the goat's milk page |
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goat's milk is great for the skin and is a wonderful additive to "creams and lotions", "bath bombs and salts", and "soap".
it contains naturally occurring alpha-hydroxyl acids (aha), which
contribute to a micro-peeling of the skin, gentry scrubbing off dead
skin cells. the low ph level is close to that of skin, making it a very
gentle exfoliant. goat's milk contains a high level of protein. it also contains high levels of nutritional elements -- (including, but not limited to, vitamins a, b-complex and c, and zinc) -- that nourish and rejuvenate dehydrated skin. vitamin a, an antioxidant, slows down the effects of aging, as well as prevents age spots and thickening of the skin.the fat globules of goat's milk are small, allowing for fast and easy absorption into the skin, bringing with it the nutrients, restorative proteins, and moisture. this helps nourish the newly-grown skin and encourages the production of elastin. new skin emerges smooth, healthy and younger looking. |
• available forms | |
for the sake of discussion, goat's milk has two components, the milk
solids and water. goat's milk comes in three forms: whole milk (the way
it comes out of the goat), powder (which is the milk solids component),
and concentrate (which is the whole milk with half of the water
removed).
"meyenberg" recomends that 4 oz. (113 gm) of their goat's milk powder be
extended to make 32 fl. oz. whole goat's milk. based on this, i treat
the powder as being 1/8 (.125) of the whole goat's milk quantity, with
the remaining 7/8 (.875) being water.
[their] concentrated goat's milk (12-oz. can) has half of the water
content removed. through calculation, i conclude the milk solids (powder
equivalent) of the concentrate is 22% (.22), with the remaining 78%
(.78) being water. consequently, [the milk portion of] a 12 oz can of concentrate is equivalent to 21.1 oz. of whole milk, or 2.67 oz. powder. i personally use the goat's milk powder ...for three reasons.
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• using goat's milk in creams and lotions | |
when adding goat's milk to a cream or lotion, add it to the water phase.
i've not read of any maximums or minimums, but from experimentation,
i've settled on 10%, an amount sufficient to add it's benefits to the
cream / lotion while not being so much as to present a problem with
preservation. this 10% (per the formulas on the "lotion page") represents the amount of whole milk. this would equate to 1.25% (.0125) powder or 5.7% (.057) concentrate ...with appropriate adjustment to the water amount. |
• using goat's milk in bath bombs and salts | |
goat's milk makes a wonderful addition to bath salts ...or to any bath even without the salt. see the "bath salt formula" for the suggested amounts. goat's milk [could] also be used in bath bombs (fizzies), but in my experience, the effervescence (caused by the reaction of the citric acid with the sodium bicarbonate in the presence of water), is severely impeded when you start adding a lot of extra "stuff" to the bath bomb. by adding enough milk for it to have any significant effect on the bath, the bomb wouldn't fizz ...it would just slowly foam, which is not the desired effect. |
• making goat's milk soap | |||||||||||||||||||||||
goat's milk makes a wonderful addition to any soap. the problem has
always been the effect of the lye on the protein in the milk, darkening
it and leaving you with brown soap ...which in and of itself is not a
bad thing if you want brown soap. there are, however, some processing
methods used to rectify, or at the very least, minimize this effect. this is a non-issue when adding goat's milk [powder] to soap that's being rebatched, (including pre-made m&p base), there's no problem because there's no lye present. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
using goat's milk in cold / hot process bar soap: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
one
of the more popular methods is to freeze the milk, (be it all milk or
part milk and part water), before adding the lye to it. however, the
milk can't be solidly frozen; some, or all, of it should be "slushy" or
else the lye will just lie there (no pun intended) and do nothing. as
the lye is reacting with the partially frozen milk, the heat melts the
milk, but the temperatures are kept low, so the milk doesn't burn and
turn brown. the "secret" is to add the lye very, very slowly. the molds
are not insulated during saponification, and the resulting soap only
tans slightly. the degree of tanning depending on the processing
temperatures (e.g. lye/milk, oils, environment). generally, you can't
use any of the cooking processes to make the soap if you want a lighter
bar. if your soap goes to full gel, it will turn brown ...to some
degree. the problem is that [goat's] milk is itself a super heater and adds a lot of heat to that usually produced by the saponification process. so the objective, in whatever method is being used, is to keep the saponifying soap from getting too hot. there are myriads methods that produce bars ranging from the lightest to darkest shades of brown. sometimes the coloring is what one has to accept being a result of the chosen process. other times, the coloring is a desired effect which is purposefully sought after. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
since i generally use the cold process oven process to cut down on the curing and drying time, my goal was to find a way to use this cooking process with goat's milk and still come out with the lightest possible bar. the procedure i followed is based on refrigerating the soap and then heating it.
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using goat's milk in cream soap: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
since
the end product is of a "creamy" malleable texture, it's best to add
goat's milk powder [slurry] at the end of the process where there's no
lye present to affect the milk and discolor the soap.
if you prefer to use whole or concentrated milk, adding it at this point
would alter the texture of the soap. you would, therefore, incorporate
the milk halfway through the process, after the soap has reached light
trace ...having deducted the water portion of the milk from the lye
water amount. this will have some browning effect.
an exception to this would be if you were following the procedure outlined in "cream soap 2",
where half the water is withheld from the process to be added at the
end. here the liquid milk could simply be substituted for [all or part
of] that water ...with no soap discoloration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
using goat's milk in liquid soap: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
you
can add goat's milk to this type of soap in either of two ways: during
the making of the soap paste, or during the diluting of the paste into
liquid soap.
if adding the milk during the paste making process, you want to add
goat's milk powder [slurry] to the oils before mixing with the lye.
alternately, you could add the slurry, or whole or concentrated milk
[with the water portion deducted from the lye water] halfway through the
process after the soap has reached light trace.
even though each of the above is intended to lessen the effect of the
lye on the milk, the soap will still darken because it has to cook (gel)
for several hours. it's during this phase of the process that the
mixture darkens. you will end up with an amber colored soap, but it will
be transparent.
the amount of milk added in this manner should not exceed 10% (.10) of the oils. this quantity "recommendation" comes from the "snowdrift farm formulary",
and is based on using meyenberg concentrate. this would be the
equivalent of 17.8% (.178) using whole milk or 2.2% (.022) using just
the powder. the darkening of the soap seems to correspond directly with
the amount of goat's milk used ...so if you were to apply the 10% to
whole milk, your resulting soap would be considerably lighter than if
you used the same amount of concentrate.
the second method is to add goat's milk powder [slurry] to the diluted
paste. here, there is no darkening of the soap, even if the paste is
alkaline. the milk would be added after neutralization. the milk does
not go into solution, so your mixture is not transparent but translucent
(milky) ...the degree of which being dependent on the amount of goat's
milk added.
you can't add liquid milk at this stage since the water portion would
further dilute the soap. although, i suspect you could substitute some
of the dilution water with liquid milk. in this instance, however, if
your paste were alkaline, there may be some reaction with the small
amount of lye present (before neutralization). i can't say for sure
since i've never added liquid milk in this manner.
if transparency is not the goal, there would be no need to take the -10%
discount when making the paste. consequently, your paste won't be
alkaline (needing neutralization), so there would be no lye present to
affect the milk.
the amount of milk powder added in this manner should not exceed 4% of
the diluted soap ...too much has a dampening effect on the lather. i
generally use 3%. i can't address the maximum amount of liquid milk to
use in substitution for dilution water having had no experience with
this method. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
using goat's milk in transparent bar soap: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
this refers to making the actual transparent (m&p) base, not adding ingredients to the melted soap (rebatching). all the of m&p bases that contain goat's milk seem to be opaque (white), suggesting that the milk was added post-process. i've never seen or heard of a transparent goat's milk soap base. however, based on my experience with transparent liquid soap, i don't see why the milk couldn't be added to the process to produce a transparent, albeit amber-colored bar ...similar in appearance to neutrogena. when i make my next batch of transparent m&p base, i intend to put this theory to the test ...posting the results when available. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
using goat's milk in whipped soap: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
my suggested method is to add goat's milk powder [slurry] to the "melted" hard oils ...letting them completely cool and solidify before processing.
the amount of powder i use is the amount it would take to convert the
[amount of] lye water to whole milk. (i.e. if the lye water amount is
100 gm, I would use 14.29 gm goat's milk powder.)
since there is no gelling or any external heat source used in this
process, the milk remains unaffected by the lye; there is no
discolortion of the soap.
i don't know of any way to use liquid milk with this type of soap
process ...other than adding partially frozen milk directly to the lye.
this, however, would result in an immediately reaction between the lye
and milk.
you could add the milk powder [slurry] to the pliable soap post process,
but you only have approx. 30 minute to do whatever else you plan to do
before the soap starts to set up, so the less you have to do at this
point, the better. | |||||||||||||||||||||||