Goats Milk Soap Update

I bet you have been waiting on pins and needles for this.
Well, not literately on pins and needles but interested.

Monday night I was able to make my first batch of goats milk soap. *hurray!*

As usual, there was a wee bit of commotion. There always tends to be something that creeps up when I am in the middle of making soap.

I was measuring out all of the ingredients, feeling really smart and proud of myself. >jinx<

When I was measuring out the last ingredient (Palm Oil) the horror struck! I needed 12oz; I only had 4.7 in the pot. No, this really can’t be happening can it?! I raced through the bottom of the refrigerator, nothing. Went to the closet, looked up on the shelf then through my drawer storage system and came up with a big fat zero. Great, just great.

I deducted out what I placed in so I knew how much more to add in once I ordered some.

Humm… wait a minute. I know I ordered some, back to the closet I go and there in a bottle (yeah, I said bottle) was the oil!

Success!

Now to get it melted so that I could place it in the pot and get on with the soap making.

The bottle is too big for the microwave so that leaves a pot to get the melting done.

After about fifteen minutes there was a bit melted on the bottom but my impatience kicked in. It was going to take fanfricken f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get it melted.

What can I do?

What can I do?

Ah, I can use a knife to puncture the bottom and drain out what has melted, then scoop out however many more ounces I need and place the rest in a nice container. I grabbed a steak knife and punctured a hole. Oil drained into the pot, and now the fun of cutting down the side of the bottle. Not really a smart thing to do I realized after I paid attention to the bottle being slick. I then cleaned off the outside of the bottle and began to carve away at the side so I could get the last few ounces out that I needed.

Finally, the proper amount has been added to the soap pot and remaining oil transferred into an easy accessible container.

The rest of the process went smoothly, and it smelled so good.

I was finally finished around 10pm, time to hit the hay.

The next morning I woke up (5:50 am) to find that the soap was still in gel state and not warm at all.

Not a good sign.

Once the kiddos were off to school, I fired up the oven on warm and stuck the soap inside. Left if for about twenty minutes and then turned it off and left it until nighttime. I was able to force it through the gel stage and breathed a sigh of relief.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I actually got a chance to cut it into bars.

It is very, very dark, smelled really bad (I would gather the milk got too hot) and the fragrance was gone. Now the really bad smell is gone, and the fragrance is coming back slowly.
I know goats milk soap is good for you and all but I think I am going to stick to my simple soaps. I’ll let the soap cure now for six weeks and see what happens.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted.