Help! I'm about to give up on Goat's milk soap

[krzybo]

I just made another Goat's Milk soap and this time I used the crock pot and I don't think it is going to make it either. What am I doing wrong? It always ends up brown. My recipe tonight was:
9.6 ozs. olive oil
3.2 ozs. Palm Kernel Oil
3.2 ozs. Sunflower Oil

8 ozs. goat's milk (frozen)
2.1 ozs. Lye

I followed Momma Muse's recipe for Crock Pot Soap. It looked great thru trace. After 5 minutes in the pot it separated and I stirred it back together. It started turning dark. After 10 more minutes is still wasn't vaseline texture: after 20 minutes still not vaseline and very gold in color. It felt waxy in my fingers so I added my fragrance and poured it up. After 1 hour it is still mashed potato consistency and very dark. Do I need to give up on Goat's milk soap? How do you do it? Is there anyway to keep it light colored (I don't have to have white)? Thanks for any information yall can give me. I am discouraged. :cry:

 

[krissy]

did you zap test it before you molded it?

 

[Woodland Soap]

Lighter GM

I don't do much HP except for liquid GM soaps. They always turn brownish during the cook because of the heat and the KOH that is still very active caramelizing the milk sugars.

When making bars with GM, cold process works really well to produce a light colored bar. There are several important aspects, though.
1. I start with frozen milk. Some people freeze it in an ice cube tray, but I put the whole gallon pail in the freezer straight outta the goats. I chop it with a big butcher knife before adding the NaOH and the NaOH melts the milk. Doing it this way, the temperature never goes above 100F.
2. After trace, put your mold in a cool place (refrigerator works well for me). The first time I made GM with frozen milk, I poured the light, creamy colored soap into my log mold and put it on a shelf in the closet. Since the lye is still doing a lot of work at this point, the soap darkened overnight as it continued its exothermic reaction.

 

[c.a.p.]

I also CP with 100% goat's milk, using frozen cubes. If I add my slowly to the cubes, I can get an almost white bar. I do not insulate nor do I put it into the fridge. My soap gets lighter, the longer it is in the mold. I usually unmold at 12 - 18 hours after the pour.

Not sure what the problem is as I don't HP.

 

[Bukawww]

I don't understand why people use any other method than pouring the milk in after trace - its TOO easy and I've NEVER had an issue.

I"m sure the frozen cubed milk crowd have their reasons but I was a sloppy milky mess and the lye never even attempted to melt my milk - it ended up going bad and curdling by the time it was anywhere near melted enough to pour (HOURS).

I don't HP though so I don't know how that would work.

 

[KnowWhat]

I add the milk to the oils before adding the lye (50/50 solution lye/water).
I soap room temp and haven't had a problem with discoloring.

 

[Half Caper Farm]

I don't understand why people use any other method than pouring the milk in after trace - its TOO easy and I've NEVER had an issue.

'Cuz if I'm going to make GM soap, I want it to be 100% goat's milk.
Gotta use it up somehow. I've been making it for a couple of years now, and I've never had a problem with burning/curdling/bad smells.

 

[agriffin]

I freeze my milk or cream in ice cube trays and add the lye to that. You have to stir stir stir and it will dissolve everything. There are so many ways to soap with milk but since you want to use 100% liquid goat's milk you might try it this way. A crockpot will usually always give you a darker soap as it automatically gels it. I would just CP it.

Hope this helps.

http://www.lovinsoap.com/?p=1077

ETA: If you find that your lye will not dissolve all of the frozen GM then use 80% frozen and 20% cold to get it going.

I gel mine but if you don't gel it then it will stay whiter. But even gelled...mine didn't turn out that dark. (I also had carrots in it)

 

[krzybo]

Thank you all so much for the information. I also want to use 100% Goat's milk, not 50/50. I will try the CP method again, using these suggestions. I have been insulating the CP method so I will try it without insulating. Again, thanks for the information. I am learning so much!

 

[Maria]

If you are going to HP milk soap, add the milk after the soap is done cooking. With CP, everyone does whatever works for them.

 

[Hazel]

I've never used GM in soap but could you use half water and half GM. You could sitr GMP in the GM to make it equal 100% milk. Just a thought.



Sorry - off topic here

KnowWhat - I love your siggy. It made me laugh out loud.