My first Goat Milk batch

[JessieD]

I made this batch yesterday. It's a goat milk/honey/oat blend with no EOs or FOs added. If it turns out I'll give my mother in law some for her birthday in January…or maybe Christmas. The 6 week mark on this batch is Dec.24th though, and I'd like to try it before giving it to her. Maybe I can try it at the 4 week mark? I've heard milk soaps should cure longer though, can anyone confirm or deny?





As you can see, I got a partial gel...

I guess it looks ok. I put it in the freezer for 30 min and then in the fridge for 24 hours. I have read on the forum that some people freeze theirs for 24hours. I didn't because I had also read that keeping the soap cool for too long will make it brittle. Anyone's thoughts on this? :think:

The soap is much whiter than I thought I could get and I'm quite happy with it. Even if it still darkens up a bit, I'll be quite happy. I'm just not thrilled with the darker halo in the middle.

My only other negative is that the soap currently smells a bit like ammonia. I have also read that this is normal, so I'm not going to panic…unless someone here can give me a reason to. :wtf: lol.

Not bad for my first goat's milk and only my second ever batch though. I'm quite happy over all and can't wait to try it out!

 

[angemarie]

Hey, well done! nice looking soap...congratulations! I just made my first batch too and posted pics :wave: as I'm still a newbie I cant answer your questions sorry but I got a partial gel on one of my soaps too which I had put in the freezer overnight, I was advised that the "halo" could fade when curing.
I too have heard it is normal that milk soap can smell like ammonia for a while but goes away in time.

May I ask how you did your goats milk? did you freeze it in cubes and add the lye to it or add it at trace?

 

[JessieD]

Hey, well done! nice looking soap...congratulations! I just made my first batch too and posted pics :wave: as I'm still a newbie I cant answer your questions sorry but I got a partial gel on one of my soaps too which I had put in the freezer overnight, I was advised that the "halo" could fade when curing.
I too have heard it is normal that milk soap can smell like ammonia for a while but goes away in time.

May I ask how you did your goats milk? did you freeze it in cubes and add the lye to it or add it at trace?

Good to know about the halo fading! I hadn't heard that

I froze my goats milk into ice cubes and added the lye to it. Its a really small batch, only about 1.5lbs of oils. When I added the lye to the milk cubes and they finally melted, my lye/milk temp was at 77˚F. I actually had to warm up my lye mixture to 95˚F and then add it to my oils. I did this by placing my lye container in a bigger bowl and putting hot water in the bowl. Like a double boiler, but not on a burner. I didn't want to heat too much too fast. I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but that's how it went with me, lol. How did you do yours?

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Nice job! i have tried milk soap atleast twice, both miserable failures..... I will try again though!

 

[heavensgrace]

If you're like me, and never had room in the freezer, try soaping at really low temps. I get my oils between 60-80 degrees as well as my lye. As long as they're within 15 degrees of each other, and I don't go over 80 degrees when adding the lye, the soap always turns out fine. Btw, I HP only so I'm not so sure how that would work CP. I did manage a pure white HP milk soap via that method using Shea Butter as a SF one time:razz:

As for the smell, I burnt my first milk batch and it had that ammonia smell to it too, I say about a week or two later, it had a nice orange scent to it, and then a couple weeks later, nothing..which sucked b/c I was dreaming of a new "fragrance oil-free" orange-scented milk soap. Oh well! Great soaps btw!

 

[tryanything]

Great job and great looking soap. It took me three attempts before I had a successful OMH soap.


Sent from my iPhone using Soap Making

 

[neeners]

great job! looks awesome!!!

I delved into soaping with milk soaps (yes....go big or go home). and my first batch ever kinda looked like that too, but the colour changes as it cures....it will even out and the smell will dissipate.

I usually let my soaps gel, which speeds up saponification, and b/c I have no patience, I usually give a small sliver a try as kitchen hand soap after a week (sometimes sooner if I can't wait any longer). as long as it doesn't zap, it should be ok. longer cure will make the soap more mellow. I read somewhere that people don't do the shower test until after 4 weeks...I think it all depends on how long you can wait!

 

[judymoody]

It looks great!

I think it's fine to give at Christmas. You can certainly try it yourself long before that date. For ungelled soap, a week or two out is sufficient to determine if it is safe to use and time will only make it nicer. You've got partial gel (yes the dividing line will become less distinct over time, most people don't notice it at all) so all the better.

In my experience, people who get soap as a gift don't use it right away. They display it or sniff it or ooh and aah over it and it can sit around for quite awhile. As an extreme example, I just visited my sister and she has some soaps on display from my original batches over three years ago. They are still wrapped in cling wrap and starting to get a bit of DOS!

 

[JessieD]

If you're like me, and never had room in the freezer, try soaping at really low temps. I get my oils between 60-80 degrees as well as my lye. As long as they're within 15 degrees of each other, and I don't go over 80 degrees when adding the lye, the soap always turns out fine. Btw, I HP only so I'm not so sure how that would work CP. I did manage a pure white HP milk soap via that method using Shea Butter as a SF one time:razz:

As for the smell, I burnt my first milk batch and it had that ammonia smell to it too, I say about a week or two later, it had a nice orange scent to it, and then a couple weeks later, nothing..which sucked b/c I was dreaming of a new "fragrance oil-free" orange-scented milk soap. Oh well! Great soaps btw!

I didn't think you could mix at such low temperatures. That's good to know. I will look into it more

I usually let my soaps gel, which speeds up saponification, and b/c I have no patience, I usually give a small sliver a try as kitchen hand soap after a week (sometimes sooner if I can't wait any longer). as long as it doesn't zap, it should be ok. longer cure will make the soap more mellow. I read somewhere that people don't do the shower test until after 4 weeks...I think it all depends on how long you can wait!

That's interesting! I didn't let the soap gel b/c I had read horror stories of gelling GM soap that also had honey over heating and scalding etc. You haven't had issues in that way though?

It looks great!

I think it's fine to give at Christmas. You can certainly try it yourself long before that date. For ungelled soap, a week or two out is sufficient to determine if it is safe to use and time will only make it nicer. You've got partial gel (yes the dividing line will become less distinct over time, most people don't notice it at all) so all the better.

In my experience, people who get soap as a gift don't use it right away. They display it or sniff it or ooh and aah over it and it can sit around for quite awhile. As an extreme example, I just visited my sister and she has some soaps on display from my original batches over three years ago. They are still wrapped in cling wrap and starting to get a bit of DOS!

That's funny about your sister Knowing my mother in law…she may do the same thing!

I was worried about my attempt to stop gelling causing the saponification to take longer. I would hate to hurt anyone, especially the in-laws!! lol You make a good point though, I did get a partial gel, so I suppose I didn't slow it down all that much after all.

Thank you everyone for your input! I'm learning new stuff every day and loving it!!

Jessie

 

[grayceworks]

That's so funny! I gave some to our housekeeper 2 weeks ago, and she told me that she's been keeping it in her purse and showing it to people and letting them sniff it! :wtf:

 

[neeners]

i haven't had overheating problems relaly. I've had SOME overheating with slight cracking on the top, but I live in the tropics and have 25% CO in the recipe (which helps with overheating.....), and the cracking doesn't bother me much. I personally prefer my soaps gelled b/c it's nice and hard. I tried ungelled once and it took forever for the soap to harden. I don't have the patience for that! lol

 

[Ancel]

Well Done! Looks creamy and light