Teach Soap

Hi, I just tried making a batch of goat milk soap for the first time.

I didn't use any water, just added my lye straight to the goat milk.
Gave it a stir and left it to cool but when i checked on it a few minutes
later it had caked up. The lye and goat milk was thick, I managed to break it up a bit
but there were still lumps in it. I thought that when I added it to the oils and blended it
with the stick blender it would get the lumps for sure. However, when i poured it into
the molds there were several large chunks of lye/goat milk. I am not sure how that soap
would turn out. Do you think the necessary chemical reactions have taken place or would
there still be lye in my soap?
Let me know what you guys think, did I make a good batch of soap here or would i have to trash it?

sharon

from what I have gathered from this board you should freeze your goats milk and add the lye slowly or else you could scorch your milk. To me it sounds like it curdled or something but hopefully someone who has made GM soap will answer.

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<3 SoapyJoes

Sounds like there's a rebatch in your future.

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

Sorry to say, it sounds like you scorched the milk. It gets very hot when mixed in with the lye. If you freeze the milk to slush, then add the lye a little at a time, and have your jar in cold water/ice mixture, you can keep it from happening again. For this pour, it may be salvageable by rebatching it, but I think I would just toss and try again.
Sorry it happened to you!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

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

Thank you for sharing.

Was hoping i could at least rebatch, not sure what to expect when i uncover the molds....
Will definitely follow the advice given on my next attempt.

sharon

For my first batchs of goats milk I did 50\50. Mixed the lye in distilled water let it dissolve and then added the very chilled or frozen goats milk. Example: so if I was using 4 oz of lye I would use 4 oz of distilled water. The rest of the liquid the recipe calls for would be the goats milk.... added to the dissolved lye if I am looking for a creamy tan soap or to the cooled oils or lye if I want it lighter colored. I did this for awhile until I got somewhat used to working with the milks.

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

[quote="Bubbles2"]For my first batchs of goats milk I did 50\50. Mixed the lye in distilled water let it dissolve and then added the very chilled or frozen goats milk. Example: so if I was using 4 oz of lye I would use 4 oz of distilled water. The rest of the liquid the recipe calls for would be the goats milk.... added to the dissolved lye if I am looking for a creamy tan soap or to the cooled oils or lye if I want it lighter colored. I did this for awhile until I got somewhat used to working with the milks.[/quote}]



Thank you for sharing. Would give it a try, sounds simple enough for a newbee like me

sharon

Am I understand you correctly? You add frozen milk to the lye? That is unsafe is it not? My understanding is that you always add the lye to the liquid NOT the other way around or you can get the big volcano ....

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Never add any liquid (whether frozen or not) to the lye. Always add lye to the liquid. Think of snow falling on the lake.

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

Wow - I went back over my notes since at this time I do either all milk or all water (or snow). What I did was several trials: 1. Added slushy goats milk or nearly frozen milk after mixing lye with water and allowing to cool. 2. Adding warmed milk to my warm oils before lye, 3. Adding milk to the lye and oil mixure before trace (did not like this one).
So option # 1 is incorrect? If I was to do partial milk soap it was the one that turned out the best I had read in the "Soapmakers Companion" book that it could be done this way.
I'm not sure why but I thought the lye volcano came from pouring liquid on the NAOH granules?
I really do not want anyone to get hurt - then the only choices are full milk or dilute it up front (but what would be the point of that?)

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

Bubbles, my understanding has always been that you put all your milk or half milk/half water, whatever you have for liquid, then add part of the lye very slowly, mix, allow to cool off if you need to, then more lye, more stirring, more cooling if needed, then more lye on and on and on and on until it is all mixed in. So, yes you can have a half milk half water or what ever percentage you want, but you add the lye to it.
It also helps to have the liquid container sitting down in the sink with cold water and even some ice to help keep the lye from getting too hot and scorching the milk. And, yes, a volcano can happen when the lye crystals are hit with the water, which is why you always add the lye to the liquid, not the other way around.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I must say most of what I do I learnt here...so I went back in a search and there are past posts that said to mix the lye into the water, allow to cool and add the milk and I was able to verify this in a recommended book on soap making which is why I tried it that way. I have never added any liquid into the crystals! My lye container is always in my sink, in a bucket. Sometimes I ice sometimes I don't. Just wanted to clarify but it is a mute point because as I stated I now use only all milk or all water. Wait... I did add liquid to lye in the past.... remember when we used to pour lye into the drain and let it sit for 20 minutes then flush with cold water? Don't do that now

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

So when I unveiled my soap it was a dark caramel color.
And when I sliced it, it had much lighter colored lumps within.

I'm pretty sure I scorched the goats milk but wasn't sure what that meant
for my batch of soap which by the way I made only for my family and not for sale.
Did the milk lose its beneficial properties?? Was the lumps present because the chemical
reaction had not taken place and my soap still had lye??? Was the lumps just curdled milk??
I did not know...

So I did some research and found out that the dark caramel color was most likely from
the honey (burnt sugars). And those light colored lumps, well those are the fats from the milk, already
converted to soap in the lye/milk container, way before being added to the oils. The author
stated that she thinks the nutrients of the goats milk gets "eaten up by the lye monster anyhow"
so not much is usually left at the end of the process. It seems that my block of soap is all soap...
with a peculiar color pattern... So since it's just aesthetics I decide to leave it as it is...

What do u think???

Sharon

If those lumps are fats from the goat's milk, there is a small chance that your soap could be lye heavy. How much did you superfat?

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