Goat's Milk Soap
(this makes a little over 5 lbs.)
24 oz Olive Oil
17.5 oz Coconut Oil
15.5 oz Palm Oil
21 oz Goat Milk (either canned milk which needs to be diluted with
distilled water or pasturized fresh milk, make sure they are very
cold)
228 grams lye
1 TBSP of borax - Optional
You can use 12 tsp of fragrance oil or essential oil which is added
at the trace.
Combine all the oils and melt over low heat till the oils are melted,
set aside. Once the oils have cooled down to 100 degrees F, now is
the time to get the goat's milk ready. Here's what you need to do,
weigh your lye into a 12 oz dixie cup and your borax if you are using
it, set aside. Measure your goat milk into a 2 quart heat-tempered
glass measuring bowl or a stainless steel bowl. Make sure to buy
yourself a thermometer that has a clip because you need to clip it on
the bowl so that the thermometer is in the milk to keep track of the
temperature. Now you get a bowl or larger pot and put lots of ice in
it with some ice water (you don't too much water so that the ice
floats around). Set the goat's milk bowl in the middle of the ice
but make sure none of the ice water gets into the milk, so be
careful. With your left hand you will be pouring in the lye & borax
very slowly and with the right hand, you will be using a wire whisk
to stir it. Look often at the thermometer to make sure the
temperature doesn't go above 100 degrees F otherwise you will scorch
the milk. If it should get slightly above 100 stop pouring the lye
and keep stirring till it drops down to 90 degrees F. You don't want
it to drop below 90 degrees F. It will take you about 5 minutes or
longer to pour all the lye into the milk. Once the lye is in the
milk, take the bowl out of the ice and wipe the water off the bottom
of the bowl. Now carefully, pour the lye milk into your oils,
stirring with the wire whisk then you can switch to the stick blender
if you wish or continue stirring with the wire wisk till you have a
trace. You'll know you have a trace if it looks like a thin
pudding. Now you can add you scent and stir. Pour into a wooden
mold lined with freezer paper and put the box or container in a draft
free place where it will be safe from people and animals. Do not
insulate the goat's milk because the temperature rise can scorch the
milk. Leave for 24 hours and after that you can cut it into any
size bars you wish. Let the soap cure for 6 weeks, in the winter it
might take longer. What happens during curing is that the water
evaporates out of the soap to give you a mild and hard bar. I
personally like to cure my soaps for three months before I use it.