Goat Milk Soap

I love making my own soap. I know the ingredients going into it and an added bonus, it makes a great gift.

Goat milk soap has many potential benefits:

  • Fatty acids hydrate and moisturize the skin.

  • Hydroxyl acids in the soap can remove dead skin cells and promote new skin cell growth. It can help replenish the skins natural moisture and support a healthy skin barrier.

  • Goat milk soap has a similar PH to our skin so it is a gentle and does not strip away our natural oils.

  • Proteins in the soap can help sooth and calm irritated and inflamed skin, including reducing undereye darkness and puffiness

Goat milk soap is a good option for people with sensitive skin, as it's often mild and non-irritating. 

When making soap, it is important that you use exact measurements.

I prefer the cold process which means all ingredients are less than 120 degrees

simple Soap Recipe - Yields 1-lb

  • Goat Milk (or water) 6.08 ounces

    • Freeze the goat milk prior to use to keep the lye from scorching it

  • Lye 2.29 ounces

  • Castor Oil 5.28 ounces

  • Coconut Oil 5.28 ounces

  • Lard 5.44 ounces

  • Fragrance Oil .50 ounces

Combine oils (melt lard first then add the other oils in). Once oils are combined you can add in your fragrance oil.

Slowly add the lye to the milk a little at a time. Don’t go too fast because you don’t want to scorch or burn the milk.

Once the lye and milk is blended, carefully pour into the oil mixture.

Gently stir to combine the mixture.

Use immersion blender to thoroughly combine, bringing it trace (see video below, cake batter consistency). When you can see a ‘trace’ of the mixture when you lift of the immersion blender, then it’s ready to pour into the mold(s).

Allow soap to cure for a few days before removing from the mold. Total cure time is approximately 6 weeks.

 

Basic Materials and ingredients

You can use one of the below methods to color your soap naturally.

  • Add to liquid oils: mix with liquid oils before pouring them into your melted hard oils.

  • Add at trace: add the natural coloring ingredient after the oils and lye solution in your recipe are mixed together.

  • Infuse with oils: add the dried material to oils that are liquid at room temperature. Either allow them to infuse for two to four weeks or heat gently until the natural color has been released into the oils. More on how to make infused oils.

  • Puree: soft plant material that is blended into a puree with a small amount of distilled water. Some plant materials, such as carrots, will need to be cooked or steamed first. Others, like avocado, are ready to be mashed up without cooking. Stir purees into soap batter at a light trace.

  • Water infusion: infuse the material into water and use the infusion to mix into your dried lye. This is essentially herbal tea.

Color Options: (this list is not inclusive of all items, but a sampling of ideas of what you can use)

  • Yellow: carrots, curry powder, daffodil flowers, goldenrod, lemon zest, pumpkin, safflower, tumeric, yarrow

  • Orange: Annatto seeds, Calendula flowers, Carrot, paprika, pumpkin, tomato

  • Pink: Hibiscus flower, cochineal, pink clay, sorrel

  • Red: Rhubarb, red clay, pink clay, St Johns Wort flowers

  • Blue: Activated charcoal, blue chamomile, blue clay, indigo

  • Brown: Beet root, cinnamon powder, coffee, Comfrey, cranberry, honey, henna, milk, molasses,

  • Green: Cucumber, avocado puree, alfalfa, green clay, kelp, nettle, sage, spinach, spirulina

  • Black: Activated charcoal, coffee grounds, poppy seeds

As you can see, there are some items that can cross the color line. Use more for a deeper/darker color and less for a lighter color.

Most importantly: EXPERIMENT!

You’d be surprised what you come up with.

Mary TobiassenComment