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!
Sonia
I made the recipe. It was creamy and delightful. I’m still waiting for it to be ready to use. Only downside I found is that it wasn’t enough for my mold so I ended up adding goats milk soap base to finish filling up the mold. I can’t wait to cut it and have it ready.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Sonia,
I hope you enjoy it!
Maddy
Hi there,
I would like to try this recipe and add some oatmeal into it. What stage would you recommend doing that, and how much?
Thank you!
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Maddy,
I’d add any additives after trace, before pouring into the molds!
Pwfamily
Hi – do you measure the milk before freezing into cubes or after?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Because it’s by weight and not volume, it doesn’t really matter. 😉
Paige Cox
Hi! Can I use manuka honey in place of raw honey in your recipe? I’m making a batch for a child with eczema and her mom requested manuka specifically. Thanks!
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Paige,
I don’t see why not.
Manuka honey is quite pricey, and I probably would personally save it for direct use topically instead, but if it’s what somebody wants, I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. 😉
Paige Cox
Thank you so much for the fast reply! I’ll be making this tomorrow night and will report back once I unmold!
Penelope
Thank you for the soap recipe. I made this soap a few days ago. I put it in the freezer for 12 hours and then put it in the fridge for 24 hours. I let it sit in the mold for 2 days. I cut it and the middle is a different color from the ends. I know this usually comes with temperature. What did I do wrong? Also, It is a little soft but it keeps getting firmer as the days go by. Thanks!
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Soaps with a lot of olive oil stay quite soft at first, but harden with time.
As for the color- yes, it must have heated more in the center, but it surprises me if you were so careful to use the freezer and fridge! I’m not sure how else to prevent that from happening. (Luckily, it’s only cosmetic!)
Carolyn Grimson
Hi, I made my 1st batch of soap using your goat milk & honey recipe. It was successful, thank you, or your very clear instructions. After 4 weeks of drying, I finally got to use it. I am 65yrs old and the skin on my arms and hands are like paper and I frequently bump door catches etc and rip my skin. After just 1 week of using this soap, I did the usual, bump my arm, and this time it was just a stratch with a red dot that didnt bleed. I recommend this soap for people with dry skin. One word of warning though, keep your goggles on while cleaning up utensils. I had 1 drop from a splash hit my eye, just the cleaning water, and I had glasses on, not goggles, and had a burn that required a trip to hospital. No lasting effects which is great. If this happens to you, get in shower straight away and hold eyelids open for several minutes, longer if its straight lye, then go to hospital. Thanks again for a wonderful easy recipe.
Olivier
Hello,
Thanks for this great and well-explained recipe! I started making liquid ans solid soaps and selling them at local markets, one couple came by saying they were desperately looking fir goats’ milk soap, so I figured why not. I have a bit of experience now but still not an expert, so I really appreciate how well you explained all the steps and why things needed to go as they do.
I tried it today and we’ll see how it comes out. I put my water/lye bowl in a larger bowl with ice water, worked well, no scorching or weird odor from the milk. I subbed some hemp oil for the avocado since the can I thought was full turned out not to be, and added a bit of castor oil, which I’ve developed a habit of doing (recalculated the lye of course). So it’s not exactly your recipe but it shouldn’t be entirely different, I think? I’ve so far only used hemp oil in liquid soap (to copy that soap with all the words on the label), I guess it’s an experiment.
I also used olive oil infused with linden flowers and distilled water that the same flowers steeped in (then cooled in an ice bath). One market I sell at is on a street named after linden trees, so I figured why not, plus I like their smell. Soap paste is a really nice buttery color and smells very nice. It’s in the fridge since the weather got a lot warmer all of a sudden, I can’t wait to see how it looks when I can cut it!
I used goat’s milk from the supermarket, but there is a goat farm not too far away, big attraction for kids (you can feed the baby goats milk, and play with them). If it turns out well and people buy it I will make a point of using the local, organic stuff, maybe try a few recipe variants.
Thanks again, I like your site a lot,
Learned a good deal from your posts and recipes.
Best of luck!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Olivier,
Wow, I hope it goes well for you! I’m sure your soaps are wonderful!
My son (and I 😉 ) would love going to the goat farm.
I’d also love to see the linden trees.
Here linden tea/infusions are quite common and given to people to calm their anxiety. I’ve never actually seen the trees in person, though.
Mae
Hello, can i just use coconut oil and remove the avocado and olive oil? If yes, how much should I put for 6 bars of soap?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Mae,
In soap recipes, any changes that you make will completely change the resulting soap. Not only would you need to run the changed recipe through a lye calculator because each oil needs a different amount of lye, but the properties of the resulting soap would also completely change.
Coconut oil makes a hard bar of soap that provides a lot of lather, but it can also be drying. Avocado and olive oil are both conditioning oils in soap.
The oils don’t behave the same way in a soap as they would in a lotion either.
Brid
Hi there, I milk my own goats so can’t wait to make some soap from their milk, can you use all milk rather than a mixture of milk and water ? Brilliant site thank you so much
Tracy Ariza
Hi Brid,
I’ve never tried that.
What concerns me about it is I’m not sure if you can dissolve the lye directly in the milk without it scalding. I guess if you combine it directly with the slush/icy milk it may be fine.
I guess it’s all about experimentation.
A
Yes you can! I put my milk into ice cube trays, and I measure out totally frozen cubes for my lye mixture. I use no water whatsoever.
Betty
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and being specific when giving each step! So appreciated from this beginner!!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Betty!
You’re welcome!
I wish you the best of luck making soap! 🙂
Milly
Hi Tracy, I made the recipe. But found the goat milk soap with the following problems:
1. A bit sticky (already 3 weeks from the day of making)
2. White spots are found at the back of the soap
Kindly advise. Thanks!
Milly
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Milly,
I’m sorry that happened—
When you say white spots, are they kind of chalky? That could just be what they call “soda ash.” It’s a reaction of lye with carbon dioxide in the air. Some people spray their soaps with alcohol after pouring into the mold to prevent it. I haven’t had it happen much, so I normally don’t bother. In any case, it’s just cosmetic and you can rinse it off.
As for the stickiness, that may also just be something on the outer layer. It may just need to be cured further. These soaps with a high amount of olive oil generally benefit from longer than average curing times.