[ballingall]

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone makes home made soap? I am thinking of having a go, just to make it for myself, and maybe to give as presents at Christmas. The idea would be to make Goats milk soap, so that I would be using our own produce.


Would be interested to hear anyone's experiences or recipe's- or even where they get their ingredients from? I have found quite a lot online, and I am waiting for a book on soapmaking arriving.


Beth

[HappyHippy]

I did look into it at one point last year, but would've been selling them to the public and because of that would have needed to be inspected and have all sorts of paperwork and red tape - it really put me off I'm afraid 
But I know that ebay's great for all the bits and bobs you'll need - moulds, dyes (if you're using them) fragrances, melt and pour soap base etc and I'm sure your book will have loads of info and suppliers listed.
Good luck and let us know how they turn out.

[doganjo]

Do people still use soap bars these days?  I have liquid soap containers in my bathrooms.  More hygienic.  Maybe you could make that and refill old ones, and make pretty labels for them on the computer?

[woollyval]

I used to make fantastic goats milk soap! The best recipe I found is this one!!!

It never fails to work and the soap is a fudge colour......all milk soaps are fudge coloured!!!
If a pure white soap says its a milk soap it contains very little!.....
I have a lovely soap stamp with 'Goats Milk' that I would let go if you get keen also some goat moulds with an anglo nubian type on them!

Goat Milk Soap:

12.5 oz olive oil
12.5 oz palm oil (or purified beef tallow)
10 oz coconut oil
5 oz sweet almond oil
17.5 oz goatmilk
5.5 oz sodium hydroxide
3 Tablespoons lavender essential oil
Wear goggles and rubber or latex gloves during the entire process to protect yourself from the lye. Small children should be out of the area.
Prepare molds. 2 quart milk containers with the tops opened all the way works well for beginner soapers.

Put goatmilk in freezer. After it's frozen blend it until it's like ice cream. Very slowly add the lye to the mushy milk stirring constantly. This takes around 15 minutes. Bring to a temp of 92 - 97 degrees F. Note: Starting off with extremely cold milk prevents scalding.

Melt the oils together gently, bring temp to 92 - 97 degrees F. (Cool in a pan of cold water).

Carefully add the milk/lye solution to the fats. Stir stir stir. Stir until a light trace develops over the surface of the solution. Tracing is when you can see your stir marks on the surface. You can draw lines and see a faint trace of them for a few seconds. This may take up to 2 hours. Or you can buy a stick blender (mine is made by Braun) and blend for one minute. The blending makes the NaOH and fat molecules come into contact with each other much more rapidly than stirring.

When tracing has occured, add the lavender e.o. and stir it in.

Pour into molds. Insulate the molds in a box with blankets over and around and under the box. Or, use styrofoam peanuts around and under the molds, and bubble plastic on top. Let sit in a warm place over night.

After the soap has hardened (between 12 and 48 hours) remove it from the molds and cut the soap into soap size pieces. The soap will be a nice tan color. Note: At this point the soap may have an unpleasant, sharp odor. This will disappear after 1-2 weeks.

Let the soap cure for at least 4 weeks before using.

[little blue]

have to smile, I misread the thread title as 'Soup' and got a bit confused....

[ballingall]

I still like bars of soap in the bathroom. Plus Alex hasn't migrated to showergel yet, and he has to have a bar of soap in the shower, so we do use it. However, if I get into it, there's other stuff I'd like to make as well- body butter, liquid soap and probably more beside!


Thanks for the recipe Val, I will give it a go. Did you find using different breeds of goats milk makes any difference? Or how recently they have kidded? Just wondering if it will matter which I use. Not that I have a choice just now- just a white AOV running through, and no BT's or AN's kidded until late March.

Beth