Milkfat % question

[lizflowers42]

For those of you in the United States, what % milkfat milk do you use? I know that whole milk/cream will result in a higher % of fat in your soap, but can you still get the benefits of milk from a 1% milk? My hubby doesn't like drinking milk that has been in the fridge past 7 days when the container was opened, so I was thinking about freezing it for soap-I still will drink it until it smells funny, but he is deathly afraid of getting ill! We only buy free-range organic milk, and I hate to let it go to waste. Sometimes I sneak it into to other things when he isn't looking

 

[thefarmerdaughter]

I think you could still make great use of it in your soaps despite the reduced fat content. Of course there are other benefits to milk in soap besides the fat content. The milk sugars, for lather, lactic acid, which is a type of alpha hydroxy acid, and milks soaps tend to have a lower pH.

 

[DeeAnna]

You can use any kind of fluid milk from skim to whole to heavy cream. As well as dry (non-fat) milk, buttermilk, and evaporated milk. And butter too. It's all fine. The milk sugars and proteins add benefits to the soap by adding lather and increasing mildness.

When I do my lye calculation, I include the butterfat (milk fat) content added by any milk product, but that's just me. Obviously skim doesn't have any fat to worry about.

The butterfat added by whole milk (3.25-3.5% butterfat) will be roughly 1% of your total oils, and I think you can safely ignore that small amount of added fat -- just realize that this extra 1% of unsaponified fat is going to raise your superfat accordingly.

The butterfat content in cream, evaporated milk, or butter is high enough, so I think you really do need to include that in your lye calculation.

 

[lizflowers42]

Well, then I will be making some milk soaps with it! I'm just going to ignore the 1% milk fat of the milk in soap calc and just know that it will provide additional superfat to the recipe. Now if I can just get my hands on some local jersey cow or goat milk...

 

[thefarmerdaughter]

I had another thought.... You mentioned not wanting the milk to go to waste. Which is a sentiment I completely understand, something else you could do with it is make yogurt. It's not hard, there's no special equipment needed. It might not be your thing, lol but I thought I'd throw it out there!

 

[lizflowers42]

I had another thought.... You mentioned not wanting the milk to go to waste. Which is a sentiment I completely understand, something else you could do with it is make yogurt. It's not hard, there's no special equipment needed. It might not be your thing, lol but I thought I'd throw it out there!

I do make yogurt from time to time!