Goat Milk is Good for your skin, right?

[NubianNerd]

I just got done taking a shower. Here's why!
I was peacefully milking my Artemis (FF Nubian doe). My bucket had about a quarter of a quart in it. Suddenly, she kicks, and the milk bucket goes flying-on top of my head. Have you ever felt warm goat's milk drip down your face and shirt? Not pleasant. I look down and realize that I'm completely covered in milk, as is the stanchion and the floor. The cats are, of course, obscenely happy and start licking everything in sight. I was, of course, obscenely unhappy. The rest of the milking went without incident, thankfully.
The nice thing was that I wasn't going to keep her milk anyway (we wormed her not too long ago). The chickens now have a little bit of a snack.But, in the future, we will get more milk that we can't drink. Does anybody have some good goat's milk soap recipes? I would prefer a recipe that doesn't involve lye, if such a thing exists, and I would like to be able to add stuff like lavender, other herbs and essential oils.

 

[ksalvagno]

I think there is lye in all soaps. I took a soap making class years ago and the instructor said that you can't make soap without lye. I bet you could find some soap recipes online somewhere and there are books out there too. You could always freeze the milk until you are ready to make soap.

I will tell you that having milk spilled on you is much more pleasant than having an alpaca or llama spit in your face. I don't think anything compares to that unpleasantness.

 

[NubianNerd]

I heard somewhere that coconut oils was an acceptable substitute. That doesn't make sense, but I'd rather work with that then lye!
Yuck, llama spit. One spit on me before, thankfully not on anything that touched my skin.

 

[lilhill]

You need lye to make soap. My simple soap recipe is lye, goats milk, coconut oil and olive oil. Makes wonderful lather and is a good basic all around soap.

 

[freemotion]

Working with lye is not as bad as you might think. Use the normal precautions you would use if you were doing something with straight bleach and you will be fine. Yes, it is more caustic than bleach, but if you can handle bleach, you can handle lye. No kids around, no animals underfoot, rubber gloves and eye protection, and dedicated containers and stirring spoons, etc.

The lye reacts with the fats/oils and "saponifies" them, or turns them into soap. You age the resulting soap for a month or so, and you can test it to see if any lye remains by washing your hands with it if you have any scratches, because it will sting mildly. Or, if your hands are in great shape, you can touch your tongue to it. Never tried this, I just age my soap a bit longer to be sure!

It really is easy, and anything you make will be better for you and your family than anything you buy, if you start with pure ingredients. Even with the lye.

In times past, lye came from running water through wood ashes from the stove or fireplace.

 

[crazygoatlady]

You can't make soap without lye--as it was explained, the lye and oils/butters saponify--it is a chemical reaction, so you no longer have lye, but saponified oils. Coconut oil is one of the oils you can use in soap, but it doesn't replace lye. If you add tooo much though coconut oil , it can dry your skin. But no getting around it, you have to use lye to make soap. Well you can make your own lye, out of ashes, but there in no telling how strong it is. Yes you can use the pour and melt--which is basically buying a base, melting it in the microwave, some people do add GM to it---check out the chemicals in it, there is no way I can use pour and melt--because of the chemicals in it.

 

[crazygoatlady]

--when I first got goats, they had never been milked. One settled in fine, but the second one was a pain in my behind. I didn't have a milk stand yet, but the goal was jsut to get them milking. She would do ok as long as she was held, my daughters knew to hold her. we had come a long way--no long clipping to the fence and older daughter pinching back legs, standing with bent knees to hold the legs on her knees while I milked. Ex husband was supposed to be holding her while I milked her--now like I said, she had come a long way--but he let go of her and she whirled around and hit me head on--I was kneeling--knocked me flat back and knocked me out--I had bruises on my forehead and black eyes. But she turned out ok--I did eventually sell her to a goat dairy--both of them because of horns. That was only the beginning--if I could only count the buckets of milk that have been spilled on me--part of the job description

 

[cmjust0]

Hobble.

If your goat's kicky, get one. They work, and even though they're a little spendy at $20, it still beats a sharp hoof in the eye and/or dumping bucket after bucket of wasted time into the creek.

 

[Lil Chickie Mama]

Yup, as others have said: No lye = No soap. I use the Martha Stewart recipe for goat milk soap and it's pretty great. Any milk is good for your skin though. Occasionally I'll take a bath and put in about a quart of milk. It sounds silly but feels great. I still use a little soap and clear water to rinse off with just in case. I was nervous about using lye to make soap but it was easy. Just be sure to add you lye to your liquid and not the other way around!!! Martha Stewart website even has a video for the soap so good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

[freemotion]

Hobble.

If your goat's kicky, get one. They work, and even though they're a little spendy at $20, it still beats a sharp hoof in the eye and/or dumping bucket after bucket of wasted time into the creek.

I made one from a strap salvaged from a horse blanket, some of the hardware from the same blanket, and some heavy velcro. So if you are handy at all, it is very easy to make one. I didn't end up using it, but now I have it if needed.