My youngest has extra sensitive skin, and she prefers homemade goat milk soap to other soaps. The soap cupboard is bare, so it was time to make a batch.
I made sure our awesome neighbors know that during my preferred nighttime soaping hours, that’s what’s going on. Otherwise, since they sometimes witness this craziness…
…they might just wonder. When soaping, be safe! Cold process soap making involves lye. And raw, uncured soap can deal just as much of a chemical burn as lye water. I normally wear goggles and heavy duty cleaning gloves. Also, I mix the lye with the liquid outside, to avoid fumes in our tiny kitchen.
I use lard in most of my soap. We are not vegan, so this is not an issue for us. And I’ve found that many people feel the same. Lard makes a wonderful, long lasting bar of soap. The additional oils I use add things like lather and bubbles. A postal scale works well, for soap making.
The recipe for tonight’s batch includes a bit of honey. If you’re just trying out honey, in your soap recipe, start with a teaspoon per pound. It can make soap trace more quickly. Also, if your recipe calls for milk, it helps to freeze at least half of it ahead of time, to avoid a burnt smell when adding lye to it (do add lye to the liquid, and not the other way around!).
I have always added the lye water/milk to the oils at a pretty high temperature. Normally around 115°. This hasn’t been a problem. Since I froze all of the goat milk for tonight’s batch, the temp was much lower. About 90°. This works out fine when adding honey.
These molds can be found on Amazon.com. They have silicone liners. They came without lids, which aren’t necessary, but I prefer to use something along with a blanket or towel. Small pieces of craft wood work well as lids. The liners in these mean I don’t have to wastefully turn to waxed paper. They don’t hold as much as my homemade ones, but two hold four pounds of soap just fine.
It’s been a busy year so far, so I haven’t had a chance to try eucalyptus and spearmint together in a soap. I’m looking forward to that.
