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