I have only made soap with goat’s milk a handful of times. I made this one at the request of someone who really likes Goat milk soap. She also wanted lots of colloidal oatmeal in the soap and honey.
I knew I had to freeze the goat milk ahead of time, so I did. I also filled a bowl with ice to keep the solution cool. I was concerned about false trace and uneven crystallization which happens when everything is too cold, so I kept my oils heated at 100 F as usual, which was probably not a good idea. I also used the stick blender until I was sure emulsion had been reached. Then instead of stirring the fragrance, I also blended it in, to bring it to trace before pouring in the mold.
Although I had everything ready as far as the soap went, I didn’t get my camera ready so midway the battery is flashing and my backup is dead as well, so that was unnecessary stress! When that happens I usually focus on the soap and worry about the video later, if at all. Here is the video though:
I was really happy with the design for this soap, since I suspected it would thicken up fast with my recipe, with the liquid discount and all the sugar from the honey and the goat milk, I concentrated on decorating the top. This was my fourth oatmeal, milk and honey soap, and I didn’t want to repeat any of my past designs. My first one simply has the bubble wrap on top for the honeycomb look, the second one had honeycomb/hexagons embeds inside and melt and pour on top. The third one had melt and pour hexagons on top, made with a large mold. I was happy with how this fourth one turned out, because I feel that the honey effect with the melt and pour is more realistic since I chose a different color combination to make it. Instead of just copper, I used some yellow coloring. as well.
Also, I like how the honeycomb effect turned out, with a stamp I made with polymer clay years ago and had forgotten to try. I actually made a 3d printed version as well, which worked out better, and it is available in the Shop. I used it in some soap dough which I put on top of the soap. What I also liked were the bees, because they don’t remind me of flies (which the first bees I ever attempted to make with soap dough did). I made them larger, inspired in this necklace I saw, and I am happy how they turned out. I also like the pop of color that the flowers add to it. And yet, there was something I was not happy about, I suspect a scorched the sugar in the goat’s milk. It was hard to smell in the final bars, but my nose still detected some burn notes.
I put it in the freezer for a couple of hours and then moved it to the fridge for the rest of the time, to avoid gel phase.
This is what I would do different next time:
- I would blend the colloidal oatmeal’s into the oils before mixing the lye with the frozen milk
- I would mix the lye and frozen milk more slowly, to keep it a low temperature, I felt like I almost scorched the sugars in the milk, like I mentioned above, at some point the lye solution reached 125 F even though I had it in a bucket with ice and the milk was frozen. I wast just reading a fb post that if the honey goes above 104 F it will turn the soap brown.
- I would use a more narrow container for both the milk and lye and the ice around it, so that the ice comes all the way to the top on the sides.
Recipe Totals
| Liquid Required | 9.09 oz | 257.57 g |
| NaOH Weight at 99 % Purity | 4.72 oz | 133.9 g |
| KOH Weight at 90 % Purity | 0.39 oz | 10.99 g |
| Lye Weight | 5.11 oz | 144.88 g |
| Oil Weight | 35 oz | 992.23 g |
| Fragrance Weight | 2.19 oz | 62.01 g |
| Super Fat | 5 % | |
| Total Batch Weight | 51.38 oz | 1456.7 g |
| NaOH / KOH Ratio | 95 % / 5 % | |
| Lye Concentration | 36 % |
Recipe Oils, Fats and Waxes
| Oil | % | Ounces | Grams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 33 | 11.55 | 327.44 |
| Coconut Oil, 76 deg | 25 | 8.75 | 248.06 |
| Tallow Beef | 20 | 7 | 198.45 |
| Apricot Kernel Oil | 15 | 5.25 | 148.83 |
| Cocoa Butter | 7 | 2.45 | 69.46 |
| Total | 100 | 35 | 992.23 |
Colorant for MP for honey look:
1 drop each of yellow and copper liquid melt and pour soap colorants (Bought at hobby lobby)
Additives:
2 tsp ppo of honey
I also used vanilla stabilizer (thiosulfate dissolved in water) and EDTA as a chelator.
4 TBS colloidal oatmeal
Mold
10″ Silicone loaf mold from Nurture Soap
Embeds
-Honeycomb made with soap dough and this stamp.
-Honey effect made with Crystal Clear MP
-Bees were made with soap dough and the wings with clear melt and pour, although I might make the wings white next time because it is hard to see them against the background
– Flowers made with this mold and soap dough. See Making soap flowers
Soaps by Glenda 