Soap Makers Help! - Page 3

The size of the goat farm nor the number of goats they milk has nothing to do with soap. You need a good combination of oils that are great for the skin. You need to learn to make soap with water before you try the milk. I promise you, for a beginner, you will waste a ton of money in oils if you go into this without understanding and learning the simple process of sopanification first.

Borax in soap is for heavy grime.  The borax soaps are also often used for soaps that will be used to help clear up rashes and other skin outbreaks. I wouldn't dare wash my face with a bar of that recipe.

Lard makes a good creamy soap but I wouldn't bath in it when I could make a better soap that would pamper my skin like an olive oil based soap.

I only use lard when making a gardeners soap or plain jane just plain type soap.

Palm oil you need to order online in a 3 gallon bucket for the best price.

Coconut oil is sold at Walmart in cooking oil section - it is solid at room temps.

Olive oil is usually best priced at costco/sam's/bj's etc in the 5 liter jug.

I also add castor oil to my soaps.

I have big wooden slab molds my husband built for me.

I use 100 ounces of the oils at a time for one batch of soap. This would be too much for a bginner with small molds.

I don't have any small recipes.

I don't use any additives other natural ingredients - oatmeal, grits, cornmeal, dried herbs, citrus peel etc.

Everything MP said.

You actually CAN get palm oil everywhere nowadays, because it's being used in place of hydrogenated shortening, since people are now aware of the health risks of trans fats.  Check your shortening labels at the store--if you see one that says "non-hydrogenated," check the ingredients label for one that just says "palm oil."  Spectrum brand is pure palm oil, if you can get that.

one of my lye calculation sites had the numbers for crisco.. another inexpensive oil

ETA: one of the lye calculation sites that I found to have most of the oils I wanted calculated.

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

Here is a video and simple recipe

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/making-goat-soap?autonomy_kw=goat%20milk%20soap&rsc=header_1

I've just started out making my own soap after falling in love with Southern28chick's soap.  My first batch just finished curing and is good, basic soap, I used olive oil, coconut, and palm.  I got the recipe from the The Soap Maker's Companion.  I really really recommend reading it before you try.  She walks you through every step and has a lot of recipes.  I got it from the library.

I was able to get all the oils from the bigger grocery store, including some exotic ones like sweet almond and avocado that I used in my 2nd batch that is still curing.  I am tinkering around with recipes till I find what I like.  The link to soapcalc is a great.

I would read and find out as much as you can before you make the soap, that way you won't waste all that money, cause that is a big recipe for soap, so I would make sure your molds will hold that much before you make it. 

Good Luck it is a lot of fun.

Thought u weren't supposed to use metal to mix lye?

I think stainless or enameled are the only safe ones to use.  Any other metal can react to the lye.

We use stainless steel to mix with oils.

I mix liquid and lye in an old plastic pitcher.

i haven't made old fashioned lye soap since i was a kid helping my grandma -  would love to tho!

i have a question about the dairy goats -  i have been tinkering with the idea of getting a miniature jersey cow or a dairy goat, and as the cow is close to 800.  - probably be a goat.

i am wondering if there is a good source of info on dairy goats that I can get online?   we never had goats on the farm, and I don't know anything about them, such as how many times a day to milk?, how much they give per milking?, housing needs?, food?, etc.

thanks