Teach Soap

Ok so I have been reading up on goats milk. I *think* I have an idea on what to expect but i want to get a few things cleared up before I attempt.

1) Do I need to freeze the milk or can a water bath be enough? And If i freeze it, is it just solid little cubes or what?

2) I've been reading on the forum about using half milk and half water, does that make it easier to handle? does this effect the over all soap in anyway?

3) How do I work out the bare minimum of water and added the remaining milk at trace? this is the bit that I'm stumped with. The calculator i work with workes out water at 38%, so thats what i have left it at, so yeah, bit confused about 'bare minimum of water'.

Thank you, sure I'll have a few more questions soon enough

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Watch out! I have discovered the magical world of CP

"Founding member of Facebook's "Australia & New Zealand Melt & Pour Soapers"

There are different ways of working with goat's milk. The easiest is to buy powdered goat's milk, and add it to the oils at any point in the process (without rehydrating).

I've also used liquid goat's milk, and frozen it solid, using 100% goat's milk for water. Sprinkle lye on cubes, which will slowly melt. It works fine. I didn't bother with an ice bath or anything; the container was just in the sink.

You could also discount the water, then add the liquid goat's milk to the soap "batter" to amke up the discounted liquid. I haven't done that, because the other two worked fine for me.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
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Here is what I have done. Please note all of my goats milk soaps are golden to cream colored. The only time I have had one overheat is when I added a spice FO to it.

Liquid: if I use ALL goats milk I am doing so because I want that yellowish orange color it will give me... then I will either use it very cold... chilled in the freezer for a short time or frozen in cubes -this is because I had left over milk from another batch and wanted to preserve it).
If I want just a cream color, I will mix my lye in an equal weight of distilled water. I add my goats milk - amount of liquid that I still need for the recipe- into my melted, cooled oils. Then the lye water gets added at the appropriate time.
So if my recipe calls for 8.2 oz of lye, I will add it to 8.2 oz water. My recipe (0% water discount) calls for 20.6 oz of liquid, so I would then use 12.4 oz of goats milk to my oils.

As for the 0% water discount, well I am still working with the soap maker 3 program to get me back to what I had been using, which was 36-38% water when I used soap calc. This part of the soaping equation did not fit in my head for some reason. So do not think you need to do a 0% water discount!

Powdered: I use all of my liquid as distilled water to mix my lye: add 1 scoop powdered goats milk PPO and blend it into my cooled off oils before the lye water goes in. I went to the powdered because of the ease of storing (I have tooooo much in my freezer as it is). I have not noticed a difference in the two types of goats milk. Also note that I still get a cream colored soap with the powdered unless I do something different with adding other coloring.

You are probably going to get alot of different styles, so then you will just need to experiment and see what works best for you. We all have gone through that phase. I know this is the the system I started with. +

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I dissolve the lye in minimum water required. Let the lye cool. Then I add the rest as room temp milk. This has worked for me the best.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

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Watch out! I have discovered the magical world of CP

"Founding member of Facebook's "Australia & New Zealand Melt & Pour Soapers"

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Thank you for answering the question Linda. I've been busy with inventory today.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

_________________
Watch out! I have discovered the magical world of CP

"Founding member of Facebook's "Australia & New Zealand Melt & Pour Soapers"

You're welcome!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!