How to Make Goat Milk Soap: An Easy to Follow Recipe

You may already be familiar with the many health benefits of goat milk as well as its advantages over regular cow milk. However, did you know goat milk is also a wonderful base when it comes to soap-making? However, many are hesitant to start making homemade soap and may fret at the considerations on “how to make goat milk soap.”

At first, glance, making soap by hand may be a time-consuming and arduous task. However, once you see the advantages, both physically and even economically, you may be motivated start making your goat milk soap at home!

This article discusses the benefits as well as the process on how to make goat milk soap.

How do manufacturers make soap in the first place?

In a process that experts call “saponification”, a combination of water, an acid, and a base creates soap. Usually, fat or oil acts as the acid while the lye serves as the base. When you mix these three ingredients, the resulting product will be soap as well as glycerin.

Interestingly, big commercial companies typically remove glycerin from their soaps. Ostensibly, this removal is a bid at making higher profits since they would then be able to use glycerin in other products such as lotions and moisturizers.

Benefits of goat milk soap

Handmade goat milk brings a plethora of benefits for your skin. We’ll list below just a few of them.

● Skin hydration

Goat milk soap dynamically moisturizes your skin while also improving the skin’s water retention properties. Therefore, in addition to hydrated skin, goat milk soap also keeps it hydrated for much longer. These exceptional hydrating properties are due to the glycerin that remains in handmade soap as well as goat milk’s proteins and fats that act as humectants.

● Skin Exfoliation

Using goat milk-based soap will also help remove dead skin cells, which reveals the younger, and suppler skin underneath. Goat milk accomplishes this exfoliation via its natural lactic acid. It’s the lactic acid that helps weaken the bonds of the dead skin cells, making it easier for you to scrub them off.

● Skin healing, rejuvenation, and anti-aging properties

Goat milk also contains skin-friendly vitamins A and E. These vitamins are known to bring amazing benefits to the skin. For example, vitamin A helps reduce wrinkles by stimulating skin healing, and promoting thicker, stronger skin, in particular against irritation.

Meanwhile, vitamin E acts as an antioxidant which protects the skin from harmful sun exposure, skin inflammation, and also fights in the all-important battle against free radicals.

The Soap-making Process

So, what processes are involved in the making of goat milk soap? We can summarize these methods into six stages:

1. Liquid preparation

2. Lye-milk mix

3. Oil mix

4. Reaching trace

5. Additives and molding

6. Curing

Making Goat Milk Soap

Let’s now get into the actual soap-making process with goat milk as a base! First, let’s look at the tools that you’ll need.

I. What You’ll Need

Safety Equipment

1. Long caustic-resistant rubber gloves

2. Safety glasses or goggles

3. Thick apron

A Note on Safety:

These first three items should be at the top of your list since they will protect you from the caustic properties of lye, which is scientists officially call sodium hydroxide.

Lye is a strong, corrosive, and toxic chemical that can cause severe burns and damage when it comes into contact with your skin. Additionally, mixing lye with water will create high amounts of heat that can either combust or even explode. Obviously, you must always take great care when handling lye! If you’re looking for a robust pair of gloves to use in conjunction with lye, here’s a pair we can recommend.

So why would you want this dangerous chemical in your soap? As opposed to traditional understanding, lye doesn’t really end up in your finished soap product. In fact, lye is vital for the soap-making process as it initiates the chemical reaction of saponification which then creates soap and glycerin. With safety in mind, let’s now continue our list of tools for making homemade goat milk soap.

Kitchen Equipment:

4. A sturdy stainless steel mixing bowl (you can also use glass)

5. Heat-resistant spatula

6. Stainless steel measuring cups

7. Stainless steel instant-read thermometer (like this one)

8. Sturdy, heat-resistant mixing spoons

9. A mason jar

10. A glass measuring cup, at least 16oz (Like this one, for example)

11. Saucepan

12. Loaf pan, glass or hard plastic

13. Your desired soap molds (Try this, or this mold if you want square soap bars)

14. Saran wrap

15. Old towels

16. Parchment paper

17. A timer. Since you’ll be handling lye, try to use a dedicated kitchen timer instead of your phone.

18. Wax paper

19. Airtight containers

20. Optional: Immersion Blender

II. Goat Milk Soap Ingredients

Milk-lye mix

21. 15 oz (444 ml) goat milk-water solution

22. If you’re using fresh milk, make your solution with 13.5 oz (400 ml) goat milk with 1.5 oz (44 ml) water

23. When using canned goat milk, combine 7.5 oz (222 ml) goat milk with 7.5 oz water. Canned goat milk is often thick and evaporated. Hence, you’ll need to dilute it down with more water.

24. 6.07 oz (180 ml) Lye (you can get this online here)

Oils:

25. 3 oz (57 g) shea butter

26. 6 oz (113 g) sunflower oil

27. 21 oz (621 ml) olive oil

28. 13.5 oz (400 ml) coconut oil

Additives:

29. 1.5 tbsp (22.5 ml) honey

30. One tsp (5 ml) essential oil of choice

III. Instructions

NOTE: Be sure to read through these instructions first, so you’ll have a basic understanding of the stages in soap-making. Additionally, you should prepare all the equipment and ingredients you’ll be using since you’ll need to be quick as you follow these directions.

Milk Preparation

1. Prepare the goat milk by freezing it in an ice cube tray or a re-sealable bag. Freezing the milk will make it more safe and stable when you combine it with the lye later on.

2. Place your frozen goat milk into a stainless steel bowl then combine with the water.

Lye-milk Mix

3. Put on your rubber gloves, safety glasses, thick apron, and other protective gear

4. Find a well-ventilated area of your kitchen.

5. Measure out the lye then slowly add it to the milk-water solution. Stir with a heat-resistant and non-reactive spoon until the lye has fully dissolved into the milk. You’ll notice some heat and a lot of bubbling as you mix the lye, as well as some odorous fumes which are normal. Just avoid inhaling them. It’s for this chemical reaction that we’d recommend you find a well-ventilated area. Set aside the lye-milk mixture for 10 minutes or until it reaches temperatures between 95°F to 105°F.

Oil Mix

6. Prepare the oils and butter while you wait for the lye-milk mix to set. Start by gently melting the solid fats (coconut oil & shea butter) in a saucepan over low heat. Once melted, add in the liquid sunflower and olive oils.

Reaching Trace

7. Check your lye-milk mix temperature. When it’s between 95°F to 105°F, you can now combine the two mixtures.

8. Very gently and slowly, add the Lye-milk mix to the oil mix as you fold the mixtures into each other for a good five minutes. For another five minutes, stir the mixtures vigorously or, alternatively, using an immersion blender.

9. You’ll notice the combined mix start to thicken and lighten in color. Continue stirring until it comes to a “trace,” a vanilla pudding-like consistency. You can consult this video here to see how trace should look.

Additives and Molding

10. At this point, you can now mix in your additives such as honey, essential oils, coloring, herbs, and so on. Mix these ingredients thoroughly.

11. Pour the mixture into your molds of choice, cover with saran wrap, then wrap with an old towel. The towel will insulate the mix’s heat and initiate saponification.

12. Check on your soap mixture after 24 hours. If it’s still soft, wrap it up again and let it sit for another 24 hours.

Curing

13. Once the soap is firm, place it over some parchment paper. Let cure for at least a month, turning the bricks over weekly, so you expose all its sides to air.

14. Finally, wrap fully cured soap in wax paper and store in airtight containers

15. Enjoy your homemade goat milk soap!

Conclusion

At first, glance, how to make goat milk soap may be daunting. However, once you understand the fundamental processes, stages, and items you’ll need, we’re sure you’ll be making your handmade soap in no time!