You guys, I love making soap. There is just something so fulfilling about taking a bunch of ingredients that range from dangerous (lye), greasy – the kind of thing you use soap to clean! (oil), and kind of random, and making a good smelling, skin nourishing bar of soap out of it.
I remember the first time I used goat milk soap to wash my hands. Up until then, I had used some run of the mill soap like Ivory or something, which is really a detergent bar that leaves your hands kind of dry. I mean, try using ivory to soap up your legs for shaving! Doesn’t work, because it doesn’t attract moisture.
So imagine my shock when I grab that goat milk soap for the first time, wash my hands, and – what in the world?! My hands were soft when I was done!
That was about 8 years ago, and I kid you not – I haven’t bought another kind of soap since.
Goat milk attracts moisture to the skin, and helps soften it.
It’s. So. Cool!
In this bar of soap, we also have oatmeal, which is famous for correcting the ph of itchy, inflamed skin, and also helps moisturize and gently cleanse. My mom used to make us take oatmeal baths when we got poison ivy as kids.
So goat milk soap with oatmeal is kind of a match made in heaven.
The oatmeal gives it the same kind of exfoliating quality of the coffee scrub soap as well.
And of course, we added lavender, the swiss army knife of essential oils to not only make this soap smell amazing, but to lend its antiseptic, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, benefits as well. Lavender helps support the skin agains acne, wrinkles, psoriasis, and other inflammatory conditions.
These are all the reasons why I wanted to share this oatmeal lavender goat milk soap with you – because you’ll love it!
Oatmeal Lavender Goat milk Soap
Ingredients:
- 2 oz. lye
- 6 oz. ice cold goat milk
- 4 oz. coconut oil
- 4 oz. olive oil
- 8 oz. vegetable or canola oil
- 1 cup oatmeal (preferably colloidal oatmeal but any oatmeal will do)
- 1/2 oz. lavender essential oil
Instructions:
- Measure out your ingredients carefully. I highly recommend not opening your lye until you’re ready to measure, and immediately mix it in with your goat milk – especially if you live in a humid area where your lye will absorb moisture and stick to, or lump up in your measuring device.
- In a well ventilated place – preferably outside, pour goat milk into a large, non-reactive bowl – either glass or high-quality stainless steel.
- sprinkle lye granules on top of milk, and stir with a non-reactive spoon or spatula until lye is dissolved.
- Let mixture site and cool until it reaches about 100 degrees.
- In the mean time, melt oil, and cool to 100 degrees. I like to use an instant infrared thermometer, but a candy thermometer will work as well.
- When the temperatures match, gently pour the oil into the milk/lye mixture.
- Mix with an immersion blender for 5-15 minutes until your soap mixture reaches a trace. If you’re not sure what a trace is, read this article with descriptive pictures.
- Stir in oatmeal and essential oils and mix well.
- Pour soap mixture into a prepared mold. The mold used for the soap in these pictures was a plastic half-log mold from Hobby Lobby, making six, five ounce bars.
- Carefully move your full mold to a place where it can sit undisturbed for at least 24 hours.
- Cover with a cardboard or plastic box, and then with a towel or blanket to insulate.
- After 24-48 hours, you can remove your soap from the molds
- Place soap back in a place where it won’t be disturbed, and let cure for at least three weeks before using to complete the saponification process, sweat, and become harder.
NOTES
The colder your fresh goat milk is when you add it to the lye, the whiter your soap will be, canned goat milk, which I used in the batch pictured, will always result in caramel-colored soap.
Recipes everyone can make!
Nourish your body with ingredients you already have in your kitchen!
Tammi says
Do you use that much essential oil if you are using Young Living Oils? They are very strong so I wasn’t sure if you counted drops. Also, my goat milk ice cubes and lye temperature didn’t go up very quickly, am I doing something wrong?
Amber Harris says
Love this recipe. Making it now! If I’m doing pigment, should I decrease the amount of base oils I use to account for the oils in the color? Thanks.
Elise says
If it’s oil based color, then probably. With powdered color, no. The only liquid color I’ve used is chlorophyll, and with that, I just add a teaspoon or two after the trace and don’t change any ingredients.
Bryent says
In the notes you say the colder the goats milk is before adding lye the whiter it is. You mentioned that you used canned milk so it was tan. Was it ice cold so it didnt curdle when the lye was added? Does curdling ruin the milk?
Elise says
Yes, there isn’t any way to get around the canned milk being brown, but the milk is mostly likely going to curdle unless you have the patience to slowly add lye to nearly frozen milk over the course of about 15 minutes. It’s not a problem, it’ll qhisk out with your stick blender. 🙂
Wytney A Steelman says
2 questions. 1. Would you advise adding vitamin E? 2. Pros and cons of using lard?
Jamie says
How much does this recipe make ? Can it just be easily doubled or tripled ?
Elise says
Yes, you should be able to multiply the recipe. This recipe makes 1.75 pounds of soap.
Cynthia says
Can you put a link in your article for the soap mold you use? I’ve bought one, but it was too big. Thank you!
Laura Sirak says
hi!
So I read the article about trace (couldn’t find anywhere to post on that one) and saw a part about scent oils make soap harden quicker? Would you recommend not letting it go to a complete trace? Ex: blend together, but not as thick then, add oil (esp if it is a scent oil not essential), then, pour into mold?
Thanks!!
Elise says
I would bring it to a light trace, add the oils, and get it in the molds as quickly as possible. It’ doesn’t always happens, but with some, there’s a chemical reaction that hardens the soap very quickly.
Laura says
Awesome! Thanks!!
Regan Kelly says
Is there something I can substitute for the coconut oil? I’m highly allergic to coconut, but would love to try this recipe. Thanks.
Elise says
Yes, you can substitute any oil, but you’ll want to recalculate the quantity using this soap calculator to make sure you get a nice, mild bar. https://www.brambleberry.com/calculator?calcType=lye
Nina Lewis says
Hi. I am all set to try making soap. But my husband does not think that the lye found in the plumbing department is the lye used to make soap. Is there a specific lye for soap making? Ba
Michele Kuhnly says
If I wanted to leave out the Canola/Veg oil..could I just double up on the coconut or what substitution would you recommend?