Gentle on the skin, and with a nice, creamy lather, this goat milk soap with honey is one of my favorites. Learn how to make soap with both milk and honey from scratch with this recipe.
Many of you have been asking for either a soap made with goat milk or one made with honey, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and teach you how to make a soap with both goat milk and honey.
Because of the sugars in both milk and honey, they do provide a slight challenge when using in soap making, but I’ll share my tips and tricks to ensure you end up with pretty, light-colored bars of soap.
Watch how to make this goat milk soap with honey
Goat milk soap
Using milk in soap is a wonderful way to make a soap that is gentle on sensitive skin. It can help with eczema and psoriasis, and also has a nice, creamy lather.
I introduced working with goats milk in my pumpkin spice soap recipe, which as really just an adaptation of the easy, beginner soap. So many people asked for a goats milk soap, though, that I decided to formulate a new recipe which focused more on it and the techniques that can be used when working with it.
Adding milk to soap without burning it
While not difficult, working with milks in soap making can be slightly tricky. You need to take a few steps to ensure that the milk doesn’t burn when you mix it with the lye. Even when making a cold processed soap like this one, the heat from the reaction of the water and milk with the lye can cause the sugars in the milk to burn if you aren’t careful, resulting in a not-so-pretty, dark-colored bar that may even give off an unpleasant odor.
There are a couple of ways to prevent the milk from scalding. Most people freeze the milk before mixing it with the lye, and that method has always worked well for me. The heat generated when you mix the lye together with the liquids will melt the frozen milk rather than burn it. Those who don’t want to bother with pre-freezing can choose to add the milk at trace instead. (Trace is the point in soap making when the lye has emulsified with the oils and the soap is ready to be poured into molds.) At trace, there isn’t enough lye left to cause a heated reaction when the milk is added.
One of the benefits of freezing the milk is that you could potentially use a higher percentage of milk in your recipe. If you want to add the milk at trace, you’ll need to use enough water or other liquid, apart from the milk, to make the necessary lye solution for making the soap before adding in the milk.
Should you try to reach the gel phase with goat milk soap?
If you aren’t familiar with the gel phase, it’s basically a point in soap making when higher temperatures are reached and the soap begins to look gel-like. You can recognize a soap that has reached the gel phase because it normally gets a slightly translucent look to it which often makes the soap also look slightly darker. Some people aim to get their soaps to the gel phase, especially when working with colorants so that their soaps show off brighter, more vivid colors. Gelled soaps also tend to get slightly harder more quickly, probably because the soaps lose more water from evaporation at the higher temperatures.
To reach the gel phase, soaps are usually either heated right after being poured into the mold or at least well insulated to keep their heat in for the first day or two. It depends a lot on the recipe and the climate you are working in what needs to be done to reach a full gel phase.
With milk soaps, I don’t recommend trying to reach the gel phase. Milk soaps are prone to overheating which can lead to dark bars of soap that don’t smell very pleasant. It is also very easy to end up with a partially gelled soap that looks dark in the center and lighter and more opaque on the outside. While partially gelled soaps can still be used, they don’t look as nice as a uniform soap that is either gelled or not.
How to avoid reaching the gel phase
To avoid getting a partially gelled soap, you can either work the entire process cold as I have and then leave your soap molds uncovered in a cool place, or you can move the recently poured soaps into the fridge or freezer to finish the saponification process. I made the soap in the pictures when it was still cold in my house, and I had worked with frozen milk and cold oils. I didn’t put my mold into the freezer or fridge and you can see that my soaps turned out uniform in color.
If you are working in a warmer environment, I’d recommend placing your soap in either the fridge or freezer for the first 24 hours after having poured the soap into the molds to prevent getting a partially gelled soap.
Adding honey to soap
Honey is another nice additive for soap. The sugar in the honey helps make a nice, bubbly lather. While honey is nourishing for your skin, too much honey can result in a soft bar of soap (especially if you don’t account for the liquid in honey by reducing the amount of water in the recipe).
Just like when adding milk to soap, the sugars in honey could burn if things heat up too much. There are several ways to add the honey to the soap without that happening. One solution is to add the honey to the oils, rather than the water, before combining them with the lye solution. By doing it this way, you aren’t making the lye solution with the honey in it. I haven’t tried that method yet myself.
I, instead, add the honey as soon as the soap reaches a light trace, and haven’t had any problems.
Reaching trace when working with cold ingredients
One of the trickiest things about making soaps using cold ingredients is being able to recognize when you’ve reached “trace.”
Trace is the point in soap making when the oils and lye have emulsified and the saponification process begins. If you don’t reach trace, your soap won’t set correctly or may have pockets of oils and/or lye within the areas of the soap that have set.
Avoiding “false trace”
Normally, to ensure you have reached trace, I’d have you blend until the soap thickens up slightly, almost like pudding. The problem with working with cold temperatures, though, is that the thickness of the soap mixture can be misleading. At cold temperatures, it may take a very long time to thicken up. On the other hand, if you’ve melted your coconut oil, it may begin to slightly solidify again as everything cools, making it appear that the mixture is thickening. This can lead to people thinking the mixture has reached trace when it hasn’t. This recipe doesn’t use enough coconut oil that I think that you’ll have problems with false trace, but it is something I wanted you to be aware of.
If you find your recipe isn’t thickening up after blending for several minutes, and you plan on pouring it into the molds at a light trace (thinner mixture), you’ll want to take special care to ensure that everything is well blended and that there are no streaks of oil anywhere in the mixture. (If in doubt blend for longer than you think you need to!)
Goat milk soap with honey
Goat Milk Soap with Honey
Fills up a loaf pan for 8-10 bars of soap
Materials
- 350 g olive oil
- 175 g coconut oil
- 75 g avocado oil
- 90 g distilled water
- 95 g goat milk
- 84.96 g lye
- 1 Tbsp. honey
Instructions
- Before beginning, freeze the goat milk to prevent it from burning when mixed into the lye solution. You can use it at the slushy stage or you can fully freeze it and use it in ice cube form.
- Weight out the distilled water and lye, and pour the lye into the container with water. (I like to use stainless steel bowls for this. Never pour the water into the container with lye.)
- Mix the lye into the water until it is fully incorporated. You’ll notice that the solution will heat up and become opaque, but if left will later cool off and become transparent again. (Work outside or in a well-ventilated area, and avoid inhaling the fumes. Protect your eyes and hands with gloves and goggles.)
- Add the frozen goat milk to the lye solution, and continue to stir as you incorporate it. It may turn slightly orange or brown due to the caramelization of the sugars in the milk reacting with the lye. To prevent it from burning, stir continuously until it has all melted and been fully incorporated into the solution.
- In a separate bowl, measure out the oils. You can weigh them all in the same bowl by taring (setting the weight to zero) your scale between oils. (In the video you’ll see that I was using solid coconut oil and didn’t melt it before using it. That was only to prove a point. I’d suggest melting the coconut oil to make the process move along more quickly and make things easier. There is no need to heat the other oils, though. If things get too hot you may end up scorching the sugars in the soap.)
- Add the lye solution to the oils and gently stir together until the lye solution has fully mixed with the oils.
- You can now begin to carefully blend together the oils and lye solution with an immersion blender. You’ll want to blend for several minutes, until your soap has reached “trace.” Trace is the point in soapmaking when the oils and lye have emulsified and the saponification process begins. (Read more about reaching trace in this soap above.)
- Once you’ve reached trace, you can add the honey and any essential oils or fragrance oils that you want to use. Blend until they’ve been fully incorporated.
- Pour the soap into soap molds. I used a silicone loaf pan for this recipe.
- If it is warm outside, you may want to pop your soap into the fridge or freezer to prevent having the soap partially gel. (You can read about the gel phase above.) Otherwise, leave it uncovered in a cool, ventilated area.
- After a couple of days, unmold the soap. If you’ve used a loaf type pan, cut the soap into bars.
- Allow the bars of soap to cure and dry for 4-8 weeks before using. (While you “can” use it before then without issues, the bars will harden and improve with time. Soaps will harden into longer-lasting bars and will mellow out during the curing process.)
- Enjoy your soap!
Raquel Ginebra
I cant wait to try this out.
How much does this recipe make?
Thanks
Tracy Ariza
Hi Raquel,
I filled a loaf sized pan with it. Depending upon how large you cut the bars of soap, I’d estimate it to be around 8-10 bars of soap.
Marie
Amazing soap recipe! Will you please help explain how much of the goats milk and water for the lye we would need if we didn’t want to freeze the goats milk soap and add it at trace?
Thank You
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hello,
Let me see if I’m understanding correctly…
You want to add the goat milk at trace?
I’d suggest, if using powder, mixing up a thicker goat milk and subtracting the amount of water you used to mix it from the total liquid amount.
If using the liquid goat milk, to be honest, I’ve never tried adding that much extra liquid at trace, but I imagine it’s fine in a recipe like this one with a lot of olive oil that doesn’t harden as quickly. You could add a small amount of the milk into the water, but I’d keep the amount very small and use cold milk and water if possible to help ensure it doesn’t burn. Then, incorporate the rest of the milk in right after you start to reach trace.
Mandy
Thanks for this! I’ve been looking for a simple recipe & this seems to fit. As one with sensitive skin, few ingredients are comfortable for me to use. One question though. Would organic, expeller pressed grape seed oil be a viable option to use as the only oil additive?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Mandy,
With soap recipes, you can’t just switch out the oils like you can with a food recipe. Not only do different oils need different amounts of lye to make soap, but the different oils behave completely distinctly in soaps. Most liquid oils don’t make for very good, hard bars of soap that will cleanse well. That’s why they are normally combined with coconut oil and/or solid animal fats. Olive oil is an exception in that it can make a relatively decent bar of soap on its own, but not everybody likes the feel of an only-olive-oil Castile soap.
In any cases, any changes made to the oils in a soap recipe need to be run through a lye calculator.
Sarah
Can you substitute water for coffee in this recipe? And could you add scent, like essential oils? If so, how many drops of oil would you recommend?
Thank you!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Sarah,
Yes, I don’t see why not!
I’ve used coffee before in lots of soaps.
And, yes, you can also add essential oils for scenting.
They usually recommend around 2%-3% weight-wise of the recipe, but that can end up being a lot of EO. On the other hand, the EO scents tend to fade, so you will want to use a bit more than you think you need if you are using your nose to guide you. (I tend to use that method and that ends up being a lot less quantity-wise, but I often end up with soaps that don’t have much of a scent anymore after several months.) 😉
Tracy Ariza
I should add that I probably wouldn’t use both together- only because coffee has a strong scent and it would probably overpower any EO’s you added.
MARY K DEMPSEY
How would you use powdered goat’s milk?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Mary,
Just follow the instructions that come with the powdered goat’s milk for reconstituting it and then you can use it like other goat’s milk.
Thank you, Erica
Great recipe thank you. I’ve had trouble with my guest milk turning Brown when I Freeze it. Any suggestions there. Also what temp are you oils and lye mixture when you combine them ? At what temp does the goats milk begin to turn brown?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Erica,
Do you mean that the frozen milk itself turns brown? I’ve never had that happen.
The milk will turn brown in the soap if it heats up high enough to scald it. I don’t take the temperature of my lye mixture and oils when combining. I’ve never found it necessary. If making a soap with solid oils, I usually melt the oils but don’t otherwise heat them. I usually use the lye solution as soon as it has cooled enough to handle it. In this case, because I was using frozen milk, the solution was cool enough to use immediately.
Kathy J.
Hello! I love making cold-processed soaps and would like to try your recipe. Can you tell me the inside dimensions of the mold you used so I can compute the differences for the mold I use, please? Many thanks!!!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Kathy,
The inner dimensions of the green mold that I used in the video for this soap are 20cm by 9cm. It has a height of 6cm.
Karen
Hi Tracy
For the goats milk and honey recipe, what could I use instead of avocado oil?
Thank you
Karen
Karen
I have just made a batch of the beginners soap and it was a success!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Karen,
That’s awesome! I’m so happy to hear it went well for you!
Now on to glycerin and liquid soaps. 😉 (Actually if you do make a liquid soap, I think the coconut oil liquid soap is my favorite, and it isn’t harder than the other. I do think a quick read through the other one first is a good idea!)
Karen
Hi Tracy
I cant find potassium hydroxide for the liqued soap
Tracy Ariza
Hi Karen,
I’ve always had to buy over the internet. You can find it at soap supply stores or on Amazon. (Here is an example of KOH.)
Bonita
Is there a recipe to make goats milk and honey soap with out lye?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Bonita,
It is impossible to make soap without lye.
You can buy pre-made melt-and-pour soaps and melt them and add in other ingredients, but many of those “soaps” aren’t actually soap at all- they are detergent bars. Event he ones that are- have used lye, but the reaction has already been done for you.
I don’t really like using melt and pour type soaps just because they normally have added chemicals to make the soap meltable (or they aren’t really soap). I prefer to got he more natural route and make soap myself.
You really only need to be careful for a few moments during the process- when you mix the lye with water until you stir that mixture with your oils.
Once you’ve done that, most of the lye has been reacted with the oils and it won’t hurt you anymore.
Alison Burnell
I can’t find lye, would this be ok?
1.5kg CAUSTIC SODA 99% Grade ‘Pearl’ Drain Cleaner,Soap Making Sodium Hydroxide https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N18VSPE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_O4zODb9ZQ7PZJ
Tracy Ariza
Hi Alison,
Yes, I’ve looked and that looks like it would be fine. They also recommend it for soap making in their listing, and it only has NaOH, which is what is important.
I can normally also find adequate ones in the supermarkets and it’s quite inexpensive and the containers are smaller. You might try there before ordering online amounts that are larger than what you need.
Even with the smaller containers, I can make several batches with it.
Alison Burnell
Many thanks for your reply. I’ll see if I can find in supermarket first
Sam
Is it possible to use goats milk powder? I haven’t been able to track down fresh goats milk! But I do have powder now. If so would I still need to freeze it etc?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Sam,
Yes, I used goats milk powder this time as an experiment and it turned out fine. I’ve heard of people who actually mix the powder into the soap at trace, but I also read that some people said it didn’t dissolve well. So, to be on the safe side, I mixed mine with water (in the amounts recommended on the package), and then froze the mixture of milk powder and water. It worked fine for me. (It did appear to be more concentrated on top of the ice cubes, but it didn’t seem to affect the soap making process at all.)
Laura Provost
If adding essential oils how much can you add to this recipe?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Laura,
I normally use my nose to decide, adding just more than what I think it needs because EO’s scent does fade with time in soaps. Some EO’s fragrance tends to last longer than others (like lavender is good one).
Some EO’s may cause it to reach trace a bit quicker, so that’s another thing to be ready for.
I tend to use less than 2% of the recipe, but I will admit that the soaps aren’t heavily scented at the low concentrations that I use.
I Googled to see what other people are using in soaps, and I found this post about using EO’s in soaps. Perhaps it will help you somewhat.
Karen
Lovely, thank you! I’ve made soap with coconut and almond milks but not goat, so looking forward to this. I’ve had trouble previously with soaps sort of sticking to silicone molds and no having a smooth surface once removed. Am I doing something wrong? Should I grease the molds prior? K.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Karen,
I’ve tried both ways and haven’t noticed much of a difference. I’ve always wondered if the “greasing” of the molds isn’t just going to result in making more soap on the outside when the unreacted lye reacts with the oils on the mold. (That’s just me thinking “out loud,” of course.)
What I can suggest is to wait an extra day or two (or three) before unmolding if you are having that problem.
If your mold fits in the freezer, the very best way to get soap out of a mold that is causing issues is to freeze it before unmolding! That helps shrink the soap somewhat (and also hardens it slightly) so it makes it much easier to remove the soap without it breaking.
In any case, if it does break, you can smooth things out pretty well those first days- and then once it’s hardened more, you can really smooth it out.
Margo
You need to leave the soaps longer in the silicone mold before you take it out maybe 6 days. It has to dry. Try putting a fan on it. Adding Sodium Lactate (tsp per lb) will make the soap harder quicker and you can pop it out in 4 days. For round silicone molds and plastic milky way molds I wipe it down very lightly with mineral oil.
Tracy Ariza
Thanks, Margo!
Yes, with a soap like this one, several days of setting in the mold is definitely helpful. (With a soap like the coconut oil laundry soap, you have to unmold within a few hours because it gets hard right away.)
I always struggle about whether or not I should give people an estimate of how long to wait before unmolding the different soaps because it also depends a lot on other factors (environment, temperature, etc.)