A step-by-step tutorial for a nourishing and natural cold process soap. You’ll love this goat milk soap recipe.
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❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe
- It’s great for your skin. Goat milk has a long reputation for being soothing and moisturizing to human skin, and being able to dissolve dead skin cells and oils because of its lactic acid.
- Fun and exciting! Just like making soap with beeswax and honey, it’s fun to work with farm-inspired, natural ingredients.
- All-natural. The color is naturally occuring.
Let’s get to it.
Ingredients
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I recommend Nurture Soap for lye, oils, fragrance, and colors. They are affordable and you can get fragrances and colors in small quantities if you want.
- almond oil
- castor oil
- coconut oil
- olive oil
- palm oil
- shea butter
- beeswax
- lye
- goat milk (I used this powdered goat’s milk and mixed it with water)
- fragrance oil or color (optional: I did not use color in this soap but used my favorite fragrance, which you can find here)
Equipment
- a kitchen scale that allows you to zero out your measurements (I use and recommend this one.)
- a stick blender
- safety gear
- old pots
- a soap mold (this recipe fits perfectly into a 10-inch silicone loaf mold like this)
🍴Instructions
Preparing the goat milk, oils and lye
Okay, my friends, let’s make this! If you’ve made soap before, it will all seem very familiar, with one big, weird exception: goat’s milk!
We can’t just go pouring lye into the milk, and here’s why: when you add lye to any liquid, it will shoot way up in temperature because of the chemical reaction. If this happens with milk, there can be an unpleasant reaction like curdled milk. No thanks.
So first we want to get the milk to a semi-frozen, slushy state. Just put it in the freezer for about four hours, until it is partially frozen.
Then we proceed. Carefully measure out the lye and pour it into the milk. You’ll need to stir quite a bit, but almost instantly the ice will start to melt and the milk will heat up and perhaps change color.
Set aside the lye milk in a safe place, and being measuring and melting your oils. Everything has to be thoroughly melted and should be about 140 degrees.
Let both components cool for an hour or two, until they are about 110 degrees. (Anywhere from 100-125 is acceptable.)
Stick Blending and pouring
It’s time for the fun part! Before you start blending, make sure your mold, fragrance oil, and any other additions are ready to go.
Pour the milk into the melted oils, and begin stick blending. Blend for a few minutes until trace is reached. The batter should thicken slightly and leave trails when stirred or when the stick blender is lifted.
Once you’ve reached trace, stir in the fragrance (if using) by hand and immediately pour the batter into the mold. Smooth out the top.
Because of the sugars in the milk, this soap will get hot! To avoid cracking or any other problems, I’d recommend you put this in the fridge or freezer.
After 24 hours, turn the soap out of the mold (it may still be a bit soft), cut into bars, and store in a well-ventilated space for a few weeks.
You will love it.
Storage instructions
This soap does best if you store it in a cool, dry place with plenty of air circulation. I like to use a shoebox with layers of newspaper.
🔍 FAQs
Like anything in the soap-making world, there are a lot of opinions about this! Many people argue that all the vitamins and minerals in milk benefit your skin, and many say that none of those minerals can be found in a finished bar. Either way, goat’s milk does contain a good amount of lactic acid, which is a natural exfoliant and can help give you glowing skin, improve acne, and make you look younger.
Just any cold process soap, we still need lye and oils. You can actually make any cold process soap into goat soap by replacing some or all of the water in the recipe with milk.
Well, technically, no. You can’t make soap without lye. But you can absolutely buy pre-made goat milk soap base, customize it with fragrance and color, and pour it into the mold of your choice. No need to handle lye.
No problem! Just get the powdered kind, mix it with water, and you’re off to the races.
👩🏻🍳 Expert tips
- Don’t skip the step of freezing the goat milk. It will scorch when the lye hits it otherwise.
- Be sure to have your mold, fragrance, and colors ready to go before you start stick blending.
- Feel free to add extra goodies at trace. Try ground oatmeal, jojoba beads, or poppyseeds.
Want more soaps?
- My most popular soap recipe is extra bubbly and uses mango butter for a super nourishing bar.
- Homemade soap is for more than skin! This DIY dish bar is a thrifty kitchen project.
- Prefer a palm-free recipe? Kitchen lemon soap is palm free and all-natural.
🍅 make it along with me
Follow along step by step. The slides will turn every 7 seconds, or you can click ahead.
📖 Here’s the recipe
here’s the recipe
Nourishing Goat Milk Soap Recipe
Equipment
- soap mold
Ingredients
- 3 ounces almond oil
- 2 ounces castor oil
- 10 ounces coconut oil
- 10 ounces olive oil
- 6 ounces palm oil
- 3 ounces shea butter
- 1 ounce beeswax
- 4.91 ounces lye
- 12 ounces goat milk (or combine 1 ounce powdered goat milk and 11 ounces water)
Instructions
- Prepare the goat milk by freezing for a few hours until it reaches a slushy consistency.
- Add the lye to the partially frozen milk and stir until completely blended. It will melt, heat up, and may change color. Set aside in a safe place.
- Measure the oils, butters, and beeswax and melt over low heat until completely melted and heated to 140 degrees. Set aside to cool. Prepare your soap mold and any color or fragrance you are using.
- When the milk and oils have cooled to about 110 degrees, pour the milk into the melted oils and blend using a stick blender. Mix until "trace" is achieved, or the soap thickens slightly and a trail of soap rests on top of the batter rather than immediately sinking in. Add desired fragrance or color, stirring in by hand.
- Pour into soap mold, gently smoothing out top. Place in fridge or freezer to avoid cracking. Un-mold after 24 hours, cut into bars, and allow to cure for 2 weeks before using.
Notes
Enjoy your soapmaking!
Okay, so I’ll be making this tomorrow. I will not be using palm oil because I don’t have any. I’m going to increase a couple of the other oils to keep the percentage the same. I will also add some raw honey. My goat’s milk is in ice cubes and that’s is how I’ll be using them as I have watched quite a few videos on the subject. I really love your recipe it looks amazing. Please let me know how much honey you would recommend to add to this recipe to not throw it off and reap the benefits of raw honey to the bars of soap.
laura i’d recommend 1-2 tablespoons mixed in at trace. and then it cure in the fridge 🙂
Can I increase the amount of Shea butter and use Cocoa Butter in place of the palm oil. Like 3 ounces Shea and 3 ounces Cocoa.
yes that should work, but you’ll need to run the recipe through a calculator… the amount of lye might change 🙂
Do you wrap it in anything or do you just put it straight in the freezer?
I’ve made goats milk soap twice and as recommended froze the milk but when the lye was added the temp only went to 20 degrees centigrade and even with the added honey didn’t raise much higher. Any thoughts on why this was
I avoid nuts and wonder if I could use an oil other than almond?
Quick question: if you were to give these away as gifts or sell them, how would you package them for storing? I’ve been looking on the internet and can’t find anywhere that answers that question. I was thinking maybe parchment paper?
Hi LeeAnn, I have used little Kraft paper envelopes like this: https://amzn.to/3OvdwrG but my favorite way is to do a sort of “cigar” wrapper with kraft paper and tie with twine.
I was wondering about how much it cost per bar to make this recipe.
Hey Melanie, It’s hard to say because when you order all the ingredients you’ll have enough to make multiple batches, each batch will make about 8-10 bars depending on how you cut them. The prices vary sooooo much for supplies. I would say less than $1.50 per bar assuming you have the scale, blender, etc.
I have a quick question: are the onces liquid measurements or weight?
Colleen
Hi Colleen, all my soaps are by weight 😊
Hey Katie!
Thanks so much for the recipe.. excited about trying goat milk soap.
One question.. how much fragrance oil would I put in? Sorry if I missed it🤪Thank you!❤️
Mary
Great recipe and loved the bright button comment! Thank you for sharing!
Love your Book Katie!
Thanks!
Great Job Katie and Thank You for the recipe❤️
Mary
Just so you know, nobody reads the dumb 4 book description of why you love each ingredient. It’s just super annoying to have to scroll through pages of literature just to get to the recipe because you want to write your life story, why you like each ingredient, and how many dumb life lessons you feel are associated with soap… Try putting the recipe first and your autobiography after so people that just want the recipe can get it without being waterboarded with your life story.
There is a bright button at the top that says “skip to recipe”. Just so you know.
Wow Andrew…That was rude!! Let’s see you do better!?! Sounds like you have a jealously problem to me.
Andrew missed the “skip to recipe” option. Andrew sounds like a TOTAL DISASTER! Sad.
I actually love the story behind the soap and all the handy links to gather the goodies.
Andrew, you do not need to be rude.
We are making soap in my ag class and we were wondering if instead of lye if we could use the liquid soap that’s already pre-made in a bottle and it still work the same.
Hi Aly, sorry that won’t work :(. If you guys don’t want to deal with lye, look for melt and pour soap recipes.
I made this soap and it cracked down the middle even though I put it right in the fridge :(. Any way to salvage it? Thanks for the very clear directions, this is my first time making cold process soap.
Hi, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and beautiful recipes. I’m just wondering if there may be an alternative to palm oil in soap recipes, perhaps your goats milk recipe as an example as I’d really like to try this but without palm oil. Could you please possibly suggest an alternative that will still make a beautiful bar, thank you very much in advance 😊
Hi Angela: I have two palm-free recipes that I make a lot: search the site for Lemon Soap recipes (it’s a little softer) and bay soap recipe. Just follow the instructions here for the goats milk and then use the oils from one of the palm-free soaps 😊
Thank you so much for sharing your gift. My goat soap and all of your recipes have worked to perfection!!! I am so ready for Christmas and everybody is excited
Hi there,
I am defiantly interested in making soap with this recipe, but I have a question. Can I use cold process extra virgin olive oil and unrefined coconut oil?
yes you sure can! t
Love the resipe i lurn a lot
I have enjoyed reading this and more interested to make the soap both for sell and for my own house , however I need more lessons from you is it possible to meet
Hi. Thank you so much for all the info and especially for sharing this recipe. Is it possible for you to give me the recipe in grams measurements please. I am from South Africa and I am not familiar with ounces. Thank you again.
Thank you for your help in sharing your recupes, got a questian, when you put the soap in the fridg or, freezer do you leave it there for the 24 hours? Thanks again
bridgette i just leave it overnight! 🙂