Teach Soap

Hi everyone,
Have been reading this forum for a while and finally joined! I have made a few batches of soap and have gotten to the point that I don't need to look at the directions every 5 minutes I have tried milk soap and haven't been so lucky, i think i am adding my lye too quickly. Which brings me to my question can you use a milk soap recipe and use water instead? I have read that you can do it the other way( milk instead of water) but didn't know if you needed any adjustments. If anyone could help I would appreciate it. Thanks to everyone who posts and to all the great answers.

Hi Maine -

I am by no means an expert. Just started making soap not too long ago myself. If you enter your oils into a lye calculator, it will tell you how much lye & water to use. I use a calculator from this website: www.thesage.com It's the easiest one for me to use.

Yes, you can use a milk soap recipe and just use water instead.

However, if you do want to use milk - what problems are you having? Maybe we can help you troubleshoot your way through it.

Personally, when using all milk as my liquid, I freeze the milk first and then add the lye slowly. It prevents scorching that way.

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You can use minimum water to dissolve the lye, then add the rest as milk after the lye cools off.

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

That is how I made my recent batch. split my liquid amount 50/50...water gets the lye and just before I mix both oils and solution I add my frozen milk to the lye. this was able to bring down my lye solution temperature down a lot faster. Having an ice water bath helps too!

oh....we were just alking about this on another forum <gasp>

you can use any liquid as the water portion of your recipe without adjusting your lye calculation. The extra fats in the liquid of choice will just add that much more goodness to your soap.

You can use aloe juice, heavy cream, goat milk, coconut milk, yogurt, beer, wine, rain water, sea water, buttermilk, sweetened condensed milk.....the possibilities are really endless!

when I use GM as my liquid at 100%, I weigh it out ahead of time and freeze it in a gallon zip lock bag. Lay the bag flat in the freezer that you you have sort of a thin "plank" of frozen goat's milk. Then when I'm about to make it, I let it sit out a few minutes, then slam it on the counter a few times to break it up into a chunky slushy sort of thing...... then add the lye to it a little at a time and stir stir stir.......

or like someone said too, you can add your lye to enough water to dissolve it completely, and once that's cooled off, you can add the remaining weight of liquid with your milk.

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Steph
www.cajuncauldron.com

Thanks everyone for the helpful hints. I think my problem with milk soap is that I am adding the milk to quickly to the lye(at least i think from reading other posts). The recipe I used called for powdered milk, mix that with half the water and the lye with the other half then add the milk to the lye. Everything looked okay but as it cured it turned a DARK peanut butter color and is kind of tacky and developed a layer of ash all around the bars. I used a wood mold with plexi-glass dividers could that have caused the ash? I have been using the soap and its fine but not something I would sell, at least I wouldn't buy it. Anyway glad to know I can use water instead. I have some great oil combo recipes that I am dying to try but don't want to risk the milk episode again. Sorry for the lengthy post

You could add the reconstituted milk at a light trace and don't let it gel.

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

That dark color is probably the sugars in the milk carmelizing - if you control the temps of the lye solution, using one of the methods people have suggested, the color will stay lighter. If you use soapbuddy's method to avoid gel, that will keep the color light, too.

_________________
http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com