)?

 

[Chalk Creek]

I use fresh (ultra fresh from my own goats). I use it to make the lye solution, add it at trace on the rare occasion I use another liquid for the lye. It does nice things for soap. I have never used powdered.

 

[Barb]

when i use fresh, i freeze into cubes and add lye to frozen cubes.

powdered, i hold out a small amount of water and make a thick slurry and refrigerate till ready to use. when my oils are cool and lye water is ready, i add the milk to the soaping oils and sb the p-willies out of it till smooth and then add my lye water.



i tried adding the powder directly to the soaping oils and sb before adding the lye water, but i felt it made my soap grainy.

barb

 

[Soapmaker Man]

With the way I make all my soaps which are all goat milk soaps, I do both ways. I add fresh, soured goat milk at complete mixing of all my oils, butters, fats and sugar syrup. A add the room temp soured goat milk next and hit with the SB. I then add the needed powdered goat milk to this mixture to make up for the avoe vera juice I used in my 50% solution so I can honestly say "100% goat milk" I could use all goat milk and add aloe vera powder, but this method works out perfectly for me each and every time. That is how I've been doing my soaps for about a year now. Before, I could not say my soaps were 100% goat milk, as then only about 65% was goat's milk.

Paul :wink:

 

[brian0523]

Wow - that was confusing Paul! lol

 

[NEASoapWorks]

Better!

when i use fresh, i freeze into cubes and add lye to frozen cubes.

powdered, i hold out a small amount of water and make a thick slurry and refrigerate till ready to use. when my oils are cool and lye water is ready, i add the milk to the soaping oils and sb the p-willies out of it till smooth and then add my lye water.


i tried adding the powder directly to the soaping oils and sb before adding the lye water, but i felt it made my soap grainy.
barb

Thanks for this, Barb! I tried your method with the lavender soap I just made. I like this much better, than SB the powder into the oils. The texture of the finished product is better.

Sidenote: I have WSP's powdered goatsmilk. I mixed it with a little water, and started stirring and it smelled SO GOOD! I wanted to add some powdered sugar, and frost a cupcake! Yummy!

Yep, I know...I need help, right?

 

[Guest]

neither,

I don't have a source for fresh goats milk local to me, and i don't buy powdered.

But i do buy canned concentrated goats milk. It's found in the grocery store with the powdered milk, condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk.

But you need to mix 1 part goats milk from the can to 1 part water to make goats milk.

But I don't do it quite this way. But I take it into consideration when I make my soaps.

But I figure out my total amount of liquid needed for example if my recipe calls for 400 grams of liquid total. I take 200 of canned concentrated goats milk but instead of water I now use aloe juice but I don't mix them together. I keep them seperate.

So I mix the aloe juice in with my lye, and the goats milk I now mix in with my mixture when I have light trace.

So now i can pack a little more punch in my soap by using aloe juice in with my soap that wouldn't be there if i was using fresh. But still get all the benefits of the concentrated goats milk because I keep it seperate. And I don't need to fuss or worry or deal with the milk burning and what not........

Hope that helps you out some, but I really like using the canned stuff. Plus I can buy it locally. Well as local as local can get here in North Dakota. LOL

 

[campbellsoap]

I know I'm new but for the most part I use fresh frozen milk (thanks to paul and ed) and add the lye very slowly. Now when I don't have fresh I have used canned and do it like faith said and the concentrate to the oils and use aloe vera juice in the lye solution.

Good luck trish

btw when are you getting your goats?

jackie

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Wow - that was confusing Paul! lol

Sorry Brian, my bad!

Basically I add back powdered GM to replace the aloe vera juice I use in my premixed 50% solution. Approximately 45% of the total liquid needed is aloe vera juice, the rest being goat milk. I add enough powdered GM to make up the difference and to honestly state that my soaps are 100% GM soaps with the added benefits of aloe vera juice and silk. Still confused? Well, you are going to have to come to the Tennessee Soap Gathering this coming May where I will explain everything in person.

Paul

 

[Guest]

Same here Paul, i say my GM soap is 100% GM because I use the concentrated GM in canned form. And use aloe juice (at your suggestion) for the remainder liquid. And I absolutely love it !!!!

Sure makes a difference !!!

 

[Soapmaker Man]

It really does, Faithy! I've been using the aloe vera juice and the fresh GM and powdered GM method about a year now and I love the silky softness that my soap leaves on the skin. All those added goodies also naturally lower the pH of our soaps, or rather, the GM does. Thanks for your observation! 8)

Paul

 

[pink-north]

:shock: My head is swimming with all this information. I have to try aloe juice sometime. Right now I have a question for milk soap makers. When calculating your quantity of lye/liquid what do you use?

Let me tell you what I did and maybe that will help. I made a batch of coconut milk soap today (just to try it out) and I froze some of the milk first. I used the TLC calculator and substituted coconut milk for water. I had the calc set for a superfat value of 4% because I knew there would be added fat from the milk.

My question is, did I do that right :? ? I will be back asking about the aloe juice. I find that intriguing.

Thanks for any help you can give guys.

 

[Soapmaker Man]

You did it right Pink. Where it says XXX ounces of liquid or water, just use this much milk, or coconut milk as you did. I take a 5% lye reduction (SF) because I figure as you do, the added fat in the GM makes up for a higher SF percentage.

Paul

 

[pink-north]

Thanks!!! Paul you're a gem!

 

[Buttercupsoaps]

This is interesting.........I use a 5 % discount on my milk in the spring to mid summer then towards the end of summer & fall I use 6% discount. I find that my goats have a higher fat content at the begining of milking season. But I have saanan & alpine crosses, Nubians have higher fat content in their milk & I only have one nubian to milk. :shock: I'm not sure if I'm really doing it right....But my soaps turn out.

 

[Neil]

Does the use of Goats milk in either fresh or powder form effect the shelf life of the soap?
Secondly does the addition of sugar or sugar products like honey reduce the shelf life?

 

[Soapmaker Man]

The answer to both questions is a positively "no way!" I have my second batch of soap (the 1st successful batch) I kept 4 bars from. Those bars are about 27 months old now and still look as good as the day they were made. The scent has faded a little, but looks and use great! I break one out and use it every so often and boy does it lather well! I have been adding my sugar syrup for about a year now, and no problems either in the few bars I have of old stock. Go ahead Neil, add GM and sugar with 100% confidence!

Paul :wink:

 

[Chalk Creek]

I'll second Paul on this one. Just recently I was cleaning out a cabinet and found some soap I made from my Jersey cow's milk. That makes it between 3 and 4 years old. Took it in the shower and the lather is nice, and it is so mild and made my skin feel very soft. The scent and color on the surface of the bar had faded, but not much. Definitely like wine, the older it got the better it was.

I have only made a few soaps with honey, but at a year old, they seem fine.

 

[soapgardener]

The lye will actually react with the milk, forming salts of both the fats and proteins, then breaking down the sugars. In this way, you don't end up having "milk" in your finished product so it can't spoil. I would be wary of adding milk to melt and pour, or even after the cook in HP. You will still have milk in these soaps, which could spoil. I make a HP goats milk peppermint soap; I add the milk as the soap is tracing when there is still plenty of lye to react with the GM. I have noticed that there is a distinct "ammonia" smell to fresh GM soap, but this smell goes away after a thorough drying and then the soap smells lovely. I tried making a cow's milk soap to avoid the ammonia smell. There wasn't an ammonia smell, but I do have to say that after a few weeks I prefer the GM.

 

[Neil]

Thanks Paul, Chalk Creek and SoapGardener! My experiments lead me to trying alot of new things and Goats milk is top of my list.