Teach Soap

Hi everyone I was just wondering how people make their goats milk soap, do you let it go to gel stage or not???
I have not made any soaps as yet, (still getting things together) and I want to make all my soaps with goats milk and dont know the best way to go about making it.
Thanks
also (stupid question) how can you tell when CP soap is fully gelled??

I would make a 1 lb. basic recipe first, before you start to add anything else. It will give you a better idea on what a trace is, how the soap behaves and when insulated, how it goes into gel. Take a look at Miller Soap for more info. http://www.millersoap.com/#Soap Contents

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

Thanks for the info.

I make my standard recipe and just sub 100% milk for the water. I start with half of the GM frozen in cubes and the other half liquid. I s-l-o-w-l-y add the lye. This process takes about 3 to 4 minutes....a little at a time. I use either a 9 or 18 bar mold.

While I'm mixing, I preheat the oven to the lowest setting (mine is 175 F). Once it's preheated, I turn it off. After pouring into the mold I cover with a towel and stick it in the oven. This typically forces a gel. I'm usually able to unmold within about 3 to 4 hours after gel....which comes in handy when I'm in production mode preparing for a big show or craft fair.

Of course forgetting to turn off the oven....or making it too hot could be disastrous and I'm sure a lot of folks here would recommend against doing this. My molds are hard plastic so I was pretty nervous trying this for the first time. This works great for me and I like the translucency of the bars opposed to when it doesn't gel. If I don't gel then it's usually 48 hours before I can even think about unmolding. I'm not that patient.

One other thing if you haven't made your first batch yet......

Try a couple batches with water first. After you have your methodology down....then try the goat's milk. Even then I'd do a 50/50 mix with GM & water. If you "dump" the lye into the goat's milk all at once you're be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

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

Thanks all for your help, i'll defanetly try the CPOP method to force it ti gel, I'm a bit impatient sometimes so I think that method of soap making may be perfect for me.
Once the soap has reached full gel should it be taken out of the oven or should you just turn the oven off?
Thanks again

After full gel, I would take it out so it doesn't overheat. People do turn the oven off and leave it in there til it cools off.

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

A point to make:

I turn off the oven as soon as I put the soap in. Then leave it in there until it cools down. I usually do the "touch" test several hours later. If it's hard to the touch....and cool, then I start pulling out the dividers and start unmolding.

Again....and this is where you take that grain of salt Do yourself a favor and start with water instead of goat's milk and use a simple recipe. There's a lot of factors that can easily get out of control. Make a few practice batches before jumping into it with the milk. Learn what "trace" should look like and how long it takes to get there. Get your methodology down first before trying milk.

Good luck and post some pictures when you're through.

Thanks so much, I'll be trying mt first few without the goats milk and they'll be unscented and uncoloured as I have learnt that some EO's and FO's can acellerate trace, and if I dont have everything ready to go when that happens I'm stuffed! I'll definately post some pictures when I finally get around to getting all my oils, things just keep coming up
Thanks again for all your advice

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1522&start=0&hilit=goatmilk+soap



See if this link works--- more goatmilk soap info

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You may be only one person to the world, but you may also be the world to one person

If I don't want to gel goatmilk soap, how long should it stay in the fridge? I've split a 1 lb batch - 10 oz in the fridge, 6 oz CPOP with the light on. This is my first attempt at nongel. The recipe does NOT have honey and is mostly olive with a TB of sugar added. The molds are small round tubes like a Crystal light container. Thanks!

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

I personally don't gel but goat's milk is tricky so I agree practice with a simple recipe first.

Hi guys thanks for all your advice, just got a couple questions
- Do any of you use castor oil in your soaps? I was looking at putting 10% in my soap but have read that castor oil is not recomended for use during pregnancy, will this little ammount be dangerous???? Also I dont know where to purchase it from.
_ And when making Goats milk soap at what percentage should you superfat, does it differ from normal due to the fat in the milk?
Thanks