Goats Milk Rose Soap

I have been wanting to make a batch of rose soap for some time so much so that I bought some rose fragrance oil from Gavin's Little Green Workshops for myself for Christmas.

 

 

 

I was also inspired by the beautiful Esmeralda rose that was blooming a few weeks ago.  

 

As I had rose petals to use at long last I infused some in goats milk as per the instructions in Jan Berry's book Simple and Natural Soapmaking which I have mentioned before is worth buying. After the milk had infused it was strained and then poured into ice block moulds to freeze in readiness for the soap making process. I had been given some palm oil and madder root and wanted to add that to a batch of soap.

 I must have been feeling a bit down at Christmas as I also bought myself a soap cutter . I think I was missing my grandchildren so that's my excuse :-) I have been waiting to try it out which I did today even though I am not sure how it works but the two cutters come in handy and I will eventually get the gist of how to use it properly I guess.

The plan was to add the lye mixture to the oils and mix that in then divide it into two jugs as I planned to do a pink and plain coloured tiger stripe in my loaf mould and then pour the extra soap into a few individual moulds. However, I forgot I was making a big batch and after pouring the mixture into two jugs I found I needed another one but it was too late to run out to the laundry and wash another one out so I just started pouring some of it into the individual moulds to create some type of swirl with a little bit of the madder root soap which wasn't really successful and I ended up with lots of air bubbles.

Never mind. So I filled up a few of those moulds then turned my attention to the two jugs as I was concerned that the madder root and fragrance oil would have accelerated trace and ended up doing a simple tiger stripe before the mixture got too thick.

It didn't turn out too badly. For some reason I get lots of white specks from the goats milk I imagine. Not sure why that happens as it was completely melted by the lye and mixed well and also there are a few red specks from the madder root despite it being mixed in well with a little milk frother. It's all trial and error with soap I find. If anyone can offer any solutions let me know.

The two soaps in the above photo are ridiculously small and it serves me right for not checking the measurements when buying moulds online as they look like the normal size in the photos.

I will record the recipe for future reference as I often look back to see the ingredients I have used when a certain soap has cured and is particularly nice on the skin. This one is based on one in a kit from Aussie Soap Supplies which a friend kindly gave me last year. 


Goats Milk Rose Soap 

600g Olive Oil
350g Sustainable Palm Oil
450g Coconut Oil (I used copha)
 90g Macadamia Nut Oil
215g Lye
520g rose infused goats milk
35g Rose fragrance oil
2t   Madder root mixed with oil (available from Aussie Soap Supplies)

Has anyone been brave and made their first batch of soap yet if you are a beginner? My post on Some Tips for New Soapmakers was extremely popular so there must be a few of you out there who are interested in getting started on making your own soap.  If you would like to send me a photo of your soap I would be happy to do a blog post of what some of my readers have made.

Go on...you know you want to :-)