How to Keep Milk Soap White

Making homemade milk soap is a simple process that includes a few key simple ingredients. It’s a fun hobby just about anyone can get into and allow their creative juices to flow. People have been making milk soap for years and count on its wonderful moisturizing properties and sweet smell, while appreciating the milky white color of the bar made possible by the secret ingredient, vinegar.

Things You'll Need

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup cocoa butter
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 cups of milk (coconut, goat, lamb, butter or cow milk)
• 1/4 cup of lye
• 2 stockpots
• 2 wooden spoons
• 2 cooking thermometers
• soap molds
• garden or kitchen gloves
• long-sleeved shirt
• mask
• plastic wrap
• thick towels

Instructions

1. Before beginning prepare your kitchen. You are going to be working with lye, an important ingredient in soap, which is a dangerous chemical that can burn badly, cause blindness or kill. So, leave a window open while cooking, wear a long-sleeved shirt and gloves to prevent burns from splashing. When you began to mix the milk into the lye, put on a mask to prevent inhaling the fumes that rise with steam. Now lay out your ingredients measured out accordingly, on a covered surface (kitchen table provides you with a lot of room) and your soap molds.

2. Heat your shortening, oils, and cocoa butter in the stockpot under a low flame, until it reaches 125 degrees. When it reaches this temperature, set it aside and allow it to cool to 105. While it is cooling, mix your milk and lye. The milk replaces the water that you would originally add to the lye mixture. You can weigh your ingredients before cooking, but it is simple to measure.

3. Your milk will need preparation. The natural sugars in milk will cause it to curdle when added to the lye, so it will need to be frozen. Do not freeze completely, but so that it's more like a slushy.This will keep it from curdling and boiling over. The vinegar will be added to the lye first to neutralize some of the harmful toxins in the chemical. It also works as a bleaching agent because when milk is added to lye it turns a pale yellow, due to natural sugars and fats.

4. Be cautious while pouring, as you will notice the chemical reaction between the two ingredients causing the batter to heat up, as high as 300 degrees. Using a wooden stick, stir to blend the two carefully and slowly. Now both mixtures should be within 5 degrees of each other before mixing them together or your soap will not turn out right. Mix the lye into the oil mixture, stirring occasionally. This will probably take several hours. You will know it is ready to pour into molds when it leaves a thin coating on your stick. When it is ready, pour into molds, wrap in plastic wrap, and thick towels overnight or 24 hours. After that time, pop the soap out of molds and allow it to age for two to three weeks.

Tips & Warnings

• Make milk soap with any type of milk: Goat, butter, coconut or dairy cow. Different milks carry different natural moisturizing properties. Coconut milk will provide you with a bubbly lather due to the natural fatty acids in coconut. Goat's milk is rich and creamy, and carries the same pH as human skin, making it a great exfoliate and lotion bar.