Teach Soap

hi all. I have tried honey, goats milk and beeswax soap again and it has cracked all the way across the top!!! My recipe was 1kg coconut oil, 600g, of pomace olive oil, 380g of palm oil and 40g of beeswax. I added the goats milk to some of the olive oil taken from all the oils before heating. I heated oils to 145degrees and then added beeswax to melt it. I lowered temp to 120 degrees then added a small amount of the melted oils to 4 tbspns of honey and mixed. I mixed the honey and oil mixture back into the heated oils and stick blended. At 120 degrees I mixed the lye and oils and at very light trace I added the goats milk/oil mixture. I did not cover the soap as the last time I covered it, it went very dark and smelled of cookies! Please help

First off, have you tried freezing the goat's milk and using it as your liquid amount instead? It's very simple to do. I've never heard of the method you used for adding the milk, so I can't comment on if that is correct or not. Secondly, I would soap at around 100 degrees or less. With honey, mix it with some room temp water before adding it to your batch at 1tsp per pound of oils. Don't insulate, I wouldn't even use a wooden mold personally, and you could try the fridge if it looks to be getting too hot. I just cover mine with some cling wrap until it starts to get warm or gel a little, and then uncover it. My first batch I actually put in front of and under a fan and it still gelled haha.

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Laura<3

Thanks Gladly. I got the recipe from aboutsoap.com. I was worried how goats milk and honey would react so looked up on there how to use honey and goats milk and beeswax. I used the beeswax because my last batch did not have it in and it had no smell, someone said to use the beeswax to get a scent. My goats milk is powdered as I cannot get fresh goats milk wth an msds. I have used a wooden mold but it is huge as my husband made it for me. It's about 1.5 metres long so could not go in fridge

Honey and goat's milk both have natural sugars which can make the soap overheat. I use beeswax in pretty much every batch and the scent does not come through.

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

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Laura<3

would beeswax be good to use in all other cp soaps as I have had soda ash on nearly every soap I have made? I only use olive oil, palm amd coconut oil so far. I have not been brave enough to change the basic recipe yet Gladly ha ha!! I use a large amount of coconut oil so which is hardening so may have to rethink amounts, would you recommend a basic recipe? or is it just a case of play around?

Play around with smaller batches til you find a recipe that you like. For me, beeswax helps prevent ash.

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

I agree with Irena, until you get the goat's milk to work the way you want it to, I would make smaller batches. 2lb batches are good. Save your supplies! You can cut a piece of wood or cardboard that you can fit into your existing mold to partition off a smaller cavity if you have no other molds.

And that recipe sounds good, it's what I started with in equal parts, plus castor, and probably a lot of other soapers too. Should make a hard bar with good lather.

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Laura<3

trying to upload a photo but it just keeps saying my file is too large. I am going to the bottom of the page where it says upload file and clicking browse, adding photo, it tells me it is uploading and then nothing is happening!

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

I often make goat milk and honey soaps; adding beeswax raises the initial temp a bit, as do the sugars in the milk and honey (as others noted). In addition to freezing the goat milk, I would put the mold in the freezer before pouring, and maybe into the fridge afterwards. All the sugars made it overheat, and it might help.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have tried to put pics up but I am not that technically minded. I do not have a flicker account as I know someone suggested in anothr thread to put them on there. I thought I would just be able to upload straight onto here.