Goat's Milk Soap

I love Goat's Milk Soap.  It's rich, creamy and doesn't dry your skin like other soaps can.  For the past couple of years I have been making our own soap.  Well, sort of making.  Kind of cheating. 

After reading up on how to make my own soaps I quickly decided full blown homemade was probably not a viable option since this idea had actually started as a project to do with my boys.  Therefor completely homemade recipes with lye would not work.  It sounded like an accident waiting to happen. 

So I did further digging and found a company where you can purchase the soap bases.  Majestic Mountain Sage has a great variety of all soap bases reasonably priced.  http://www.thesage.com/ if you'd like to take a look.  They also offer fragrance oils and many other bath and soap making products not to mention... recipes.  

Fragrance oils I prefer to get from From Nature With Love.  I have never gone wrong with one of their fragrance oils.  Perfect every time.  If you've ever ordered oils of any kind online you know this can be 'hit or miss'.  http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/ is their site.  Also fabulous and full of recipes.  Their oils are a little pricey but well worth the extra money to get it right the first time.

The soap making process with a premade base is very simple.

First chop your base into cube that are 2" or so each.

Then place your cut soap over a double boiler and begin the melting process.

I don't have a double boiler so configure my own with a ceramic bowl over boiling water.  The soap needs to be melted over indirect heat so this is a must.  The soap base will need to melt down fully to the consistency of milk.

If you would like to add color to your soap you can purchase additives to make colors.  (You MUST use colors made for soap making or your soap will color your skin - colors can be purchased at both sites I listed above.)  I prefer my soaps mostly white with just swirls of color.  To do this separate out a small amount of soap to add the color to and set it aside.  An old crockpot works great to keep the colored soap melted while waiting for the rest of the soaps to melt down.  I happened to have left over colored soap from previously so I just melted down my colors and saved what was left for next time.

Once the soap is melted you will need to move it to a mold.  This is my homemade mold because molds can be a little pricey.

Because the mold is homemade it must be lined... or it will spill out the bottom and all over the floor.  I know this for a reason.  I line my mold with a trash bag.  It does the trick.

Once the mold is properly lined gently pour the soap into the mold.  Slowly pouring the soap will avoid sudsing and a foam forming on the top of the soap. 

It is at this point you can add your fragrance oils.  I suggest adding oils during this step for two reasons, one is that you do not want to add your oils while the soap is at it's hottest point because the oils will cook off, second is that if you have cooked down too much soap base you can set it aside and let it cool down to keep for future scents.  How much oil is used is a personal preference.  I prefer my soaps to be heavily fragranced so I use approximately 1/2 oz for a full mold.

To get the marbled effect to your soap wait until the soap has cooled to the point of a stiff film or layer on the top, puncture the film the length of the soap and pour in the colored base.  Then gently swirl the colored base into the white.  A few gentle swirls is all you will need.  Too much swirling will cause too much mixing and then you will just have colored soap. 

After several hours of cooling you can remove your soap from the mold.  I cut my soaps with a butcher knife in no particular sizes.  They are only being used by my family so the soap cutters are not necessary for us.

When you are all done you have a beautiful batch of rich Goat's Milk Soap!

Just a quick side note... clean up of all dishes used making soaps is best done by first washing by hand.  If you choose to just quickly throw everything into the dishwasher keep a bottle of vinegar handy along with a full load of bath towels as the soap will suds like crazy causing a giant foam ball to roll out of your dishwasher making you feel like you are in an episode of The Brady Bunch.  Quickly before your husband notices douse the dishwasher in vinegar to neutralize the soap and sop up soap suds and water from the kitchen floor with bath towels.  My extreme hatred of washing dishes by hand has perhaps caused this to happen on a few occasions. 

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