Teach Soap

I've made crockpot soap before, but I've made a few mistakes. For one, I shouldn't have made soap with only coconut oil. The soap was weird and greasy. Another mistake I made was not using a stick blender. I thought stirring with my wooden spoon would do the trick. Anyway, I ended up with greasy, lumpy soap that I've been too scared to use.

But you live and learn, right? I mean, that's probably not a rule you wanna live by when handling caustic materials, but at least I know what not to do.

So I've got my own recipe using brambleberry's lye calculator (Olive oil, coconut oil, and cocoa butter). I want to use buttermilk as my liquid. I want a creamy soap and I want a cream color, and I've read that's what buttermilk is supposed to give. I'm hesitant to use it; will it spoil? I've heard of people using spoiled milk in their products and not having problems with it, but I want to make sure I'm not about to waste money.

If anyone has a resource on using milk in soap, or other dairy products, or even other liquids, could you post a link? Thank you!

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You've got that James Dean, day dream, look in your eyes


And I've got that red lip, classic, thing that you like.

I have used many dairy products in soap with no problems. Unless you prevent gel, the soap will be more like light honey color to light brown. Milk in soap saponifies, so it's no longer just milk once the soap is made and cured. You definitely need a stick blender to emulsify the oils and lye. I use coconut oil in my soaps, but I don't go above 20%. Anything higher my skin finds drying. I have never had a milk soap go bad.

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

Thank you! I didn't think it would sour, since it's a chemical reaction and the final product isn't milk/dairy, but I just wanted to make sure.

What other dairy products have you used? Are the amounts directly interchangeable? I've read with milk and water they are, but what about sour cream?

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You've got that James Dean, day dream, look in your eyes


And I've got that red lip, classic, thing that you like.

I've tried buttermilk, yogurt and sour cream. I dissolved the lye in minimum water required, then added the rest as the dairy product.

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

How do you figure out the minimum water to use? I put my recipe in a different calculator and I got 5 to 7 ounces of liquid needed, so would 5 be the minimum water amount?

I'm so excited to try this recipe, haha. I might do part buttermilk and part coconut milk for the milk portion of the liquid. That way I can have a nice lather

_________________
You've got that James Dean, day dream, look in your eyes


And I've got that red lip, classic, thing that you like.

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

You mentioned gelling earlier. Can I still gel with the milk? Or is it only a certain amount of milk I can use to do the gelling without burning?

_________________
You've got that James Dean, day dream, look in your eyes


And I've got that red lip, classic, thing that you like.

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

Thank you for your help! I really hope this turns out!

_________________
You've got that James Dean, day dream, look in your eyes


And I've got that red lip, classic, thing that you like.

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