# goat milk and lye mix



## homeacremom

Please forgive me for bringing this up again.  I used frozen cubes adding my lye while stirring. I stirred until the lye was dissolved and the milk started turning green yellow :really and the container felt warm to the touch. I then quickly stirred it into my room temp oils...
I still not sure if this is correct or if it is better to let the lye mixture heat all the way up and cool before soaping.
I'm thinking I got a hotter gel with working it more quickly than when the lye mixture is cooled first.
Can someone explain?
Thanks


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## ali923

What I understand is that you want the temperature of the oils to be the same as the temperature of the lye/milk mixture, and usually it will take a little while for them to match. And, you also want the lye/milk temp to get to atleast 120 and then cool down. The temp you want both to be before mixing is around 98 to 100 degrees usually. That's just what I do, there's other ways of doing it.
allison


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## Sondra

When I mix my frozen milk and lye I put the milk in my pan first in very cold water in the sink then pour my lye in over the cubes very slowly stirring as I pour. I keep the water in the sink cold either with ice or just running in new cold water. This keeps my lye mixture cool enough that the milk doesn't burn.


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## ali923

Yep, me too sondra, that's what I do and that helps the milk/lye solution not get so dark and curdely, if that's a word. It sure can get nasty looking when it gets really hot. But it still makes soap.


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## Guest

Temps do not make one bit of difference, you can mix the oils and lye mix together at any temp and if you get trace, you will have soap... throw out the thermometers and get going.. saves you time.. I do not ever get anything over 100 degrees to make soap, often stay about 90, can guess with my hands..
I do what Sondra does, put my pan in ice water before starting.. I can sometimes get an almost white soap if I put the lye in very very slowly
Very pretty colonial white.. 
Barbara


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## ali923

R U Serious about the temps? I thought it mattered. The oils and lye/milk don't even have to be the same?


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## NubianSoaps.com

Allison you ought to come over for a soap class one day. You think the way you do because folks tell you this so you give up soaping  I soap cool also, just melty certainly nothing hot...hot is your enemy it will then burn off your essential or fragranced oils. Taking temps is a waste of your time, and giving you soo many things to juggle you will fail. And that is what they want, make it so hard you are in awe of them and you won't soap. Vicki


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## Sondra

I didn't know I was even supposed to worry abt temps  guess that is cause I have already had Vicki's soap class Which is wonderful.


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## Guest

I like the white creamy look the milk cubes and lye give, perfect for florals. Gardenia anybody? Tammy


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## ali923

So let me get this straight. What I should do the next time I make soap is to melt the oils so that it is just hot enough to melt and mix the lye with the goat milk ice cubes and then when the oils are mixed and melted and the lye and goatmilk are mixed there won't be any need to take any temp whatsoever and I am going to just mix both together and not worry about a thing? That sure does sound terriific! :biggrin Do you realize how much time and hassle that will save me not having to make sure the temps of each are the same and not having to worry about getting them down to a certain temp? Wow!


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## homeacremom

Allison, what you just said!!!! It is just now sinking in for me....As long as I can be sure my kids won't be around to get in the lye it is sooo easy peasy.


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## homeacremom

So Vicki, does the soap get hotter if the lye is not allowed to heat and then cool? My soap got hotter in the mold than I remember it ever doing before...Soaps still smell good so I guess the Eo's didn't all burn off; but the mold was hot enough I didn;t want to hold my hand underneath for long.


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## NubianSoaps.com

So Vicki, does the soap get hotter if the lye is not allowed to heat and then cool?
..............

Lye never has to get hot to work, most don't know this, heat has nothing to do at all with saponification or curing or anything do to with soap.

You can make your lye/milk in an ice bath so your lye never heats up the icemilk, this gives you your whitest soap when using 100% milk in your soap. That really cold milk/lye can then be added to the just melty butters and oils, I never heat my oils, I only heat my butters to get them out of the containers. You get trace so much faster when you aren't dealing with hot lye and hot oils.

The only time my soap gets hotter as it soaponifies in the mold is when I have used too much honey or once when making my coconut soap I picked up coconut that wasn't sugarless! Oh my it was lava. I would bet some essential oil blends with cloves or cinnamon etc...would also cause heat. Vicki


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## Sheryl

I pour my lye over ice cubes or milke cubes (frozen kind) and while the lye is melting the ice cubes/frozen milk, I am scooping my oils/butters and weighing them and pouring them into my bucket so I can start mixing. Most of it is big glops of stuff. I only melt enough to soften and get out of the container. I learned this from Vicki and the others posting on here. I did't believe it at first until I tried it. It is soooooo great. I usually put my milk in at trace, and my fragrance oil in at trace so everything is mixed before it has a possible chance to seize from whatever fragrance oil I am using. I even cp'd Havanna. Ohhh I love it.

I have thrown out all my soap books that I have been reading for years and years and drooling over wishing I could make soap. I don't even crack them open any more. Thank you Vicki for soaping freedom!!! :crazy

Now instead of reading books about making soap, I MAKE SOAP!

:yeahthat

Sheryl


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## Guest

Allison,
You don't even have to heat your oils completely, just heat the solids enough to soften them so that they mix good with your stick blender, add your liquid oils now (this cools it some) add your lye/milk mix, stick blend and you have soap. heat is barely involved, no thermometers at all... Just soaping... There are so many myths to soaping out there, another that you have to pour your lye slowly over the milk, not so if it is frozen solid, and you have it in a ice bath, you can pour all at once... or do premixed lye like some do..
Barbara


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## kidsngarden

My soap generally gels in the molds and then it gets hot - but that's the only heat involved in my soaping. I soap room temp if I'm not making 100% GM soap, just adding it at emulsification. My oils and lye solution are all premixed in master batches and they are always RT. If I am making 100% and doing the cube method I'd wager this time of year my lye milk solution is COOLER than my oils.

Thermometers - Bah! I hate em! Never have used them for soaping that's for sure....


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## Huminbird

I almost never get a jell...I hear that most always jell when they use GM. Am I doing something wrong or using frozen GM am I keeping things cool enough? I only jelled when I used Clove Bud EO.

I also tried ice cube trays to freeze my GM. It didn't work at all. I couldn't get the cubes out and wasted the GM.


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## Guest

I gel all of my goat milk soaps. I think it's a personal preference and I prefer gelled soap. 

I freeze my goat milk flat in gallon freezer bags. I drop it on the floor a couple times to break it up. 

Sara


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## ali923

what is the gell ya'll are talking about


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## [email protected]

Wow, I am going to try this! Today I made a marvelous lavender/mint soap and I barely let the oils heat up a bit. The crisco was still very firm and I blended that. It's always the last oil to melt. Then I mixed the lye and water and put it in a sink of cold water to cool. When I felt it wasn't hot I added the frozen goat milk and it slowly melted. It looked barely yellow. Once added to the oils the soap stayed a creamy white. I added green swirls with mica. I used a pipette to make the swirls and it worked really well. The soap got hot, but I don't think it gelled. 

Tomorrow I'm trying this out. It will save so much time. I was letting the oils heat until they were mostly liquid and then taking the oils off the heat. Happy to know I don't have to do that.


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## kidsngarden

When you freeze your milk in cubes you need to let the trays set on the counter for about 10 minutes to get them out of the tray easier. The freezer bag method does not work well for me. I've chipped my tile counter whacking it a time or two.


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## Guest

kidsngarden said:


> The freezer bag method does not work well for me. I've chipped my tile counter whacking it a time or two.


That's why you whack the bag on the floor rather than the countertop. 

Sara


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## NubianSoaps.com

Jo, and since Crisco is just hydrogenated soybean oil and soybean oil is cheaper at Wallmart than Crisco (its their store brand vegetable oil) and it's already liquid this would save you even more time. Vicki


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## Guest

Isn't it wonderful making soap this way, no wasting time with thermometers or waiting at all.. I love it all.. I do not use books at all anymore..
Barbara


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## [email protected]

That's true. I should try that! :lol


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