My goat milk soap keeps cracking on top

[Ekuzo]

Thank you. I have actually tried that and it usually gels to about 90% and leaves a ring, lol.

How about turning on a heating pad in addition to the insulation? I never felt like oven process was needed, but that's just me - a lot of people are used to CPOP

 

[ackosel]

I am afraid of overheating but I will experiment with temps and pursue that option more, thank you!

I put my soap on a piece of cardboard on a heating pad and cover it with a cardboard box. It's usually around 90 degrees when I put it on there. I leave the heating pad on low for about 4 hours. Then I turn it off and leave the soap tucked in overnight. I have never had a partial gel ring.

Maybe, if you want to try again for full gel, try a 30% lye concentration (a little extra milk) which should make it more likely to gel completely. I hope you find something that works for you.

 

[Delon]

I am pretty new to soapmaking, but I have only ever made goat milk soap. I mostly soap around 100°F. The only time I go hotter than that is if I'm using a lot of goat tallow in my recipe because it tends to re-solidify under 120°. But I keep my lye/milk mixture under 100°. I do let my soaps gel and have never had them burn. The closest I have gotten to a crack is a teeny little blip in one batch with coffee and milk. My best guess is that the soaps that crack are probably made at closer to that 120° range than 100°. I'm sure someone with more experience can give you a better idea of what is going on.

Your soap looks beautiful, by the way, in spite of the cracks.

Question about this, @ackosel! How do you get your lye solution to stay cooler? I've made soap 3 times now, and all 3 times I've had to wait a long time for the temperature to go down. This is with ice cubes! Am I pouring the lye in too quickly? Should I try to add it slower? I don't pour it all in at once since I know that's bad. Even with ice, my lye temperature sits around 120 F after stirring.

 

[Shelley D]

Question about this, @ackosel! How do you get your lye solution to stay cooler? I've made soap 3 times now, and all 3 times I've had to wait a long time for the temperature to go down. This is with ice cubes! Am I pouring the lye in too quickly? Should I try to add it slower? I don't pour it all in at once since I know that's bad. Even with ice, my lye temperature sits around 120 F after stirring.

I'm not an expert by any means so I'm just guessing ~ but maybe it's in the percentage of liquid (?). When I was actively making GM soap, I would use the GM for 100% of my lye solution liquid, freeze it solid, put the milk cubes in a container and slowly pour in the lye flakes, usually all at once, just slowly so I didn't make a lye dust cloud. I would give it a thorough stir, and let it sit a few minutes then stir again, then let it sit and continue until the lye was thoroughly dissolved. And usually, my lye solution rarely went above 100°F. That worked out well for me because my oils would have already been melted at this point and set aside to cool a bit, and by the time the lye solution was ready, the oils were usually around the same temperature so it seemed the perfect balance. I didn't force gel, if anything, I would refrigerate to prevent overheating but I only had one recipe get super hot and that one had oatmilk in it, not the goat's milk ~ go figure.
If your lye solution is staying hot even when mixing with full frozen ice, maybe you need a little more liquid What's your ratio of lye to liquid? Does the temperature of the lye solution cause any problems or are you just concerned?

 

[ackosel]

Question about this, @ackosel! How do you get your lye solution to stay cooler? I've made soap 3 times now, and all 3 times I've had to wait a long time for the temperature to go down. This is with ice cubes! Am I pouring the lye in too quickly? Should I try to add it slower? I don't pour it all in at once since I know that's bad. Even with ice, my lye temperature sits around 120 F after stirring.

I add the lye VERY slowly, just a little at a time. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to add the lye in small increments, dividing the total amount into 6 or 8 additions, and then stir until each addition is dissolved before adding more. The milk ice cubes are usually all melted by the last addition or two, so I started putting the lye solution in an ice bath while adding and stirring. With the ice bath, I have been able to keep the lye temperature below 80°F.

 

[Shelley D]

I guess I just like living on the edge

 

[ackosel]

I guess I just like living on the edge

I read all kinds of things that said the milk will scorch if it gets above 70-something degrees. While it may cause problems for some people, that has not been my experience. I have gotten my milk/lye solution temperature as high as 110 degrees and have never had a batch scorch. I also read that gelling milk soap will scorch it. Acting on the advice I got here on the forum, I have been intentionally forcing gel in all my soaps and have never had a scorching problem.

While it is always important to follow safe handling procedures, I think that sometimes it doesn't hurt to push the envelope a little and try something outside the "norm" and see what happens. The result might not be as bad as you think! I might get brave and try adding the lye like you did and see what happens. I'd sure like to find a faster way to add lye to milk. Adding it slowly all at once, and then stirring every few minutes would be a lot less time consuming than the way I'm doing it. I could use that time between stirring to weigh fragrances, set up molds, mix colorants, etc.

 

[Shelley D]

I read all kinds of things that said the milk will scorch if it gets above 70-something degrees. While it may cause problems for some people, that has not been my experience. I have gotten my milk/lye solution temperature as high as 110 degrees and have never had a batch scorch. I also read that gelling milk soap will scorch it. Acting on the advice I got here on the forum, I have been intentionally forcing gel in all my soaps and have never had a scorching problem.

While it is always important to follow safe handling procedures, I think that sometimes it doesn't hurt to push the envelope a little and try something outside the "norm" and see what happens. The result might not be as bad as you think! I might get brave and try adding the lye like you did and see what happens. I'd sure like to find a faster way to add lye to milk. Adding it slowly all at once, and then stirring every few minutes would be a lot less time consuming than the way I'm doing it. I could use that time between stirring to weigh fragrances, set up molds, mix colorants, etc.

I'm usually wiping and cleaning a few things along the way and getting my molds ready ~ I don't have a lot of space so I wait until just before I'm ready to blend everything together I should probably say I also mix my lye solution in a lye safe plastic container ~ so I don't have to worry about what might happen if it did get to hot Sometimes there's just no explaining why things happen other than soap does what soap does
Give it a go ~ just pour that lye very slow so you don't get a poof of lye dust come up in your face
As for forcing gel ~ I just haven't done it yet, not sure why really, I just like to be done when I pour into the molds I think I might try it dom day

 

[Ekuzo]

I guess I just like living on the edge

Tell me about it - in the beginning I used to dump all the NaOH into the liquid at once! The batches were small and the concentration was high most of the time - I've never had lye solution boiling volcanoes. Now that I make bigger batches with more liquid (still high concentration, all the time) I don't do that anymore, and prefer to slowly add lye to water in steps, and stir and dissolve well before adding the next part - just in case, I don't feel like pushing my luck anymore lol

I read all kinds of things that said the milk will scorch if it gets above 70-something degrees. While it may cause problems for some people, that has not been my experience. I have gotten my milk/lye solution temperature as high as 110 degrees and have never had a batch scorch. I also read that gelling milk soap will scorch it. Acting on the advice I got here on the forum, I have been intentionally forcing gel in all my soaps and have never had a scorching problem.

I think you can definitely gel milk soap without scorching it, as long as it doesn't overheat (your experience is proof). That's what scorches it - gel alone is fine

 

[Misschief]

I am not really new at soap making but I do have a question about my goat milk soaps. I make the soap any where from 100° to 120°.
I have a small fridge that I put them in right after they are made. They are still cracking on top. It's so frustrating because I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I should say some of them Crack, some of them don't.

I'm late to this party but I do have some input that no one has mentioned yet. I love making, and using, goat milk soap but I usually only make it in the dead of winter and put it outside as soon as it's in the mold because I get partial gel and overheating every. single. time. That said, I have noticed that it's usually when I use my wooden loaf molds. Wood tends to insulate the soap,

If you look at your photos vs @scmorgans soap, you'll notice the biggest difference is in the size of the molds. Scmorgan uses a mold that has a larger area of open soap batter vs your smaller loaf mold.

 

[Ekuzo]

True, maintaining balance is key - heating, insulation, water content, sugars, alcohols (among other things) affect that and if you want it to be perfect you need to hit the right spot between 'not enough' and 'too much'. And that applies to more or less all the variables above