Lye question

[elitenaildesign]

Ok, another problem. i thought I would try part milk part water for my lye solution and it turned a nasty egg yolk yellow color. Is is supposed to do that. I want the soap to be pink and white in the end as the fo I am using is not supposed to discolor, but I am thinking the yellow will ruin it. Do ya think?

[Meridith]

You have to be careful when soaping milk otherwise the lye can curdle the milk. To help keep that from happening, I always freeze my milk and add it the lye very slowly. I also try not to get let my soap warm up too much and gel. It's hard not get a partial gel . It doesn't hurt the soap to get a partial gel, but it does change the look and consistency.

[elitenaildesign]

I ended up pouring it down the toilet. It had a nasty smell and turned brown. What a waste of 10oz of lye. Another lesson learned

[guppygirl]

oh man, you coulda used that! you wouldn't have gotten the white that you wanted but it still would have made a nice bar o' soap.

Like Meredith said, the trick w/goatsmilk is to keep your temps looooow... the last batch I did last week, I used a block of frozen GM and added the lye directly to it. It still turned yellow and gave off an ammonia odor but it went away. The batch would have been a nice cream color if I hadn't added SWs creme brule - it's so brown it's almost black!

Anyway, give another try with some frozen GM cubes. I have a 1/2 GM 1/2 water batch and while it's not bright white, it's a pale ivory and nice and creamy feeling.

Good luck!

[elitenaildesign]

So, you ever have stupid days???? Sometimes I think I have more than not. CRAP!

[Grumpy Girl]

The first time I soaped with GM, I thought it smelled like a rotten diaper. I started using GM powder. Much nicer, no diaper smell.

[CareBear]

Well, at least you cleared out your pipes a bit...

[Meridith]

Yeah that awful smell will cure out of the soap. As times goes on, you will be able to smell the FO.

[SoapDiva]

I've never done it, but I asked my supplier how she does hers. She adds the water and lye together first, lets it come to room temp, then adds the goats milk. Apparently it dosent react as badly the second time. As I said though, I've never tried it.

Getting powder up here can be a challenge.

[ChrisR]

I use fresh goat's milk for my liquid in all my soaps and freezing it is the best way to go. I also put the container holding my goat's milk in another larger bowl with ice cubes and some water to get it real cold before adding my lye to the milk. I get a nice creamy, soft yellow color to my milk and my bars stay a nice off white color most of the time.

[guppygirl]

So, you ever have stupid days???? Sometimes I think I have more than not. CRAP!

All the freakin' time LOL!

[funnygirl]

So, if you go with GM powder, do you mix the powder and water together and add to the lye, or do you mix the water and lye, let cool and then add the powder directly? Sorry if this is a dumb question, Im such a newb, LOL!

[Meridith]

When using the powdered goats milk it is best to reconstitute it down with water to avoid clumps and get it evenly dispersed IMO. You can add it powdered at trace and mix like mad to get it incorporated into the mix. I've only done it that once and much prefer to work with it frozen or as a liquid. You can also hold back half of your liquid gm and add it at trace.

[heirloomoriginals]

I use canned goats milk in my natural oatmeal, milk, and honey and add it at trace. I use half my water to mix my lye in and the rest of the milk goes in at trace. It does turn brown, and smells funny at first, but the smell does go away!

Steph

[doris]

Hi,

For my first GM soap, I poured the lye into the goatmilk (what a smell!), gave it a stir as usual, and left it whild I prepared my oils. It turned bright orange, and developed a thick crust on top, which never quite went away. I made soap anyway, called it "pee & puke", a reference to the appearance and the smell. It looked a bit funny, smelled a bit odd, but is quite a usable soap. We use it in the bathroom at work. Subsequent GM soaps, I did the oils first, and stirred the GM and lye almost continuously and had beautiful creamy ivory coloured soaps.

Doris