How to Make Goat’s Milk Soap
Today I made some Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap. My basic recipe is 45% soft oils, 40% hard oils, and 15% butters, with a 4% superfat because the goat’s milk also adds fats. The amount of milk is about twice the amount of lye. This method is not for beginners, but you can use an online soap calculator such as SoapCalc to figure out a recipe with the ingredients that you have or like. I added some pulverized rolled oats (do not use quick oats!), some local honey, and some Oatmeal, Milk and Honey fragrance oil.
Making soap with goat’s milk is a little bit different than using water. The lye heats up whatever liquid you add it to, so there are several things you need to do to prevent the goat’s milk from being scorched by the lye.
The first thing I do is melt all the oils and cool them down to around 80-90 degrees fahrenheit.
Another thing I do is freeze all the goat’s milk in ice cube trays.
When the lye is added to the frozen milk, it will melt it. You have to be sure to stir it really well to get the lye completely dissolved. The best way I’ve found is to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula and keep stirring until the temperature of the lye solution is around 80-90 degrees fahrenheit as well. If the lye solution is too cool, you can get pockets of undissolved lye in your soap. This is a great time to have your goggles, rubber gloves and apron on!
Once the lye is fully dissolved, it’s time to add it to the oils. I use my stick blender to mix them. When the mixture starts to thicken, I add the oats, honey, and fragrance and mix some more.
I like to pour my soap when it is still pretty thin – about like pancake batter. Once it is in the mold, I cover the top with plastic wrap and tape it down.
I used to prevent gel in my goat’s milk soap by putting a fan on it. Some soapmakers will put the soap in the refrigerator or freezer at this point. My mold won’t fit in either, so this worked for me.
I have since decided that I like my goat’s milk soaps to gel, so I will insulate with a towel or two, then cut the soap into bars in a couple of days after it has a chance to set up and isn’t too sticky. You can see more information and comments about gelling vs. non-gelling goat’s milk soaps here.
If anyone has questions or comments, I’d love to hear them!
This post was updated on January 16, 2012.
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I’ve been gearing up to try my hand at CP soap, Goat’s Milk in particular. I’m so glad you posted this! I’ll be coming back to read it a million times before I actually dig in! Lol
Hey Elizabeth – I would definitely make regular CP soap with water before attempting a goat’s milk batch just so you know what it “looks like”. Let me know if you have any questions about either process, k?
Yea, I think thats what’s been putting me off so far. Lol. I will try a small batch (or 2 or 3) before doing the Milk ones 😀
Hi
Thank you for your information about how to make handmade goat milk soap. I’ve been trying to make handmade goat milk soap for the last 4-5 months. I used half water and half milk to get the color I wanted. I let the oils cool down with room temparature and cool lye solution. I pured the cool milk to the oil and the lye solution which was dissolved with water to the oil and I use strick blender to mix it.
The result was I got lye granule flying around my large 3 batches ( 12 lbs batches ). It wasn’t my measurement and I was not because sodium hydroxide didn’t dissolve completely because it happened with all 3 batches. Do you know why? How can I solve this problem?
Thank you for your help
Cindy
@Cindy – If you like to use half water, half goat’s milk, then freeze the water and goat’s milk in ice cube trays, and add the lye to the frozen milk & water. Once all the milk & water is melted, you can add it to the oils and blend.
When I first made soap, no one told me that I should try regular cp before making goat’s milk soap.
So, I jumped in with both feet, and never looked back. Only when I got involved in some soaping sites, did I learn that goats milk soap was supposedly difficult. I’ve never had it burn the milk, I have had it turn it a bright yellow.
You can add the milk a little later in the process, by mixing the lye/water to the oils, hand stir for a few minutes, then add the milk. I’ve used this process and it seems to work well, though it will still heat up quite a bit.
@jett – Yep, I’ve done it that way too. By freezing the milk though, I can use all goat’s milk for the liquid portion of my soap and it won’t overheat. 🙂
I made a small batch of goatsmilk soap using this exact same method.. I poured it into my mold Saturday. It is now Monday and the soap is still very soft and oily on top. Will this harden, or did I mess something up..
@Donna – Hopefully it will harden. Keep an eye on it, and keep checking it!
I tried goatmilk oatmeal & honey a couple of weeks ago. I had only done Hot process as I am new to soap making and impatent to try my new creations! So I did cold process in the oven! Turned out like cookies! They smell like you could eat them ( I did not add fragrance)
The tops did turn out oily but I just wiped them off. They are pretty hard now, but I’m letting them cure for another week or so. I think the only hard part about it is being sure to add the lye slowly to the milk… and waiting! :o) I’m doing another batch today, along with a coconut milk one too!
@JulieB – If you use frozen milk, there’s no need to add the lye slowly, but you do have to stir as soon as the lye is added or it will form hard yellow lumps of undissolved lye.
Thanks – I might try this. I linked it to my soap project post too, for inspiration!
@Heather – Looks like you have all kinds of fun projects on your blog!! Thanks for the link!
Making soap at home is an easy and enjoyable way to get even more from your small farm..Thank you so much for this post cause I’ve done a great soap using this blog instruction…Thank you so much for this….
I use the same method as you. One question I have is how much pulverized rolled oats do you use per pound of soap? I made one batch with around 1 1/2 cups of pulverized oats to 2 1/2 pounds of soap – the bars stayed soft (almost like playdoh) even after sitting for 4 weeks. I’m pretty sure it was due to too much pulverized oats.
Thanks!
@Matt – You’re right – that sounds like too many oats! In my largest recipe (11 lbs. of oils), I only use 2 cups. The other thing is making sure you are using the old-fashioned oats, not the quick kind!
Thanks for the reply Amy! I used old fashioned oats and followed a recommendation on a website for the amount of oats – they were either way off on the amount or I read it wrong. Can’t find the site again to verify. Thank you for sharing how much you use!
One more question, what kind of soap molds do you like to use? My wife just got me an acrylic slab mold for Christmas. It holds 5lbs of soap. Just made my first batch with it yesterday. Will be un-molding today.
http://www.soap-making-resource.com/slab-soap-molds.html
@Matt – I use wooden log molds that my husband made. I can cut them to a more precise size than with a slab mold, and precision has suddenly become very important to me! 🙂
I’ve been making CP Soap for a while now, and always do fine UNTIL I try to make it with Goat’s Milk. So far, the only advice I have been given is to use half water / half milk, but I would like to use all milk.
My first attempt resulted in Alien Brains – milk got too hot with the lye and curdled. Now I freeze my milk as you mentioned above, the problem is I don’t think my mixture get’s warm enough and I have white spots as soon as I pour.
It’s not lye. I believe it’s stearic acid? Something from the mixture not getting warm enough. Any ideas?
I might try mixing my oils the night before. Although I use beeswax in my recipe (for hardness) so not sure how that will go…
@Melani – Can you reformulate your recipe without the beeswax & stearic acid? I don’t think melting your oils the night before is the answer if it’s not getting hot enough. My recipe is pretty large, but I’ve discovered that I can stir the lye solution quite awhile before it starts heating up, so I will stir until it reaches at least 80 degrees before adding it to the oils.
The stearic acid isn’t an ingredient I add – I was told that’s what it was. But my oils are heated to 80 degrees celcius to melt the beeswax, so I doubt that’s the problem. The beeswax is included to harden the bar because I don’t use Palm oil of any sort. Even prior to the beeswax however, I get these white spots when using goat’s milk.
I make about a 2kg batch, my Milk/Lye solution got to about 30 degrees celcius, my oils to 80. I let the oils cool to about 40-50 degrees (c) before adding in the milk/lye mixture. As soon as I pour though, there are the white spots.
They are firm too – like if you pluck out a ‘spot’, you can’t crush it in your fingers. But it’s not Lye as I don’t get a zap and there’s no grainy feeling to the milk/lye mixture when I stir.
@Melani – I have to admit I’m stumped. I make goat’s milk soap with just olive oil and it seems to work out ok, so it can’t be the lack of palm. But there must be something about your recipe that isn’t cooperating. I guess I would try leaving out the beeswax – increase the coconut for hardness and let the oils cool to 30 degrees celsius, so they are about the same temp as the lye solution when you combine them.
LOL, googling and I just came across one of your other posts that appears to have the same spots as mine!
http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog/index.php/so-disappointing/
The info in the comments was good. I’m 99% sure it has to do with the GM and Lye not mixing in properly. Will have to test some things tonight I think…
Ok, so now maybe we are getting somewhere!! I realized that I need to update this post because I have been gelling my goat’s milk soaps and stirring my lye solution a lot longer to make sure it’s fully dissolved and heated up to at least 80 degrees F / 30 C before adding it to the oils. I’m also using a silicone spatula when I stir the lye solution to make sure I’m scraping the edges of the container that I’m mixing it in really well. I haven’t had any trouble since I started doing this.
I hope that’s the answer you need!!
Going to give it another go this morning and stir for much longer, see if that helps!
Thanks SO much for the info!
You have one large mold there!! The soap looks so lovely…I bet it must be heavenly to use as well!!
@Nitya – Thank you for your comment! Yes, my husband made all my molds, so they are extra long. 🙂
Hi,the one thing i’m new to is gelling ….can u pls explain that gelling GM part.
@shillu – When soap goes through the process of becoming soap (saponification), the lye heats it up. If you mix up your soap and leave it in the mold, most of the time it will go through the gelling stage where the soap gets so hot, it turns translucent. You can help it do this by insulating it with towels or blankets. Or you can prevent it from heating up and going through gel stage by putting it in the refrigerator or freezer right after pouring.
When you say you insulate with towels, are you wrapping the towels around the outside of the mold or just laying it over the top? And I’m assuming that it is still covered with seran wrap right?
@Tammie – You can just lay some over the top, and yes, I use the plastic wrap first, then cover with the towel(s). The soap is naturally going to heat up, so it doesn’t take much to make sure it heats completely through.
I made a batch of soap using:
Olive oil
Palm oil
Coconut oil
Castor oil (at trace)
Goat’s milk
Honey mixed in a bit of filtered water
NO fragrances
I used silicone molds and did not cover or insulate.
When I unmolded my soaps, I found that the outside was a pretty
buttery color, but the inside was speckled. I took a picture of the outside of one loaf next to the inside of a cut loaf.
The photo can be seen here:
http://kidronsoap.com/goat_honey.jpg
Any advice would be appreciated.
@Stephen – I believe they are called “stearic spots” from the palm oil. If you don’t melt and stir your palm oil before measuring it out, the stearic acid can separate out. I quit using palm oil a long time ago and just use palm kernel oil to avoid this problem. There are a few suppliers who sell “no-stir” palm oil. I think it’s been hydrogenated though.
I use palm in all my soaps and if it were stearic spots, it would probably show up in another soap. It is interesting that the sides of the soap don’t have this speckle, just the inside, when I cut it.
Could it be because I add castor oil at trace or perhaps the honey or the fact that the molds are not insulated or covered?
@Stephen – Interesting. Could be the honey not getting stirred in completely or the soap not heating up, I suppose. You’ll just have to try another batch and make sure it’s stirred well and insulate. Let me know!
I have only made GM soap twice and both times the GM (frozen) turned a bright yellow when I added the lye. Is the GM scorched or is that normal? Thanks! 🙂
Angela
@Angela – No, it shouldn’t turn “bright” yellow. My lye solution sometimes discolors a little, but not that much. You might try adding the lye slowly and setting your goat’s milk in an ice water bath to keep it really cool. Or increasing the amount of goat’s milk to lye ratio.
Do you have a recipe for the goat’s milk, honey and oatmeal soap? How many bars does it make and do you use fresh goat’s milk or can you use store bought?
Thanks so much for all this info. I have goats and decided to try to make soap and this was such a help. Do have a question though, I can’t find a direct answer for this…How do you determine the size of the batch of soap you’re making? Is it the total of the oils and liquid, or is it the total of everything…oil, lye, liquid, fragrance, etc.??
@Debbie – You can use any soap recipe you wish and just substitute goat’s milk for the water, and add some oats & honey. I do prefer fresh, but canned works too.
@Jacque – I’ve never worried about it, actually. I just decided early on what size bars I wanted to make, then determined how many I wanted in a batch and had my hubby make my molds accordingly. There’s a formula for determining what size batch to make based on the size of your mold: Make sure to measure your mold in INCHES. Length of mold x Width of mold x Height of soap x .40 = ounces of oil needed.
We are milking a goat and have extra milk so I’m going to make goat milk soap. I have already bought all of my supplies and am waiting for my husband to make me a mold. I’ll let y’all know how mine turns out. It was a pleasure reading of the problems and solutions on this site.
do you add the lye powder to the frozen goats milk? or do you prepare the lye solution and add it.
@Dawn – Yes, I add the lye directly to the frozen goats milk without dissolving it first. Check out my YT video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC8GN1FAEBY
HI, love your goats milk recipe with oats! Going to definitely try it. I have made goats milk soap with the milk frozen in cubes and its turned out lovely. My question….how can you determine if your goats milk got scorched? A certain color , or smell. Mine turned a bit orange the last time and I wondered if it was scorched. ?
thanks for any help, Anna
@Anna – It’s not all that uncommon for the lye solution to turn a bit orange or start getting an ammonia smell. If the soap turns out the way you wanted, then I’d say it’s fine! It may turn the soap a bit darker, but I don’t think it causes any more damage than that. If it turns BRIGHT orange, you’ve probably scorched it!
I would like to use wood lye. How do you know how much liquid/lye solution to use with a specific gravity of 1.25 when making this into goat milk?
Can you do this same process with sheep’s milk as well? How would that turn out?