A new goat's milk soap experiment

As anyone who has been reading my blog for a while would know, I like to experiment with different soap making methods and recipes and I document them here so that I can remember what I did at the time as I have a memory that leaves a lot to be desired now that I am getting older. As I was able to borrow Racheal's goat's milk soap mould last Saturday and want to return it at our next Simple Living Toowoomba sausage making workshop, I bought myself some goat's milk which is quite expensive (unless you can get it on special) and froze it in readiness for making a batch of soap.

A while back I made the soap with a different recipe as I used Rhonda's from her book Down to Earth. Talking about Rhonda's books...although her new book The Simple Home is not meant to be released until the 1st March, it is already on the shelves in QBD bookshops. They have an eBook for sale as well for A$14.99 I just noticed on their website.

Goat's Milk Soap ~ 2014

Also last time I froze the goat's milk as ice cubes and had them sitting in an ice bath when I added the lye. I am not sure if that resulted in a lighter coloured soap or not but this last batch ended up being darker. The morning after I made the batch I put the mould into the freezer for a while which is necessary in order to get the soap out easily as it wasn't a silicone mould.  When I took it out of the fridge it had turned quite a light colour as shown in the first photo but eventually became more yellowy as the day wore on.

I had also let the lye mixture go cold before adding it to the oils as I wanted to trial a different method. I put the bottle of coconut oil out in the sun to melt before adding it to the lavender infused olive oil I had made previously and then added the lye mixture to that at room temperature. I didn't want it to go to trace too quickly so just stirred for a little while to mix it all together and then added some essential oil and fragrance oil before pouring half the mixture into a jug to which I added some ultramarine colour which I want to use up and also because I was busting to try some 'swirling'. I then brought both mixtures to trace and poured them out into the mould.  Of course anyone who is experienced at swirling would know you don't use a shallow bar mould but, as my loaf mould didn't arrive until just after I finished making the soap, I went ahead anyway and had a go. ;-)

Afterwards this is how it looked on the top of the soap which becomes the bottom of course when the soap comes out of the mould. I didn't want this to heat up too much so didn't wrap up the mould.

 The soap now looks like this on the bottom....

...and this on the top. The next time I make it I will use the ice bath again and the same recipe and see if there is any difference in colour. Not that it is a problem at all as I am sure the menfolk aren't going to say they won't use the soap because it is too dark. LOL! Some people put it in the fridge overnight but we don't have room in ours as we have a cracked shelf which we can't get a replacement for so have it held up with a bottle on the shelf beneath it which makes it difficult to put too much in the fridge. This was the first brand new fridge we had ever bought and the shelf cracked after a couple of years and lo and behold the company doesn't make a replacement. So there is definitely no room for soap.

When I make a batch I always like to compare it with soap I have yet to use so I can see the variations of colours. The white soap in front is my first attempt at using the room temperature method and I wasn't terribly thrilled with the result so I need to practice more. In the middle row on the left and right is soap with green clay added and in the centre is my dismal failed batch which seized after I added cheap fragrance oil from the $2 shop. Not a good idea but it is drying out slowly but surely. At the back is my latest batch of goat's milk soap and doesn't it look dark in comparison? There are so many recipes I want to try like Aloe Vera soap and Yoghurt and Avocado soap. The possibilities are endless!

Some people wonder why anyone would want to make their own soap. Well, at least then you know what you are putting on your skin and surely it is better than using soap with ingredients like these that are in a popular well known soap ~

Sodium Palmate, Aqua, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Talc, Glycerin, Parfum, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Tetrasodium Edta, Etidronic Acid, Coumarin, Eugenol, Linalool, Benzyl Benzoate, Geraniol, Citronellol, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Ci 77891, Ci 77220, Ci 11680, Ci 71105, Ci 74260, Ci 12490.

Plus making soap is fun but I warn you, it can become quite addictive :-)

 

However, if soap making doesn't interest you perhaps you might like to make a quick crochet button necklace. I have just made another one with coloured buttons but I think I prefer....

...the white buttons. The instructions for making these are in the post Crochet Button Necklace.

They are quick and easy to crochet and making the white one is a good way to use up old shirt buttons. You only need to know how to crochet a chain. Easy peasy!

Have a great weekend everyone!