Wants to produce a harder bar of goatmilk soap

by Mary from Ohio

The current goatmilk soap recipe that I am using is as follows:

4 1/2oz olive oil
5oz coconut oil
12 oz veg. oil
2.9 oz lye
8oz goatmilk

This produces a really nice bar that lathers well, but it seems as though it melts rather quickly. What can I change to produce a harder, longer lasting bar that does not melt so fast.

Answer:

You've listed one of your oils as "Vegetable Oil". What type of vegetable oil are you referring to? I'm going to guess that it's a soft oil.

Your recipe has only 23% hard oils in it so that would explain why the soap is softer and dissolves quickly. If you want a harder soap you will need to increase the amount of hard oils.

Try replacing some of the soft oils with any one or more of shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, palm oil, lard or tallow. These oils all contain stearic and/or palmitic acid which produces a nice hard soap.

Cathy

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Wants to produce a harder bar of goatmilk soap

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whitish blotches on my bars of soap as they cure
by: Anonymous

I use fresh raw goats milk and the oils I use are coconut, palm, olive, grapeseed, caster, sunflower and sweet almond. Coconut not more than 30%....I get a nice trace, pour into molds that equal 36 bars, cover 24 hours and then take out to sit and cure... am I taking the soap out of the molds too soon?? What is causing this patchy white thick discoloration on my soaps?? I don't believe it is ash, as I have experienced ash and it is more of a thin powdery layer that can be wiped off.. Any thought?
Thank you,
MW

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Stearic Acid
by: Anonymous

This will answer my question as part of comment.
If palm,mango,etc will make it harder with their stearic acid. Why wouldn't we just add stearic acid?
The cost is much less for it.

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