Soap Makers Help!

Jenlyn9483

Crowing
14 Years
Jun 27, 2008
1,686
39
294
Jacksonville, FL
I have been wanting and wishing and waiting to make my very own goat milk soap. I finally got some dairy goats and just purchased one that was already lactating. I have been milking her and saving the milk. I am about ready to make my first batch of soap. Tomorrow I will be going to town to try and find all my ingredients, since I dont want to wait to get them offline.( I will do this at a latter date). I have researched a million recipes online it seems and found one I think will work for me.

My question is this, I have learned that the sugar in the milk carmalizes and turns the soap a tan color. The only suggested way to lighten the color is to use powedered goats milk (which defeats my purpose of using my own goats milk. I was wondering if you could use food coloring to alter the color of the soap. I know that homemade lye soaps come in all colors, I have watched and purchased lye soap from the annual Goat fair held two counties over. Just dont know how they color it.
 
They make powdered vegetable dyes for soaps that you can purchase at Craft 2000, but if you want to, you can use regular food dye. Its food grade and will not harm the skin or leach the color onto the skin. I always use it and prefer it over the powdered dyes. The folks around here who make goats milk soap leave it that tan, natural color. Makes it look more homemade!
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For lighter colored soap, use a high percentage of olive oil. Also, the slower your soap gels and cures, the lighter it will be. It's only if you let it get too hot that it turns brown. Freeze your goat's milk until it's slushy, and mix the lye in while it's super-cold. You can even set your metal mixing bowl down into a sinkful of ice-water while you mix the lye and milk.
 
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mix the lye and milk?? I am also ready to make.. I have all the materials. Need the kahunas...LOL.. but I am going to make coconut milk soap and all the recipies that I have read with any milks. Is to take out the same amount of liquid from the lye water mixture and then add the milk liquid back in at trace. The way that I am interpreting your post is that you mix the milk in at the begining during the first lye/liquid chemical reaction. Did I interpret that right?
 
I always freeze the milk to slushy and add the lye directly to it, omitting the water altogether.
I love the tan color of the soap and the natural scent goats milk soap has, so I dont even add any essential oil anymore or any other kind of scenting agents, keeping it as natural as possible.
 
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mix the lye and milk?? I am also ready to make.. I have all the materials. Need the kahunas...LOL.. but I am going to make coconut milk soap and all the recipies that I have read with any milks. Is to take out the same amount of liquid from the lye water mixture and then add the milk liquid back in at trace. The way that I am interpreting your post is that you mix the milk in at the begining during the first lye/liquid chemical reaction. Did I interpret that right?

You can do it either way. Personally, I use all milk for my liquid when making milk soap--no water. If you go slow, and keep the temp down, it does not have to turn brown...but it takes practice. Plan on a few brown batches while you learn how to work the properties of milk in soap.

Some people, to avoid messing with the volatile nature of all-milk soap, do what you're describing, and add the milk in at trace. That will decrease the browning factor, but it also decreases the amount of milk in your soap. Personally, I prefer the milk being the total liquid in the soap formula, no water. For a really low-risk way to add milk to soap, you could add powdered milk at trace, also.

If enough people would be interested, I'd be happy to do a couple of picture tutorials posted here. People could follow along? It would just be a very basic recipe, and it would probably be better to start with plain water, and then move on to working with milk.

How about a fresh cucumber soap lesson?
 
Fresh goat milk is a very funny thing. I have made exact replica batches at the same time with my goat milk and a friend's goat milk. Each turned out different colors.
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I have never gotten the same natural color from any fresh goat milk. I think it has alot to do with what they are eating too.

I only use the milk and no water when making the milk soap.

As far as adding colorings to the soap. Most people like my soaps because they don't have a bunch of extras in them. No colorings, no heavy frangraces only mild essential oils. No extras, no additives. It lends itself to a natural soap people will be less likely to have an allergy to the ingredients.

I, too, prefer a higher olive oil pertentage in the soaps.
 
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Yup. People who seek out handmade soaps are likely to appreciate their natural form. One of my favorite goat's milk soapers manages to get really, really white bars, using all milk in her recipes. She's a lot better at it than I am, but she's made a LOT more batches.

For decorative soaps, with colors and swirls and things, I like mineral colorants. If you're offering soap for sale, you can always have both options so that people can choose color-free, fragrance-free, etc.
 

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