Goat Milk Soap Recipe (Cold Process)

This goat milk soap recipe is extremely gentle, nourishing and decadently creamy. Follow these detailed step-by-step instructions and you'll make a stunning cold process soap!

Jump to:

• Benefits of Goat's Milk Soap
• Helpful Tips
• Equipment
• Ingredients
• How to Make Goats Milk Soap
• FAQs
• Goat Milk Soap Recipe (printable)

Today I'll show you how to make your own goat milk soap. Enhanced with essential oils and decked out with designs of beautiful soap molds. The result is a gorgeous, wonderfully rich and soothing oatmeal, milk and honey soap that everyone in your family will want to get their paws on!

If you'd rather make soap without lye using a melt and pour soap base, hop over to my goat milk soap recipe without lye. It's a great way to make your own soap easy!

Benefits of Goat's Milk Soap

There's been much debate about whether skin beneficials of goat milk are still present after the chemical reaction of soapmaking has taken place. Lots of it has not been studied yet and reports are mostly experience based. Nonetheless, goat milk lends itself perfectly as an ingredient in homemade soap and has many skin benefits:

The high fat content in goat milk allows for the soap to gently cleanse sensitive skin without disturbing it's natural lipid barrier.

Keeping your skin's lipid barrier healthy is important since that's what helps the skin retain moisture and prevents it from getting too dry.

A lot of folks with dry skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis, report that their skin has improved since they started using goat milk soap.

Goats milk also acts as a natural exfoliator. Lactic acid naturally found in milk can help gently slough off dead skin cells.

Helpful Tips

• this soap-making method requires the use of lye. Always wear protective gloves, goggles and long sleeves when working with lye. Keep lye solution away from kids and pets. Avoid inhaling fumes when dissolving lye and avoid contact with eyes and mouth.
• if you've never made soap before familiarize yourself with important steps in my how to make soap at home tutorial
• freeze goat milk before mixing in lye: goat milk contains a lot of sugars that will scorch, give of a bad smell and turn the soap brown if not cooled
• you can buy goat milk at grocery stores, you can get fresh milk from a local farm or from your own goats, of course, you can also used goat milk powder (see instructions)
• follow this recipe if you want to use a different type of milk, like cow's milk, sheep's milk or breast milk, simply swap out the goat's milk

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, you can read my full disclosure here.

Ingredients

• goat's milk (frozen): 4.1oz / 117g
• lye (sodium hydroxide): 2.2oz / 63g
• olive oil (45%): 7.3oz / 207g
• coconut oil (30%): 4.9oz / 138g
• shea butter (25%): 4oz / 115g
• lavender essential oil: 17g
• colloidal oatmeal (or very finely ground oatmeal): 1 Tbsp.
• raw honey: 2 tsp

How to Make Goats Milk Soap

1. measure out 4.1oz (117g) of goat milk and pour it into ice cube trays (if using powdered milk: mix 0.5 oz of powder into 3.6 oz of distilled water and proceed)
2. freeze goat milk
3. release goat milk from the ice cube tray into a plastic container

4. gear up for safety! put on gloves and goggles! wear long sleeves!

5. measure out lye into a small plastic cup

6. little by little pour lye over the frozen goat milk while pausing to stir each time until lye is dissolved (the slower you do this the less chance of the milk getting scorched)

9. keep adding lye and stirring until milk is fully liquid

10. set lye mixture aside in a safe place

11. in a plastic container add coconut oil and shea butter

12. melt coconut oil and shea butter over low heat in a water bath or in microwave on 30 second bursts

13. add olive oil to melted coconut oil and shea butter

14. measure out essential oil into a small glass container

15. add lavender essential oil, colloidal oatmeal (or finely ground oatmeal) and honey (not pictured) to warmed oils and combine with a stick blender

16. place soap mold on a cutting board so that you can move it in and out of the freezer later

17. let lye mixture and oil come to room temperature (you'll know if neither container feels warm touch)

18. carefully pour the goat milk lye solution into the base oils. try to pour down the shaft of blender (not pictured)

19. stick blend until lye and oils are well combined (no more oil visible and the mixture an opaque light yellow)

20. continue stirring with a spatula until the batter leaves thin trailings on top (you've reached medium trace)

21. carefully pour the batter into the soap mold

22. tap the cutting board with the soap on the counter a couple of times to release any air bubbles

23. move the soaps into the freezer for at least 3 hours

24. leave them at room temperature for another 48 hours

25. release the soaps from the mold by gently tugging on all sides first and then gently pressing from the bottom

26. cure your soaps in a dry cool place for 4 weeks

27. store in an old shoe box for up to 1 year

FAQs