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Do you want to start making your own goat milk soap? Or maybe you are just curious on how exactly homemade goat milk soap is made. Some people 'cheat' and use melt and pour soap base to make their soap but the way that I am going to walk you through is by using the cold-process method. I will be using a simple recipe and tea tree essential oil. You can change the essential oil but just do some research because some essential oils make the soap reach trace (will explain more later) faster and if you are not prepared for that you could have problems. Also, if you need to sub oils (like you do not have one or allergic to one) be sure to check the recipe thorough a soap calculator. There are many online calculators that can help. We do sell our homemade goat milk soap online in our soap shop. Check it out!
First off, you want to make sure that you have everything you need for making soap... before you begin. I have started measuring out my ingredients and then realized that I did not have one of the oils that I needed so I had to change recipes and re-measure my ingredients. So, lesson learned! Be sure you have everything. Here is a list of the items you will need to make this recipe.
Recipe:
Oils and Butters:
270 grams Coconut Oil
72 grams Shea Butter
360 grams Olive Oil
126 grams Rice Bran Oil
72 grams Caster Oil
Lye Solution:
127 grams Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)
256 grams Goat Milk (Frozen)
Essential Oil:
30 grams Essential Oil (I used Tea Tree)
Other Items needed:
Scale (soap is made by measuring the weight of ingredients, grams is most common)
Digital thermometer
Soap mold
1 gallon ice cream bucket (or something similar)
Small #5 plastic dish to measure lye (or stainless steel)
Larger #5 plastic dish for goat milk and lye mixture (or stainless steel)
2 spoons or spatulas (heavy plastic)
Large stainless steel bowl to mix all ingredients together
Pot to use as a double boiler to melt oils
Small plastic dish to measure oils (I use an old cool whip dish)
Small glass jar to measure essential oil
Hand Blender
2. Getting set up. I like to set up my space on the kitchen table (it is an old table and it does not matter if the lye gets on it and causes damage because it already looks bad...we normally have a table cloth on it). I set up my ice, goat milk, and lye on the one side and the oils on the other. I like to set out each oil that I need for the particular recipe that I am using and put them away as I use them so I do not forget one or put one in twice.
3. Measure your frozen goat's milk in a #5 plastic dish.
4. Put ice and cold water in the ice cream bucket or dish that you will be using for the ice bath.
5. Put on gloves, safety glasses and long sleeves and be sure that no young children or animals are around when working with lye. Turn on a fan or make sure there is good ventilation where you are working.
6. Measure out your lye into a separate #5 plastic dish.
7. Put your goat milk dish into the ice bath and sprinkle in a little lye onto the goat milk ice cubs and stir. The lye will heat up the milk and cause it to melt. I sprinkle the lye in about 5 or more times, mixing in-between each sprinkle for a few minutes. This part is time consuming but remember to take your time because the colder you keep your milk the lighter color your soap will turn out to be. Once your goat's milk is completely melted see what temperature the milk is at with your digital thermometer. Mine is normally in the high 50s to low 60s. If it is in the 50s or lower I take it out of ice bath and set aside.
8. Fill your pot for the double boiler with warm water and put on low heat on the stove.
9. Now, it is time to measure the oils. I measure my coconut oil directly into my stainless steel pot and place on stove to melt. I measure my Shea butter in my old cool whip dish and then add to coconut oil on stove and stir occasionally until it is completely melted. Once completely melted remove from heat and place on table.
10. Next, I measure out each of my other oils separately into the cool whip dish and add one at a time stirring each time. So, do the Olive Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Caster Oil, and Essential Oil (some people will wait to add their essential oil until after they add the goat milk but I normally do it before I add the goat milk and lye solution). Check the temperature. I like mine in the 90s to add my goat milk and lye solution. You might have to wait a little for the oils to cool. From my experience and from what I have researched the closer your goat milk temperature and oil temperature is the quicker they will reach trace.
11. Now you are ready for the real fun! Carefully pour the goat milk lye solution into the oils. Don't splash! Then, grab your hand blender and blend for a few seconds, stop and hand mix a few seconds, then blend again for a few seconds. Continue blending and hand mixing until you reach trace. WAIT! What is TRACE? It is when the consistency of the soap is slightly thick. If you take your blender out of the mixture and it drips and leaves a mark on the top of the mixture it is at trace. It is like the consistency of pudding.
12. Once you reach trace you are ready to pour your soap into the mold. Be sure to scrape the bowl and blender clean. You want all you can get! Smooth out the top of the soap in the mold or make a patter or design on the top.
13. I place my soap in the freezer for a few hours (or more...I forgot to take it out once or twice) and then place in a safe spot for 24 hours to let the process of the soap complete and get hard.
14. After 24 hours you can take your soap out of the mold and cut. Once I cut mine I place it on wax paper in a cardboard box and let sit for 6 weeks to cure so that they are nice and hard. You can use your soap sooner but it will be softer and will not last as long. Therefore, I recommend waiting.
Congratulations you just made soap! This is how I make soap, other people may do it differently. If you do make soap differently or have any questions please leave a comment and I would love to help you or learn from you!
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