Goats milk soap smelly???

[icecold]

I made some soap with 100% goats milk, added the lye very slowly to frozen goats milk and kept it cool in an ice water bath. It turned a pretty creamy lemon yellow color and smelled a little but not of burnt smell, kind of like when you add lye to beer just kind of icky. So I unmolded it today and it smells awful like a perm. It is scented Lavender. Is it supposed to smell like this and will it go away after cure time and only smell Lavender?

[chuck_35550]

Oh dear. I just did the same thing and so far the soap smells like rotten play dough. The soap does a great job but it smells awful. I used some left over lavender from Green Leaf and it is approved for soapmaking but it is gross. The soap is about 3 weeks old now and smells no better than the day it was made. All my other gm soaps even out after about a week and there is no noticeable gm smell.

[MissMori]

The stench will mellow with cure. I can't say it will completely go away. In soaps that I've made using goat's milk, without any eo or fo, there is a very slight odor do it after a good long cure. The lavender should mask it.

[icecold]

Hopefully as the soap did come out looking beautiful. If I were to add the lye to some water first and then add the milk at trace do you think that would help? Also I f I were to add it at trace does it have to be room temp or can it be cold?

[psfponies]

I had a lady come up to me at a farmers market and asked if my soap had goats milk in it. She said she bought a whole case of it and when she used it she said it make her smell like a smelly old goat!

[MarieJeanette]

Have you ever tried the 'Split Method'? I make GM soaps a lot using the Split Method and they are not smelly. This is how I do it: Instead of mixing the GM with my lye, I split my liquid amount in half. One half is water which I mix with the lye, and the other half is fresh, room temp.(not frozen) GM* that I add to my oils, either just before or just after adding the lye solution to my pot. That will make a 50% GM soap. If I want to make a 100% GM soap, I do the same, but I add enough powdered GM to the fresh GM to bring the concentration up to 100%.

*I use the Meyenberg brand of fresh GM that is sold in a carton in the refrigerated section of my grocery store on the 'lactose intolerant' shelf.

Depending on your GM method of soapmaking, the soap may or may not exhibit an ammonia or perm-like smell when first unmolded, but it should go away after cure. When I used to make my GM soaps by mixing my lye with the milk, or when I used the canned version of GM, I would always get that icky ammonia smell at first, but it always cured out for me. Now that I do the Split Method with the fresh GM I no longer get any of those initial yucky smells in my GM soap.

MarieJeanette

[Kitn]

I find the smell disappears after a good cure.

[icecold]

Thanks everyone. I am trying to make just goat's milk no water but maybe I'll try the method of water with the lye first so I don't have the smell. I'll let you know how it turns out. Can I get powdered milk in the grocery store? I get my raw goats milk from my local farm.

[icecold]

I just wanted to update you all, my soap smells much better today, mostly Lavender and not so much ammonia.

[adillenal]

I only make goat milk soap and I have never had a perm smell or any other off smell. I use fresh milk, goat milk kefir and sour goat milk and it all turns out nice. I have no idea why you are having a problem with a bad smell.

I can understand bad smells with canned goat milk. I tried that once.

I personally think some lavender smells awful.