Teach Soap

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. I have chosen to spend mine soaping (yay!).

I tried my first batch of milk soap today. I used frozen unsweetened coconut milk and added the lye to the mixture as it sat in an ice bath. I added it very slowly and never let the temp get above 80 degrees. It was an interesting experience - I was suprised at how thick it got, but I suppose is because of the fat content in the milk. My question is this....

I don't want my soap to overheat, should I insulate or not?

Thanks - Traci

When I made my goat milk soap I was worried about it overheating so I didn't insulate. But the soap only gelled on the bottom and definitely wasn't even close to overheating. I wish I had insulated it now because the partial gel left the bottom of my soap a darker color than the non-gelled tops. So it would have been nice to have even color.

I also soaped at a higher temp than what the tutorials said. 90 degrees seemed too low to me and I didn't want to get a false trace. I did 100-110 degrees with frozen milk and didn't do an ice bath. It seems to me that if you use frozen milk you are fine and can soap at higher temps (atleast with my experience so far). I'm also not sure what the differences are between coconut milk and goat milk. However, some people have trouble with overheating, it's good to be safe and either monitor your soap closely after insulating it or don't insulate and see what happens and adjust things for the next time. Good luck!

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)

I don't insulate any milk soaps.

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

I make my milk soaps in a wood mold and I want them to gel, so I cover my mold with a lid but check it often to make sure that it's not overheating. If it looks like it is gelling too quickly I'll put it in the fridge.

I don't think coconut milk has the fat content of goat's milk or cow's milk, but it does have sugars that will cause the soap to heat up.

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

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the input!

Would you be able to let us know if you could smell the coconut milk in the final soap? i.e. any lingering sweet scent or?? (and if it gelled or not too)

I've always been curious about this!

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Hi Traci - this is good to know! Thanks!

I love it when the smell of the natural ingredients comes through. I did a milk and honey soap with oatmeal a couple months ago and it has a faint, sweet smell that I just love. No FOs or EOs at all! So I can imagine the coconut milk might just add to that sweet smell. Yum! I might have to try this!

Where did you buy the coconut milk? I've looked in the dairy section where almond milk/goats milk is (in cartons) but the coconut milk I've found there has a bunch of other stuff added to it. Thinking the "pure" stuff must be in a can or something... I've heard you can buy it in the Asian section of the grocery store.

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Huh, I've never even thought to look for coconut milk in the dairy area -- probably comes of being raised around Asian food XD The stuff I use for cooking does come in cans, large and small depending on how much you need. Interesting point on the purity, though, now I'm feeling the need to go look (and I'm stuck at work at the moment).

Amazon to the rescue! is a common brand hereabouts but apparently it has preservatives in it. So does , another brand I see pretty commonly. There are organic brands, though, without artificial preservatives.

I've actually got some powdered coconut milk that I have yet to use in soap Soon!

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

Hi Karri and Jenova,

I ordered my Coconut milk from Amazon because it was cheaper than what Whole Foods could offer. The brand (which is also offered at Whole Foods) is Thai Kitchen Pure Coconut Milk. The ingredients are Coconut Milk, Water, Guar Gum. I understand Guar Gum to be a thickener. This was as close to 'pure' as I could get.

Here's the link if you would like to check it out...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GZSDZI

Here's a link to a picture of the soap. I haven't figured out how to load a pic here yet.
http://s1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd509/SavonArts/

Karri - I completely agree about the scent. In fact, I think I'm going to try again but this time with blueberry oil and a blueberry puree. I'm told that blueberry oil smells like blueberry pie so I'm hoping that will remain in cold process soap. I just placed my order so it will be a bit before I can try it but I'm siked!

Traci

I'll have to check Superstore for that brand of coconut milk as they have an extensive Asian section. I have a feeling Amazon won't ship to me here in Canada...

Blueberry oil seems to really vary in price ... where did you order from? I didn't even know there was such a thing. On the NDA site there are very mixed reviews regarding its use in soap. Hmm, but geez it would be nice to find something that offers that sweetness to the scent. One person said it discolored her soap but another said it didn't! Weird.

Oh the possibilities! Do any of you have a tougher time just deciding WHICH/WHAT recipe to make? I find that harder than actually making the soap! LOL.

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Hi Karri - I found blueberry seed oil at the following locations.

From Nature with Love - $93.75 per 8 oz
Botanicoil - $68.00 per 8 oz
Lotioncrafters for $37.50 per 8 oz

We'll see what happens. I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

Traci

PS - here is an interesting article about using fruit seed oils in soap
http://www.naturalbeautyworkshop.com/my ... berry.html

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

Karri, I buy my canned coconut milk at Walmart in the Mexican food section.

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