Milk Soaps

[Guest guest]

> Ive not had a problem making milk soaps - but one of the things that

really helps, is to mix the milk powder up, and then freeze it so it

contains crystals - before adding it to the lye. And the same for milk that

is already liquid.

The chemical reaction is then slowed down, and the milk fats dont get

scorched. ¶

 

You're right, and I didn't mention that. Thanks for bringing it up. I

always freeze any liquid that I will be mixing with lye - water, tea, milk,

or whatever - until it's a slush or until it has a good crust of ice on top.

For those of you who have not made soap, the reason for this is that mixing

lye with a liquid releases a great deal of heat (this is part of why it's a

good drain cleaner). If you're using a thermometer, you'll see your milk or

water go from 32º to over 160º in about eight seconds flat. Obviously, you

mix your lye in a heat-proof bowl - I use heavy Pyrex. You have to cool the

mixture down to 110º or so before you can use it anyway, and having it cold

to begins with just helps keep the whole thing under control.

 

On the topic of lye, for all you would-be soapers out there, there is one

thing that cannot be said too often: ALWAYS add lye to water, NEVER add

water to lye!!!! Do it correctly and it will be uneventful, which believe

me is how you want handling lye to be. Do it backwards and you will regret

your mistake. You run the risk of a steam explosion that could burn or even

blind you! So, however you remember it, make it second nature if you plan

to make soap. I learned it this way: " Do as ya oughtta, add the lye to the

watta. " Someone with a more poetic turn of mind put it this way: " Snow on

the lake. " Mix lye in a clear area or better yet put your bowl into a clean

sink and then add the lye. Don't have kids, animals or other distractions

around when you do this. Don't have stuff cluttered around where you might

knock something into it. Do NOT splatter! Don't breathe the fumes, either.

Your kitchen will not fill up with nerve gas. Just don't get close and

inhale. Like I said, do it correctly and it's a piece of cake. I honestly

don't know how bad doing it wrong can be because I never did it wrong (I'm

not stupid, just uneducated). I have, however, seen photos of what happened

to a curious three-year-old who reached up on the counter and pulled a bowl

of hot lye water down onto himself. It was pretty horrifying, although I am

happy to say that the child's vision was saved and he ended up with very

little scarring. So be careful.

 

Back to using milk. There are four ways I have done it, and this is in the

order of my own preference:

 

1. Freeze whole goat milk to a slush, and mix the lye into it directly.

This results in a tan soap. This is simple and direct, and makes a great

traditional milk soap. By the way, mixing lye into milk turns the milk

bright orange as it scorches and the sugars carmelize, and the smell is VERY

nasty. As I said, you really want to try not to breathe the fumes from hot

lye solution. As the mixture cools, the fumes get tamed down quite a lot.

However with milk soaps, there is a strong ammonia smell that makes you

think your soap will surely be ruined. It will not be ruined. The smell

fades completely in the first 24 hours, and the smell of the finished soap

is naturally sweet and pleasant.

 

2. Do the same with condensed GM mixed with half the normal amount of

water. Concentrates the milk fats and sugars, makes a REALLY nice soap,

also tan.

 

3. Calculate the formula with a full amount of water (about 28% by weight),

and separately measure out the proper amount of powdered milk for this

amount of water. Make the soap using 3/4 of the water and use the remaining

1/4 to mix the powdered GM the thickness of very heavy cream, which is

which is mixed in thoroughly just before trace. This makes a

lighter-colored soap, but to me it somehow lacks the richness of soap made

with whole milk.

 

4. The fourth method I have used is complicated, but again it makes a

wonderful soap. I used organic, unpasteurized, whole cow's milk, and let it

sit out until the butter and fats began to separate from the whey. This

happens before the milk actually begins to smell sour. I squeezed out the

solids through cheesecloth, mixed them thoroughly with a blender, and used

this to liberally superfat a castile-type soap made with a very low lye

discount. Of course, I used the whey in place of straight water for my lye

mixture. This makes a very rich soap which can be used for dry skin. The

reason for the low lye discount (1-2%) is so that you won't add so much

unsaponified fats that the soap goes rancid. This takes accurate

calculations, especially if you are superfatting with other oils, so I

generally don't, or at least very sparingly.

 

By the way, you can use sour milk, it doesn't matter. Since I work at a

natural foods market, I find this is a very good way to use unsold milk that

would otherwise be thrown away. As soon as the lye contacts the milk, it is

instantly soured anyway. Soaps rich in milkfat leave the skin feeling

wonderfully moist and pliant. Try this: wash your hands with a milk soap

and rinse in warm water - your hands will feel clean and the skin will be

soft to the touch. If your skin is dry and cracked, wash with the same soap

and rinse with cold water. The cold water will leave a layer of milkfat on

your skin which will soak in and help heal and protect the skin (obviously

there is an opportunity for the use of botanicals in the soap). I like to

formulate milk soaps so that they have dense, silky, abundant suds that

cling a little more than a lather with larger bubbles which tend to slide

off the skin.

 

 

 

 

Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.0/819 - Release 5/26/2007

10:47 AM