Oil on top of the goat milk soap

by Celia Johnson
(Ellensburg WA USA)

A friend and I just made goat milk soap with a recipe that has worked well before (without the goats milk).

The difference is that we substituted half of the water with goat milk. There wasn't much of a trace until we added the goat milk - after stirring for 1 1/2 hours.

We doubled checked the weighed ingredients but still ended up with oil that separated and was on top of the soap after we poured it into the mold. (We kept the temperature at about 98 - 100 degrees.)

The actual soap looks pretty good but we are puzzled by the oil. Is it because the goat milk has a high percentage of oil itself and when substituted for the water there was too much oil?
Thanks Celia

Answer:

I'm guessing that the soap hadn't actually reached a trace yet or there was an error somewhere in your weighing of the ingredients.

I'm puzzled by the fact that it was taking so long for the soap to trace at all. Especially since you would have been using half the water which usually speeds up trace time. One and a half hours is a very long time.

When you added the goat's milk, it probably produced a false trace and still needed more stirring. Does it usually take so long for this recipe to reach a trace?

Cathy