If you make goat's milk - HELP!!!

[IrishLass]

WooHoo! Your soap looks great! That's just how mine turn out - a nice creamy off-white (when I don't color them or add honey, that is).

I only use food grade lye, too, although I'm tempted at times to save some pennies and get the tech. grade.

For whatever it's worth, I have both food grade and tech grade on hand (from AAA Chemical out of Texas), and whether I use the food grade or the tech grade, I've never been able to detect a single difference in my soap. I bought the food grade for the heck of it to experiment with, but when it runs out, I'm just going to save my pennies and stick with the tech.

IrishLass

 

[dubnica]

CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR SOAP LOOKS GREAT!!!

 

[SmellyKat]

I feel your frustration, BakingNana! I really do. I never had good success with mixing lye and milk together. Some soapers are able to do it with great finesse and without any problems, but not me. I gave up on it when I learned there was more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. I make great goat milk soaps now, even 100% goat milk soap, without ever having my lye and milk touch each other until mixed with my oils.

The way I do it is by using the split method (even when making 100% GM soaps). I use fresh, full fat refrigerated goat milk (the carton kind, not canned). I split my liquid portion up into half water, half goat milk. The water gets mixed with the lye and the goat milk gets stickblended into my oils. If I want to make a 100% full fat milk soap, I proceed the same exact way as I do above, but with the exception that I dissolve enough powdered goat milk into my fresh goatmilk to bring the total milk concentration up to 100%. Then I stickblend that into my oils. Works like a charm.

This is just me, but I never freeze my GM soap. I like it to gel fully. I just keep an eye on it in case it overheats, but it hardly ever does so. They come out a nice off-white, creamy color, too (unless I add honey to it). Oh, and no spots!

Irish Lass, I am very new to soap making so forgive my questions. I would like to try a GM soap. Is your method the CP process? And if so, what are the measurements of the different oils you use?? Thank you.

IrishLass

 

[KD]

goat's milk soap

I thought I would throw my two cents worth in here. ALL I make is goat's milk soaps, usually at 100% of the fluid. I have found that using frozen milk, chopped into chunks, mixed with lye, stirred until all the milk is thawed, works best for me. The mixture usually ends up light yellow and quite thick. I don't mix the lye and the oils until both containers are just barely warm. I ALWAYS use my stick blender to incorporate the fragrance or essential oils. Otherwise, I have seen spots. I always insulate until my soap is gelled through and then remove the insulation. The only dos spots I have seen have been from unincorporated fragrance oils and from using canola oil in the recipe. I tried many times to use canola because it was cheap and decided that it was not worth it.

 

[KD]

goat's milk soap

I thought I would throw my two cents worth in here. ALL I make is goat's milk soaps, usually at 100% of the fluid. I have found that using frozen milk, chopped into chunks, mixed with lye, stirred until all the milk is thawed, works best for me. The mixture usually ends up light yellow and quite thick. I don't mix the lye and the oils until both containers are just barely warm. I ALWAYS use my stick blender to incorporate the fragrance or essential oils. Otherwise, I have seen spots. I always insulate until my soap is gelled through and then remove the insulation. The only dos spots I have seen have been from unincorporated fragrance oils and from using canola oil in the recipe. I tried many times to use canola because it was cheap and decided that it was not worth it.

 

[Lynnz]

I have sometimes seen these type of spots after unmolding and I feel that it is the fat from the milk as when I freeze you can see the rich component of the milk slightly seperate from the water content I am sure that it scorches when coming into contact with the lye and that is what it is. I have prior to making my own soap purchased goatsmilk soap with the same issue from very experienced soapers and honestly think that it is the fat content of the frozen milk coming into direct contact with the lye when you mix

 

[IrishLass]

Irish Lass, I am very new to soap making so forgive my questions. I would like to try a GM soap. Is your method the CP process? And if so, what are the measurements of the different oils you use?? Thank you.

IrishLass

No forgiveness needed- questions are good.

Yes, I do my goat milk soaps via CP. As for my oils, it depends on which of my formulas I'm using at the time :wink: , but for what it's worth, goat milk can be added to any kind of formula. I've added it to my 100% olive oil Castile, my tallow/lard formula, my salt soap formula, my 100% coconut oil formula, my 50% olive oil formula, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes I add goatmilk as 100% of my water amount, sometimes as 50% and sometimes as 30%. It just depends on what I'm trying to accomplish in my batch, and/or on my mood.

What kind of oils do you have on hand? I'd be happy to help you devise a recipe.

IrishLass

 

[Layne]

goats milk...mmmmm love it
I like to use what I call the ice cream method
actualy I dont use milk..I use the evaperated cream, undiluted (well almost)
creamsicle soaps lol

how to make safe ice cream lye solution
fill sink with ice
salt ice
add touch of water
set lye container in this
if lye solution calls for oh say 34 ozs water, 28 ozs of this is slightly frozen gm cream
the other 6 ozs is the water I use to get lye ready
with lye container in ice, dump 6 ozs water in container
add lye, stir desolve, keep in ice an let cool a few momments
move container around as you stir lye, keeping the ice outside moving
once desolved an cooled down a bit add the cream
keep moving an stirring for a few mins
at this point you can take small rest the arm breaks, lol
but every couple mins move an stir
you will have lye ice cream in a few mins, thick and creamy
dont breath the fumes, not just bad for you but it will stink sorta, but thats ok its just a strong gm odor
should look like a nice heavy creamy dark tan pudding
moving an stirring moving an stirring
after a bit when able to remove container from ice an place palm of hand on bottom (for a min or longer) and fell little to no heat its ready to add to your oils
of course I do CPHP, whole process to cook soap takes about 2 hours then block and let cool over night, unblock, cut, use, mmmmmmmm god I love soap so freash ya have to slap it, lol

been doing this a looong time now
knock on wood, no dos as to date
just nice creamy soap
give this a try an I think you will like the results
some of my soap sample blocks I keep aside are over a couple years old
and still beautiful
good luck

 

[SmellyKat]

Irish Lass, I am very new to soap making so forgive my questions. I would like to try a GM soap. Is your method the CP process? And if so, what are the measurements of the different oils you use?? Thank you.

IrishLass

No forgiveness needed- questions are good.

Yes, I do my goat milk soaps via CP. As for my oils, it depends on which of my formulas I'm using at the time :wink: , but for what it's worth, goat milk can be added to any kind of formula. I've added it to my 100% olive oil Castile, my tallow/lard formula, my salt soap formula, my 100% coconut oil formula, my 50% olive oil formula, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes I add goatmilk as 100% of my water amount, sometimes as 50% and sometimes as 30%. It just depends on what I'm trying to accomplish in my batch, and/or on my mood.

What kind of oils do you have on hand? I'd be happy to help you devise a recipe.

IrishLass

I have OO, Coconut O, PKO and I was thinking of going to the drugstore to get castor oil. I bought 12oz of GM in a can last night. I have a 3 lb loaf mold. I get confused on the %'s of each oil to use. haha
But the creaminess of GM appeals to me. I was hoping to get a baseline oil recipe.
Thank you.

 

[IrishLass]

I have OO, Coconut O, PKO and I was thinking of going to the drugstore to get castor oil. I bought 12oz of GM in a can last night. I have a 3 lb loaf mold. I get confused on the %'s of each oil to use. haha
But the creaminess of GM appeals to me. I was hoping to get a baseline oil recipe.
Thank you.

If you can get some castor, that would be great. Castor adds a nice touch. Here are 2 Castile-type formulas (one with castor included, and one without):

Olive Oil 60%
Coconut 15%
PKO 15%
Castor 10%


Olive Oil 70%
Coconut oil 15%
PKO 15%

These will make nice Castile-type soaps with good conditioning and a lovely bubbly/creamy lather.

A quick note on superfatting milk soaps: Other milk soapers might do differently, but when I do milk soaps, I like to adjust my superfat level depending on how much milk I add. I find this helps to maintain the bubbly factor of my lather, which otherwise tends to deflate if I use my regular superfat of 5% in my soaps with milk. For example, if I use 100% milk for my liquid amount, I lower my superfat level to 3%. If I use milk at 50% of my liquid amount, I lower my superfat to about 3.8% to 4%.


Other than Castile-types, with the oils you have on hand you can also do one of those high % CO soap formulas with a high superfat. (When I make these types of soap without milk, I usually superfat them at 15% to 20%, but with milk, I lower my superfat from 13% to 15%).
Here are 2 examples:

Coconut Oil 100%

or

CO 35%
PKO 35%
Olive Oil 30%

Holler if you need further help!

IrishLass

 

[SmellyKat]

I have OO, Coconut O, PKO and I was thinking of going to the drugstore to get castor oil. I bought 12oz of GM in a can last night. I have a 3 lb loaf mold. I get confused on the %'s of each oil to use. haha
But the creaminess of GM appeals to me. I was hoping to get a baseline oil recipe.
Thank you.

If you can get some castor, that would be great. Castor adds a nice touch. Here are 2 Castile-type formulas (one with castor included, and one without):

Olive Oil 60%
Coconut 15%
PKO 15%
Castor 10%


Olive Oil 70%
Coconut oil 15%
PKO 15%

These will make nice Castile-type soaps with good conditioning and a lovely bubbly/creamy lather.

A quick note on superfatting milk soaps: Other milk soapers might do differently, but when I do milk soaps, I like to adjust my superfat level depending on how much milk I add. I find this helps to maintain the bubbly factor of my lather, which otherwise tends to deflate if I use my regular superfat of 5% in my soaps with milk. For example, if I use 100% milk for my liquid amount, I lower my superfat level to 3%. If I use milk at 50% of my liquid amount, I lower my superfat to about 3.8% to 4%.


Other than Castile-types, with the oils you have on hand you can also do one of those high % CO soap formulas with a high superfat. (When I make these types of soap without milk, I usually superfat them at 15% to 20%, but with milk, I lower my superfat from 13% to 15%).
Here are 2 examples:

Coconut Oil 100%

or

CO 35%
PKO 35%
Olive Oil 30%

Holler if you need further help!

IrishLass

Thank you so much for these above recipes. I will cut and paste in my little soap library.

I don't have a clue of how to "superfat"?????
I have heard soapers on this forum "freeze" their GM. I bought the kind in a can. Do I take it out, put it in a container to freeze? Then chop it up into pieces and add to the lye water??

Saw an earlier thread about incorporating the GM. Still clueless on the superfat thing. hahaha
I love this hobby and I am slowly learning. Is there some calculator thing you use for superfatting??

 

[BakingNana]

Seriously, you may want to try Irish Lass's method rather than freezing the milk. Trust me....I have 72 caramelly bars sitting here from trying the freezing thing. Unless you don't care about the little caramel dots. Lass's method makes soaping super fast, too. I've been whipping them out. I also cut the SF down to 3% (get familiar with a soap calc; it's invaluable). I'm so HHHHAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYY!

 

[Woodi]

I'm pretty sure that the orange dots are due to caramelization of the milk, and/or an FO discoloring. I like the idea to add calendula petals and disguise the dots....the soap will be great with the spots, but customers may wonder, so the addition of flower petals will explain.

 

[cwarren]

WooHoo! Your soap looks great! That's just how mine turn out - a nice creamy off-white (when I don't color them or add honey, that is).

I only use food grade lye, too, although I'm tempted at times to save some pennies and get the tech. grade.

For whatever it's worth, I have both food grade and tech grade on hand (from AAA Chemical out of Texas), and whether I use the food grade or the tech grade, I've never been able to detect a single difference in my soap. I bought the food grade for the heck of it to experiment with, but when it runs out, I'm just going to save my pennies and stick with the tech.
IrishLass

THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING AAA they are 90 miles from me.. gona call them tomorrow !!!!

 

[BakingNana]

Wish they were 90 miles away from me. That's where I get my lye. I think I will switch to the tech grade next time.

 

[IrishLass]

Thank you so much for these above recipes. I will cut and paste in my little soap library.

I don't have a clue of how to "superfat"?????
I have heard soapers on this forum "freeze" their GM. I bought the kind in a can. Do I take it out, put it in a container to freeze? Then chop it up into pieces and add to the lye water??

Saw an earlier thread about incorporating the GM. Still clueless on the superfat thing. hahaha
I love this hobby and I am slowly learning. Is there some calculator thing you use for superfatting??

You're welcome!

Yes, there are different soaping calculators on the web. I never soap without one. Here is a link to the calculator that I and many other soapers use (it's free to use):

http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

It figures all the math out for you and provides you with all the appropriate amounts of lye, water, etc...that you need for your batch. To use, just enter in your batch size, oil amounts, water amount, and whatever % you want to superfat your formula at, etc....in the appropriate boxes. Then click on 'Calculate Recipe" down near the bottom, and then click on "View and Print Recipe' to be able to see all the calculations it made for you.

Re: superfatting- Simply put, superfatting just means adding a little extra oil/fat to your formula than is needed to fully saponify your soap. This is necessary because the SAP numbers of fats/oils can differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, which can potentially lead to having a lye-heavy soap if the SAP #'s are off, and/or if your measurements are a little off when you go to weigh things on your scale. Most soapers and many online lye calculators use a default superfat of 5% to account for any potential discrepancies, but you can experiment with going lower or higher. I've found that I can go as low as a superfat of only 3 in my formulas without lye heaviness, and I can go as high as 20% in my 100% coconut oil soaps. The reason why I go so high on those is because saponified coconut oil, which is delightfully mega-bubbly, by the way, is also a strong cleanser and can strip your skin clean of its natural oils when used in a very high amount, leaving you feeling high and dry. The high superfat counteracts the hyper-cleansing effect of the coconut oil without hurting the super, mega-bubbliness of the soap.


Re: freezing the GM. I never freeze it or slushify it. It's just too much hassle for me to use that method. Others do fine with it, but to put it bluntly- I suck at it. I use the 'split method' instead. My preferred Gm of choice (only because I can't get it straight from a goat) is the *fresh* refrigerated GM that I buy at my grocery store in a carton made by Meyenberg. I just use it straight from the fridge, or at room temp, and I never mix my lye directly into it. I split the liquid amount of my batch into half water and half GM. My lye gets mixed with the water part, and the GM gets mixed with the oils before adding the water/lye solution. That makes a 50% milk soap. For a 100% milk soap, I proceed as I would normally do for a 50%, but I add enough powdered GM to the liquid GM portion in order to make the milk concentration for the whole batch equal to 100% GM.

You can use the canned goat milk this way, too.

HTH!
IrishLass

 

[SmellyKat]

Thank you so much for these above recipes. I will cut and paste in my little soap library.

I don't have a clue of how to "superfat"?????
I have heard soapers on this forum "freeze" their GM. I bought the kind in a can. Do I take it out, put it in a container to freeze? Then chop it up into pieces and add to the lye water??

Saw an earlier thread about incorporating the GM. Still clueless on the superfat thing. hahaha
I love this hobby and I am slowly learning. Is there some calculator thing you use for superfatting??

You're welcome!

Yes, there are different soaping calculators on the web. I never soap without one. Here is a link to the calculator that I and many other soapers use (it's free to use):

http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

It figures all the math out for you and provides you with all the appropriate amounts of lye, water, etc...that you need for your batch. To use, just enter in your batch size, oil amounts, water amount, and whatever % you want to superfat your formula at, etc....in the appropriate boxes. Then click on 'Calculate Recipe" down near the bottom, and then click on "View and Print Recipe' to be able to see all the calculations it made for you.

Re: superfatting- Simply put, superfatting just means adding a little extra oil/fat to your formula than is needed to fully saponify your soap. This is necessary because the SAP numbers of fats/oils can differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, which can potentially lead to having a lye-heavy soap if the SAP #'s are off, and/or if your measurements are a little off when you go to weigh things on your scale. Most soapers and many online lye calculators use a default superfat of 5% to account for any potential discrepancies, but you can experiment with going lower or higher. I've found that I can go as low as a superfat of only 3 in my formulas without lye heaviness, and I can go as high as 20% in my 100% coconut oil soaps. The reason why I go so high on those is because saponified coconut oil, which is delightfully mega-bubbly, by the way, is also a strong cleanser and can strip your skin clean of its natural oils when used in a very high amount, leaving you feeling high and dry. The high superfat counteracts the hyper-cleansing effect of the coconut oil without hurting the super, mega-bubbliness of the soap.


Re: freezing the GM. I never freeze it or slushify it. It's just too much hassle for me to use that method. Others do fine with it, but to put it bluntly- I suck at it. I use the 'split method' instead. My preferred Gm of choice (only because I can't get it straight from a goat) is the *fresh* refrigerated GM that I buy at my grocery store in a carton made by Meyenberg. I just use it straight from the fridge, or at room temp, and I never mix my lye directly into it. I split the liquid amount of my batch into half water and half GM. My lye gets mixed with the water part, and the GM gets mixed with the oils before adding the water/lye solution. That makes a 50% milk soap. For a 100% milk soap, I proceed as I would normally do for a 50%, but I add enough powdered GM to the liquid GM portion in order to make the milk concentration for the whole batch equal to 100% GM.

You can use the canned goat milk this way, too.

HTH!
IrishLass

Thank you so much for your patience and help. Going to try my hand at GM soap this weekend with a lavender EO.

Kathie

 

[SmellyKat]

Thank you so much for these above recipes. I will cut and paste in my little soap library.

I don't have a clue of how to "superfat"?????
I have heard soapers on this forum "freeze" their GM. I bought the kind in a can. Do I take it out, put it in a container to freeze? Then chop it up into pieces and add to the lye water??

Saw an earlier thread about incorporating the GM. Still clueless on the superfat thing. hahaha
I love this hobby and I am slowly learning. Is there some calculator thing you use for superfatting??

You're welcome!

Yes, there are different soaping calculators on the web. I never soap without one. Here is a link to the calculator that I and many other soapers use (it's free to use):

http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

It figures all the math out for you and provides you with all the appropriate amounts of lye, water, etc...that you need for your batch. To use, just enter in your batch size, oil amounts, water amount, and whatever % you want to superfat your formula at, etc....in the appropriate boxes. Then click on 'Calculate Recipe" down near the bottom, and then click on "View and Print Recipe' to be able to see all the calculations it made for you.

Re: superfatting- Simply put, superfatting just means adding a little extra oil/fat to your formula than is needed to fully saponify your soap. This is necessary because the SAP numbers of fats/oils can differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, which can potentially lead to having a lye-heavy soap if the SAP #'s are off, and/or if your measurements are a little off when you go to weigh things on your scale. Most soapers and many online lye calculators use a default superfat of 5% to account for any potential discrepancies, but you can experiment with going lower or higher. I've found that I can go as low as a superfat of only 3 in my formulas without lye heaviness, and I can go as high as 20% in my 100% coconut oil soaps. The reason why I go so high on those is because saponified coconut oil, which is delightfully mega-bubbly, by the way, is also a strong cleanser and can strip your skin clean of its natural oils when used in a very high amount, leaving you feeling high and dry. The high superfat counteracts the hyper-cleansing effect of the coconut oil without hurting the super, mega-bubbliness of the soap.


Re: freezing the GM. I never freeze it or slushify it. It's just too much hassle for me to use that method. Others do fine with it, but to put it bluntly- I suck at it. I use the 'split method' instead. My preferred Gm of choice (only because I can't get it straight from a goat) is the *fresh* refrigerated GM that I buy at my grocery store in a carton made by Meyenberg. I just use it straight from the fridge, or at room temp, and I never mix my lye directly into it. I split the liquid amount of my batch into half water and half GM. My lye gets mixed with the water part, and the GM gets mixed with the oils before adding the water/lye solution. That makes a 50% milk soap. For a 100% milk soap, I proceed as I would normally do for a 50%, but I add enough powdered GM to the liquid GM portion in order to make the milk concentration for the whole batch equal to 100% GM.

You can use the canned goat milk this way, too.

HTH!
IrishLass

I think I know where I went wrong with my ugly brown GM soap.
(1) I added the GM right at trace with the EO's (dumped it right in). It got thick very quick after that!!
(2) then I insulated it for 24 hrs.

I read on another thread that you put the mold in the fridge?? Freezer? For how long??

I want to try again and get it right. I used the carton gm.