Goat Milk Soap Recipes

How to add the milk

• Freeze the milk first, as cubes or slush, and add the lye to it slowly. Keeping it cold helps stop the milk sugars from scorching, which turns the soap orange or brown.
• Or dissolve the lye in water, using at least as much water as lye by weight, then add the rest of the liquid as room-temperature milk to the oils or at light trace.
• For powdered goat milk, mix it into the oils, or into a little water held back from the lye solution (still leaving at least as much water as lye), and add that at light trace.
• A brief ammonia smell when the lye meets the milk is normal and fades as the soap cures. Work with good ventilation and do not lean over the container.

Keep the soap cool after pouring

Milk sugars make soap heat up more than usual. Skip insulating the mold, or put it somewhere cool, to avoid cracks and dark centers.

The lye amount does not change

The calculator treats the milk as part of the water, and the lye amount comes from the oils, so most recipes work with goat milk replacing some or all of the water by weight. Recalculate if you change anything else, and cure the bars for four to six weeks.

Work safely with lye

Wear goggles and gloves, work with good ventilation, keep children and pets away, and always add lye to the liquid, never liquid to the lye. Mix it in stainless steel or a sturdy, heat-resistant #2 (HDPE) or #5 (PP) plastic container, never aluminum or glass.

If lye gets on your skin or in your eyes, rinse with plenty of running water for at least 15 minutes, taking off any splashed clothing (and contact lenses, if easy) as you rinse. Get medical or poison-control help for eye contact or burns. Do not use vinegar on skin or eyes.

Open any recipe above to see the full formula, then adapt it in the free soap calculator or browse all soap recipes.