Goat's milk soap leaves terrible-smelling residue... like hair perm/burning almost?

[gestmte]

Has anyone had this issue with goat's milk soap? I am wondering if goat's milk soap is more trouble than it's worth or if I just messed up in general somewhere.

I left my goat's milk soap to cure for about a month now and tested a bar last night. Washed my hands and arms with it to see how it would do. I smell my arm thinking I am going to get a faint whiff of delicious smelling fragrance oil... NOPE... it smelled absolutely horrible. Best way I can describe it is "hair perm" but even more accurately would be the smell of burning hair! Yeeeesh!

I am confident that it did not burn or scald when I was making it, I froze the concentrated goat's milk, put it in chilled water then added the lye... then put the soap in the fridge when mixed. Maybe it did scald somehow, I don't know. It did smell horrible when mixing it but I have heard that's normal.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this stench from soap before or if it indicates anything specific? I gave it another try today and I cannot seem to pick up the horrible odor as much but I am not sure if it is because I am nose blind to it now or if it really has faded. Any help is much appreciated, thank you

 

[DKing]

I make goat milk soap about 50% of the time and have never gotten a bad smell from the bars, during or after cure. Maybe it is your fragrance oil? My unscented goats milk bars have almost no smell to them at all, and the ones that I have added fragrance or EOs to have had no off odors and smell like the scents added. I do use actual goats milk from the dairy aisle and not the concentrated kind, and do a 100% gm for water sub.

 

[Obsidian]

I don't get a scent from goats milk either but I tried a buttermilk soap once that smelled like rotten milk, was absolutely horrible.

I don't find enough of a benefit from milks to go through the trouble of using them. I'll only use milk if requested.

 

[TheGecko]

Has anyone had this issue with goat's milk soap? I am wondering if goat's milk soap is more trouble than it's worth or if I just messed up in general somewhere.

I left my goat's milk soap to cure for about a month now and tested a bar last night. Washed my hands and arms with it to see how it would do. I smell my arm thinking I am going to get a faint whiff of delicious smelling fragrance oil... NOPE... it smelled absolutely horrible. Best way I can describe it is "hair perm" but even more accurately would be the smell of burning hair! Yeeeesh!

I am confident that it did not burn or scald when I was making it, I froze the concentrated goat's milk, put it in chilled water then added the lye... then put the soap in the fridge when mixed. Maybe it did scald somehow, I don't know. It did smell horrible when mixing it but I have heard that's normal.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this stench from soap before or if it indicates anything specific? I gave it another try today and I cannot seem to pick up the horrible odor as much but I am not sure if it is because I am nose blind to it now or if it really has faded. Any help is much appreciated, thank you

I have made plenty of GMS and only had issues once and that was completely my bad. I freeze my GM and then use an ice bath of ice, water and salt and then add the lye very slowly and thoroughly. It takes longer (20-30 minutes), but it's worth it to get a creamy looking soap. There is a slight ammonia smell, but it disappears during the saponification process. The solution also thickens up as the lye interacts with the fats in the milk, but it thins back out when I add it to my cool oils/butters.

 

[Alexlane]

YES!! I had the same exact thing happen! I remember thinking it smelled just like burnt hair. after about a week of curing i really had to sniff to smell it. now about three weeks later they just smell like peppermint!

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

I just made some milk soap and it smelled like ammonia right out of the mold but now it’s a few days later it smells like the fragrance.

 

[sirtim100]

I've made two batches of GMS to data, and apart from the slight ammonia smell when mixing the GM with the lye, I've had no unpleasant smells at all. Just started a bar of GMS in the shower and it lathers and smells so nice I'm planning on making another batch.

 

[Carla Burke]

I've not had that experience. At least, not yet, lol. Mine just smells like the combined ingredients I used, only milder, no fragrance, at all.

 

[amd]

I get this from other makers but not from the few I make. After discussing with a forum member and taking that information to ask the local makers a few questions, I have determined the difference between theirs and mine to be pasteurized milk vs fresh milk. I make mine with canned milk and never have the smell. The local makers use fresh milk and it's quite gag-worthy [to me]. Now, my husband doesn't notice the smell at all, so I believe some of it is just having a sensitive nose. (I can also smell lard in a soap.)

So, if you're using fresh milk, I would look into pasteurizing it:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ng-it-fresh/&usg=AOvVaw34lmIhGha5IyL1o7yr2_ks

If you're already using pasteurized milk, I would first try reducing the milk before accepting that your nose may be sensitive to the smell. Or try using powdered goats milk to see if that helps.

 

[OldCrowSoaper]

Your lye solution may be scorching your milk.. I have only made a few batches of GMS, but have read scorching it can make it smell awful.

 

[McKherring Farm]

I only make GMS and only use my herd's fresh goat milk. The only time I had a problem was when I didn't have the milk cold enough when I added the lye. OMG. That was an incredibly rank smell!! Ever since then I freeze my fresh goat milk in ice cube trays and then take out what I need. I've never had any other problem. There is usually an ammonia smell but that leaves shortly after saponification in my experience.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

I only make milk soaps. Buttermilk, goat milk, cow milk or coconut milk soap. I've never had any of mine smell bad and I even make an unscented oatmeal milk and honey soap for 4 specific customers that want a bastille soap with no fragrances and I've never had it smell bad. But I can say if you use older oils they can take on a heavy odd smell.

I use the milk as the full amount of liquid and I freeze it into cubes and then pour the lye over it and stir until the cubes are fully melted and the lye is fully dissolved.

 

[Zeb Lisik]

If you think it could be temperature related ...it may be helpful to review, tighten up or improve the process. ....Ive had many mixed results and fails with milks..... I have done frozen goat milk with an ice bath and still had a color change(but no bad smell), due to poor technique. The following are things I did or tweaked to get a pure white mixture (except the ice wand, but I've done that in restaurants for massive pots of thick soups with good results).
- use an ice bath with plenty of ice, don't be stingy, you could even add salt to it for a few more degrees
- elevate your lye container from the bottom of the ice bath contain to allow better circulation
- don't forget to agitate or stir the ice water bath occasionally, or move your lye container about a bit, to help circulate the ice water and thus dissipate heat faster
-the lye mixing container should be a good thermal conductor, so stainless steel is best, glass can be passable. Plastic is a thermal insulator, it's not suitable at all for the ice bath technique
- add lye in small additions and wait a while after the lye addition has dissolved before adding more as the thermal reaction is still occuring after the lye has dissolved
- use an ice wand to mix/cool the lye water--a thin walled pp5 bottle with ice inside would work (I guess this would only be of use for very large batches haha)
- use masterbatch lye, the resulting reaction will be less hot
-dont get too lax mixing the lye milk, even after the current addition of lye has dissolved. mixing helps conduct the heat to the outside water bath and avoid hot spots
- be careful when stoping the cooling treatment, you don't want it too cold and keep and eye after stoping, the temp may start climbing again
- use the freezer instead of the fridge
-use smaller molds to decrease thermal mass
- in freezer/fridge don't stack on top of each other since that would effectively increase thermal mass