When I make handmade goat milk soap the first thing I do is measure out my goat milk and freeze it. Adding sodium hydroxide (lye) to frozen goat helps to avoid the nasty stinky burning of the milk. It is important to keep the milk as cold as possible so that it doesn’t burn and you get a nice creamy color to the soap once it sets up. Stirring the lye into the milk while the pot is sitting in a cold water bath helps keep the milk from heating up too much. As the milk heats up it changes from cream to yellow to orange. You want to avoid the deep yellow to orange color. Last week I made some Raspberry Mint goat milk soap and took some photos of the process.
Frozen Goat Milk and Solidified Fats and Oils
Melted Fats and Oils
Stirring lye into the Frozen Goat Milk
Blending Goat Milk Lye Solution into the Melted Oils
Finished and poured in the mold! This is a batch of Raspberry Mint goat milk soap. I don’t like my milk soaps to gel so they just sit in the mold with no insulation until ready to cut into bars.
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Sometimes we have handmade soap bars that cure out to be a tad underweight. And when I say a tad underweight that is exactly what I mean. Like 3.98 ounces in lieu of 4 ounces. We may even have handmade soap on hand that we are testing new fragrances in or color combinations. I’ve decided to offer these handmade soaps at a discount. For those that like to take advantage of bargains this is the perfect opportunity! These soaps are naked bars with no individual wrapping and will be shipped to you wrapped in brown paper and tied with raffia. We just make sure you get an assortment of our usual great soap. So take a look at our Handmade Soap/Grab Bags. Enjoy the soap and the value!
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I had a customer stop and ask me if I had heard about Soap Nuts? I really didn’t know what she was talking about and had never heard of the term. She kindly explained that there is a nut that can be used as a natural alternative to laundry detergent. There are indeed Soap Nuts but it is the shell that actually works. The shell of the soap nut contains and releases saponins (soap) when it comes in contact with warm or hot water. I am interested in testing these out in my own washer machine. Apparently, you use them by putting 3 to 5 of the soap nuts into a muslin bag and tossing the bag into the washer machine before adding your clothes. After about 3 or 4 washes the soap nuts need to be replaced with fresh ones. The used soap nuts can be composted. How neat is that! I am really intrigued by these things and can’t wait to try them out. Think I’ll test them out on my big man’s and little man’s white dingy, dirty underlings….
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I have some small 3 pound wooden molds that I recently dug out of storage so I could use them to play around with some new handmade soap designs. It’s been a while since I lined wooden molds so I had to look up some directions. I always hated lining. Seemed it took me twice as long to line the molds as to actually make the soap. There are several places online which offer directions on how to line a wood mold, however, in my opinion the easiest and best method can be found here and is graciously provided by Raindance Soaps.
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