Goat Milk Soap Recipe (2024)

A step-by-step tutorial for a nourishing and natural cold process soap. You’ll love this goat milk soap recipe.

❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe

• It’s great for your skin. Goat milk has a long reputation for being soothing and moisturizing to human skin, and being able to dissolve dead skin cells and oils because of its lactic acid.
• Fun and exciting! Just like making soap with beeswax and honey, it’s fun to work with farm-inspired, natural ingredients.
• All-natural. The color is naturally occuring.

Let’s get to it.

Ingredients

I recommend Nurture Soap for lye, oils, fragrance, and colors. They are affordable and you can get fragrances and colors in small quantities if you want.

• almond oil
• castor oil
• coconut oil
• olive oil
• palm oil
• shea butter
• beeswax
• lye
• goat milk (I used this powdered goat’s milk and mixed it with water)
• fragrance oil or color (optional: I did not use color in this soap but used my favorite fragrance, which you can find here)

Equipment

• a kitchen scale that allows you to zero out your measurements (I use and recommend this one.)
• a stick blender
• safety gear
• old pots
• a soap mold (this recipe fits perfectly into a 10-inch silicone loaf mold like this)

🍴Instructions

Preparing the goat milk, oils and lye

Okay, my friends, let’s make this! If you’ve made soap before, it will all seem very familiar, with one big, weird exception: goat’s milk!

We can’t just go pouring lye into the milk, and here’s why: when you add lye to any liquid, it will shoot way up in temperature because of the chemical reaction. If this happens with milk, there can be an unpleasant reaction like curdled milk. No thanks.

So first we want to get the milk to a semi-frozen, slushy state. Just put it in the freezer for about four hours, until it is partially frozen.

Then we proceed. Carefully measure out the lye and pour it into the milk. You’ll need to stir quite a bit, but almost instantly the ice will start to melt and the milk will heat up and perhaps change color.

Set aside the lye milk in a safe place, and being measuring and melting your oils. Everything has to be thoroughly melted and should be about 140 degrees.

Let both components cool for an hour or two, until they are about 110 degrees. (Anywhere from 100-125 is acceptable.)

Stick Blending and pouring

It’s time for the fun part! Before you start blending, make sure your mold, fragrance oil, and any other additions are ready to go.

Pour the milk into the melted oils, and begin stick blending. Blend for a few minutes until trace is reached. The batter should thicken slightly and leave trails when stirred or when the stick blender is lifted.

Once you’ve reached trace, stir in the fragrance (if using) by hand and immediately pour the batter into the mold. Smooth out the top.

Because of the sugars in the milk, this soap will get hot! To avoid cracking or any other problems, I’d recommend you put this in the fridge or freezer.

After 24 hours, turn the soap out of the mold (it may still be a bit soft), cut into bars, and store in a well-ventilated space for a few weeks.

You will love it.

Storage instructions

This soap does best if you store it in a cool, dry place with plenty of air circulation. I like to use a shoebox with layers of newspaper.

🔍 FAQs

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert tips

• Don’t skip the step of freezing the goat milk. It will scorch when the lye hits it otherwise.
• Be sure to have your mold, fragrance, and colors ready to go before you start stick blending.
• Feel free to add extra goodies at trace. Try ground oatmeal, jojoba beads, or poppyseeds.

Want more soaps?

• My most popular soap recipe is extra bubbly and uses mango butter for a super nourishing bar.
• Homemade soap is for more than skin! This DIY dish bar is a thrifty kitchen project.
• Prefer a palm-free recipe? Kitchen lemon soap is palm free and all-natural.

🍅 make it along with me

Follow along step by step. The slides will turn every 7 seconds, or you can click ahead.

📖 Here’s the recipe

here’s the recipe

Enjoy your soapmaking!