About Goat Milk Soap
Why Goat Milk Soap?
We make small-batch, artisan goat milk soap using our herd’s goat milk, skin-nourishing oils, and a variety of fragrance oils, essential oils, and colorants. Goat milk naturally contains alpha hydroxy acids, namely lactic acid, which may act like natural exfoliators breaking down the dead skin cells leaving skin smoother and softer and encouraging new skin cell growth. The milk contains vitamins, including A, B1, B6, B12, C, D, and E, and minerals, such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, and selenium, which may help nourish the skin within. Also, we have found that the goat milk makes a richer, bubblier lather than soap without goat milk in it. The fatty acids from the milk and glycerin in the soap add to the moisturizing properties of the soap ensuring skin doesn’t get dried out, especially in the winter. All in all, goat milk soap leaves skin feeling silky, smooth, and moisturized and has been known to help people with skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis.
The Ingredients
Instead of using any water for the liquid in the soap, we use 100% goat milk. Each bar of soap contains approximately one ounce of goat milk. In addition, we add skin-nourishing oils like olive, coconut, palm, lard, and castor. Olive oil creates softer bars and not only moisturizes the skin but produces a creamy lather. Coconut oil cleanses the skin and makes bigger bubbles in the lather. Castor oil is another great cleansing oil that produces bigger bubbles much like coconut oil and draws moisture to the skin keeping it smooth. Palm oil adds to the lather when paired with coconut oil and also helps to harden the bars. Lard provides a rich, stable lather and adds to the hardness and moisturizing properties of the soap. For the scents, we use natural essential oils, such as lavender or cedarwood, and high-quality fragrance oils free of phthalates and parabens. Other ingredients can include natural colorants (activated charcoal, clays, etc), skin-safe micas, mineral pigments, and additives like colloidal oatmeal, pine tar, raw honey or French clay for additional skin-loving benefits.
The Process
We create soap using the cold process method to give it a smoother finish and also allows us to be more creative with the soap due to the different trace levels achieved. We soap at low temperatures in order to maintain the integrity of the goat milk’s natural creamy color (unless the soap includes a vanilla-based fragrance which turns the soap to a lighter or darker brown or a colorant is used). The soap contains extra moisturizing properties, since we superfat the soap recipe at 5%. The superfat includes all the oils that aren’t turned into soap by the lye and ultimately gives your skin a little extra loving and conditioning. After the soap is removed from the molds and cut into bars, the soap is cured for four to six weeks. This allows the water in the soap to evaporate and create firmer bars that last longer. Every soap batch is handmade, hand-poured, and hand-cut, so each bar is unique.
* Our products have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Any statements made are for informational purposes only.
