My milk soap lesson

[hoegarden]

Hi fellow soapers, I believe that alot of you have already tried doing milk soaps and what I am posting here could be something agreeable or non agreeable since we have different school of thoughts here.

But still, I would like to share my experience from my milk soap lesson yesterday about making milk soap.

I always thought that the process will be similar. Now I came to know that it needs more effort because milk is a delicate ingredient in our soaping process.

Have you ever smell ammonia when you add lye to the the milk ice cubes? It shows that the temperature is getting to high for the milk. The benefits in the milk will likely to be destroyed. When the mixture turn abit greenish yellow in the melting process, this mixture should not be used for soaping anymore. The greenish mixture contain a sulphur that is produce due to the high temperature that cause the structure of the milk to breakdown. This suphur is not safe on skin.

That is why milk soap is always made at low temperature. The best is to keep the temperature of the milk lye mixture at 15-18 degree celcius.

 

[Ruthie]

I always add my lye to the milk ice cubes one tablespoon at a time and stir thoroughly. Usually the milk is not totally thawed til nearly the last bit of lye. So my mixture (and thus the soap) remain white and no noxious smell.

 

[kazmi]

Oh, no! Sounds like you learned this lesson the hard way. I'm afraid of trying a milk until I'm much more confident in soap making.

What about this process: http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/homemade-soap-recipe-goat-milk.html

 

[hoegarden]

I always add my lye to the milk ice cubes one tablespoon at a time and stir thoroughly. Usually the milk is not totally thawed til nearly the last bit of lye. So my mixture (and thus the soap) remain white and no noxious smell.

Hi Ruthie, this is the way that the teacher taught too. That is why there is no need to put on a mask to cover the nose this time when I make the soap. The usual process when we make soap is to cover our nose right..

She also taught me a way that in case a slight difference started to be noticed... if we are fast enough we can still salvage our lye mixture..

the trick is to standby a pot with ice water, big enough to put in the container containing the lye mixture. the moment u notice a slight difference or ammonia smell, place the container in the pot and stick blend the lye mixture immediately so as to dissolve the lye faster and spreading the heat and using the ice water to reduce the heat faster. and we save our lye mixture.

 

[hoegarden]

Oh, no! Sounds like you learned this lesson the hard way. I'm afraid of trying a milk until I'm much more confident in soap making.

What about this process: http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/homemade-soap-recipe-goat-milk.html

@kazmi, there is nothing wrong with the process as this is adding the mixture at trace instead of using milk to dissolve the lye. my only question here is whether the temperature at trace will cause changes to the milk adding in at trace.

maybe some other expert here will be able to answer this..

 

[OliveOil2]

Well ...I'm not an expert by any means, but I have made milk soap both ways many times. I have never had any difficulty using the 50% 50% method. The only drawback that I have heard is that the milk isn't 100%. I usually use half aloe vera juice in my lye mixture. If the aloe survives the lye is another question. I still soap very cool with milk, don't insulate and most of the time use individual molds to avoid partial gel. To me trying this method is good practice so that you can see how the milk reacts to the oil mixture. If my mixture isn't quite cool enough, sometimes I can feel the mixture heat up, but nothing drastic, still able to pour.

 

[lsg]

I use cow's cream in the half and half method and add it at trace. To keep the soap from turning dark, refrigerate or freeze it as soon as it goes into the mold. I usually leave it there until the next day.

 

[chicklet]

hoegarden - I've never heard or read before that the lye can create an unsafe sulfur that should not be used on the skin. Is that backed up by scientific evidence? I'm not disputing the info you have presented, I'm just interested in learning more.

 

[bodhi]

hoegarden - I've never heard or read before that the lye can create an unsafe sulfur that should not be used on the skin. Is that backed up by scientific evidence? I'm not disputing the info you have presented, I'm just interested in learning more.

Im curious about this too. What form of sulfur is the lye and and milk creating and how is it different than regular sulfur that is good for the skin?

 

[hoegarden]

@chicklet - based on the notes provided by the teacher, the effect of the protein (amino acide) in the milk will be affected by the change of temperature. the most common release is ammonia odour and the colour will slightly change to light green caused by the sulfur amino acid. I read on the sulfur amino acid and it does not look like its good. but the online information is too medical and chemical for a layman like me. I do hope that there will be somebody knowledgeable enough to provide more colours on this.

so the main thing is to soap at low temperature. the sulfur is not create by the lye but rather due to the lye dissolving in the milk, it create a temperature high enough to destroy the protein in the milk which break down the amino acid to form this sulfur. thats what i conclude from the lesson.

 

[adoptapitbull]

@chicklet - based on the notes provided by the teacher, the effect of the protein (amino acide) in the milk will be affected by the change of temperature. the most common release is ammonia odour and the colour will slightly change to light green caused by the sulfur amino acid. I read on the sulfur amino acid and it does not look like its good. but the online information is too medical and chemical for a layman like me. I do hope that there will be somebody knowledgeable enough to provide more colours on this.

so the main thing is to soap at low temperature. the sulfur is not create by the lye but rather due to the lye dissolving in the milk, it create a temperature high enough to destroy the protein in the milk which break down the amino acid to form this sulfur. thats what i conclude from the lesson.

I use full milk all the time. Sometimes my mixture heats up too fast and ends up looking dark orange, with chunky stuff on top. It's super gross looking. However, each time it looked like that, it ended up turning out the same way my other soaps that remained cool did.

I could also never tell the difference between soap made with dark and chunky lye/milk and soap made with light yellow lye/milk during the mixing phase either.

 

[bodhi]

@chicklet - based on the notes provided by the teacher, the effect of the protein (amino acide) in the milk will be affected by the change of temperature. the most common release is ammonia odour and the colour will slightly change to light green caused by the sulfur amino acid. I read on the sulfur amino acid and it does not look like its good. but the online information is too medical and chemical for a layman like me. I do hope that there will be somebody knowledgeable enough to provide more colours on this.

so the main thing is to soap at low temperature. the sulfur is not create by the lye but rather due to the lye dissolving in the milk, it create a temperature high enough to destroy the protein in the milk which break down the amino acid to form this sulfur. thats what i conclude from the lesson.

Thats better. The mixture is breaking down proteins and releasing the sulfur that is already there. No need to toss those batches, there is much more sulfur in our bodies than in a bar of soap and we would be dead without it. Its good stuff.