Teach Soap

Ok, so I'm going to try to make some milk soap. Can someone pls confirm that I use the same amount of milk as I would water to make the lye solution? In other words, whatever the lye calculator says, according to the weight or % or specific oils and butters I am using, I use the same amount of lye and only substitute an equal amount of milk for the water? The reason I ask is b/c intuitively it seems like the saponification might require a little more lye to eat up all the lipids, fats, and sugars in the milk, as compared to using water.

You do use the same amount of milk as you would water, the only difference is that you should freeze the milk so the natural sugars won't burn.

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Anna Rose @-}--
blog

Freeze the milk? I have not seen that in any of my recipes. I think I found the technique u r talking about on SoapQueen. Very interesting. Thank you. Do you know if it has to been (raw, i assume) goat's milk or does any regular pasteurized and homogenized milk from the grocery store work?

Any milk will work.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I've made one recipe with goat's milk, so I'm certainly no expert, but freezing to a slush consistency first really helped. Add your lye a little bit at a time. I did about two tablespoons at a time, stirred, waited a few minutes and added another couple tablespoons until the lye was dissolved. I also put my lye pitcher in a cold water bath while mixing the lye with milk. All of that helps to keep the milk/lye cool enough that the sugars in the milk don't caramelize and turn an orange-brown color. If you have a laser or candy thermometer, keep track of your temps so you know what to expect next time you make a milk soap. Mine worked out great and I had no problem with overheating even with CPOP. Taking your time with the milk gives you plenty of time to heat/melt your oils and get your colorants and other additives ready too.

I think Irena (soapbuddy) treats her milks a bit differently. She mixes her lye solution with half the liquid amount as water, and then adds the other half of the liquid as milk when she mixes with the oils. (Irena, please chime in here and correct me if I'm wrong!) Some people treat powdered milks as an additive kind of like clays. It's one of those things you'll need to experiment with your own recipes and see what works best for you, but that's the fun of soaping.

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Jennifer
Doing my best to blow up my kitchen. In style!

There are quite a number of ways you could make goats milk soap and how you do it could depend on the look you want, the availability of goats milk. After that it comes down to trial and error as to which technique you like.
Most of the time I use powdered goats milk that I reconstitute and add to my warm oils just before I add the lye water. Powdered milk is easy to store and use.

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

I use powdered milk most of the time and just stick blend the powder into my liquid oils before adding the lye water. If I use fresh milk, I do as JennyBee said and mix the lye into slushy frozen milk. There are a lot of techniques and what works for one soaper doesn't always work for another.

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

Since it's today and I'm reading this. I'd get the milk ready by freezing it. pour it into ice cube trays so you have small bits to work with and more surface to cover. therefore you also have more area to spread the lye onto. With milk soaps it's best not to plunk the whole measured amount of lye on one spot. therefore eliminating burning, scorching the milk. You want it to stay as white as possible an that means lowest temp. yes, this process takes more patience for sure.

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~~~Cheryl~~~

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If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane
~Jimmy Buffett

Linda, how do you know how much powdered milk to add? I saw the Soap Queen tutorial and need to get a ice cube mold for the milk. I'm going to try it soon. My latest first and only batch of salt bars just came out great. I'm adding salt to everything from now on. How does salt affect milk bars, anybody know?

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~~~Cheryl~~~

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

Lovegreyhounds, I used to live in Florida too and know it can be humid there. I also love Greyhounds too. Not as much as German Shepherds but they are sweet dogs that need to be rescued. But back to topic, I usually superfat at 5% anyway.

Thank you Linda for the directions using the powdered milk.

JennyBee, thanks for typing all that out. I saw this method you described in the Soap Queen TV milk video. Thanks everyone for answering.