Soap Making with Goat’s Milk. How do I make my bars last longer?
Question by Talkstress: Soap Making with Goat’s Milk. How do I make my bars last longer?
I am currently in the process of making and testing bars of soap. I plan on selling them. The scent is terrific but for some reason, the bars do not last as long as regular bars. I am not using lye as I want my soap to be natural. I am using goats milk soap base, shea butter, and fragrance. Please help.
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I just wanted to give you some information, as for your comment about not using lye because you want your soap to be natural, you are quite mistaken. Lye soap is the only pure natural soap that you can make. Once the soaping process is finished there is no longer any lye left in the soap, you only use oils and butters in your soap, different oils and different butter combinations produce harder bars. Melt and pour soap bases can be natural, however, it is rare to find one. If your base contains sodium Laurel sulfate or any other sulfates, it is not natural and it is not good for your skin, period. Whoever told you lye soap is not natural has misinformed you, you need to read up on it, it is the best soap for your skin. As for making melt and pour base harder, you can try adding a bit of beeswax, stearic acid, or cocoa butter to your base, that should help with the life of the bars.
jh_maness
March 29, 2012 at 4:15 am
Soap without lye and fats (like olive oil and tallow) will be soft and short lived.
shazam82054
March 29, 2012 at 5:06 am
Both of these answers are great, and yes, someone used LYE to make your base. As a soap maker, I did melt and pour once, and the bars melted only after a few showers. I didn’t like them at all. Plus, I always seem to find an ingredient or two I don’t want in soap when I search for soap bases. Cold Process (CP) soapmaking allows soapers to know exactly what is going into their soaps. I also make base soaps to rebatch/handmill, and again I know what is in my base. Plus, rebatch is fun for the children since the lye has been neutralized. I also find that premade bought bases with goat’s milk and coconut milk seem to melt faster than other bases in the shower, the reason I don’t buy premade bases. I bought some hemp oil base, and the bar was gone after about six or seven showers! UGH! I even added cocoa butter to a base, and it still melted in the shower much faster than my cp soaps. Just remember, no lye, no soap, no lie! Perhaps if you reword your ? you might get more answers from people who do melt & pour. Something like, “I’m making soap from a goat’s milk base. How do I make my bars last longer?” or specifically ask, “I’m doing melt & pour from a goat’s milk base. How do I make the bars last longer than???” Good luck, and maybe check and see if there are any melt & pour soap groups at Yahoo or one of the other sites with groups like MSN or Google. Please let us know if you find a way to make your bars harder. I’d like to know. Happy New Year! 🙂
laughingleaf
March 29, 2012 at 5:11 am