Milk Soap Views
Use a stainless steel or unchipped enamel pot for your soapmaking. Slowly (very slowly) pour the lye into the ice cold milk (the milk could even have small bits of frozen milk floating in it), stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. The milk will heat up very quickly due to the addition of the lye. If you add the lye too fast, the milk may scorch and curdle. The milk will turn an orange color and curdle a little bit, don't worry. Add the honey. Let the mixture cool down to 85*.
The recipe above is a very simple goat milk soap recipe, and it is the only recipe I have any experience with. People often write me and ask about using different kinds of fats and oils. Yes, you can use other fats and oil, but each fat/oil has it's own particular temperature it needs to be heated to. Please don't ask me what these temps are, because I don't know. You may want to see the links below more more information on soapmaking.
The secret of the bursting colors is the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap. Dish soap, because of its bipolar characteristics (nonpolar on one end and polar on the other), weakens the chemical bonds that hold the proteins and fats in solution. The soap's nonpolar, or hydrophilic (water-loving), end dissolves in water, and its hydrophobic (water-fearing) end attaches to a fat globule in the milk. This is when the fun begins.
The molecules of fat bend, roll, twist, and contort in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During all of this fat molecule gymnastics, the food coloring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, providing an easy way to observe all the invisible activity. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops. This is why milk with a higher fat content produces a better explosion of color - there's just more fat to combine with all of those soap molecules.
Milk Soap Images
