Teach Soap

I keep goats, so I have LOTS of goats milk. I'm wondering if I've been doing it wrong all this time, by just substituting goat milk for water? Is that an acceptable swap in soap recipes? All my soaps have turned out pretty good so far... I use them and they work very well. Other people love them too.

The reason I'm asking is because I've recently seen some people selling goat milk soap, but it has water as an ingredient. Is there a reason to add water to a goat milk soap recipe? Maybe to off set some discoloration or something? Perhaps because they're using powdered goat milk? (although once you mix it with water, it's goat milk so why would you list it as water?) I'm confused.

Just looking for different ideas on why I would want to add water, and if I should be doing it.

Thanks!
Deb

Yes you can sub all milk for the water. Be aware that due to the natural sugars in the milk, it can make your soap overheat. Most people freeze their milk, then add the lye slowly. It can have an ammonia like smell when the soap is poured, but that should go away as the soap cures.

I dissolve my lye in minimum water required, then add the rest as goat milk. I get a lighter color soap this way.

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

Thank you! I think I'll try using water to disolve the lye this time. I always freeze the goat milk, actually, I have to store it in the freezers since I have so much, so it's all ready frozen.

I'm jealous. I've been making soap for 10 years and I haven't been able to make milk soap using the milk-in-lye method! So congrats to you! Mine always smells like sour milk when I try.

You can try it with water if that floats your boat...but if your way is working for you, I'd stick to it!

My usual way is to use slushy, frozen goat milk. I put my lye mixing, plastic pitcher in a large bowl with ice and some water that is as deep as the milk. Then, v e r y s l o w l y add some of the lye. Stir it in until it dissolves then let it sit in the ice and cool, then go back and slowly add a bit more lye, and so on till all the lye is in. I figured out if I let it cool down to at least 75 between pouring in the bits of lye, it's easy not to let it get too hot. I don't let the temp of the milk/lye mixture go over 110. That's how I do it anyway. It keeps the milk a light color and doesn't burn the sugar.

I dissolved the lye in some water today, and it was a faster process, very easy! I'll let you know how I like the results tomorrow.

Goats milk soap was my very first soap I made, because I had a goat

I did the substitution for water with frozen milk every time. My bars came out a soft vanilla, which to me looked like a natural way of coloring, so I liked it.
Now I live near the city and am desperately trying to find someone with goat milk!!!

Goat milk soap was my first, too, and I love it. In my research I found two seemingly dependable ways to make it without scorching- mix the lye with water first, keep the lye/water vessel in an ice bath, and add the milk after the lye/water has cooled down. The other was pretty much what you do- adding lye to frozen goat milk, so that's probably why you've had such success.

I've been doing the water/ice bath way, but I froze a bunch of goat milk the other day and I'm going to try that way next. My goat milk soap has turned out awesome with the ice bath (I don't even use ice because our ice maker is broken, I just use cold water). I've used it in every batch I've made until today... and today's batch was the first flop I've had. So maybe I'll stick to milk soaps...