question about gm

[Melanie]

When yu use gm is that all the liquid you use? if not is there a reason why you couldnt maybe use the other liquid to desolve the lye then add the gm after it cools?

[guppygirl]

You can do gm lots of ways... all liquid, 1/2 water 1/2 gm, powdered gm at trace, liquid gm at trace, canned gm at trace. Just beware, if you use gm as all liquid, it will reek of ammonia and likely turn a really ugly yellow if you're lucky. You can freeze the gm beforehand to minimize that.

HTH & good luck!

[heirloomoriginals]

I mix my lye with 4 oz of water and then add the remaining liquid as goats milk at trace. Works well for me and it doesn't change color.

Steph

[Jcandleattic]

If you soap cool and don't scortch the milk, you won't get the ammonia smell or the orangish color. That happens tends to happen when you add the lye too quickly to the cooled or frozen gm.

Also, if you gel your soap with GM the chances of it turning a dark brown will increase as will the volcano look of overheating.

All of my GM soaps are with fresh frozen gm 100% liquid then put in the fridge imediately after pouring in the mold. Rarely if ever do my gm soaps gel. Every once in a while if I'm dinking around too long to get the perfect swirl I will get the smallest of a partial gel in the middle of the soap for not getting it into the fridge fast enough.

But as guppy said, there are many many different methods of making a GM soap. If you do a search you should come up with tons and tons of information on it.

Good luck and happy soaping.

[Crafty1_AJ]

Here's an easy way to get a 100% goat milk (as your liquid) soap without scorching and without getting a lovely orange color and without the delicious aroma of ammonia permeating your house. LOL

You need:

~ your favorite 4 lb. soap recipe*

~ 12 oz. water

~ one 12-oz. can Meyenberg goat's milk (This is concentrated and typically is reconstituted to normal strength with equal parts milk and water, but do NOT reconstitute. Leave as is.)

1. Chill can of goat's milk in fridge.

2. Stir the correct amount of lye for your recipe into twelve oz. water and dissolve.

3. Melt your hard/brittle oils and add liquid oils.

4. When lye water and fats/oils have cooled, add lye water to fats/oils and bring to light trace.

5. Add 12 oz. of chilled, concentrated goat's milk to soap batter and blend thoroughly.

6. The milk will heat the soap up in the mold, so be careful to insulate lightly, if at all.

*If you don't have a favorite recipe, you can try my simple beginner's recipe of 50% olive oil, 25% 76-degree coconut oil, and 25% lard or palm oil. For a 4 lb. batch of soap, that would mean you'd need 2 lb. olive oil, 1 lb. coconut oil, and 1 lb. lard or palm oil. If desired, substitute castor oil for up to 10% of the olive oil. Run your recipe through a reliable lye calculator such as soapcalc.com to make sure you get the correct amount of lye to use. I recommend that beginners use a 5% superfat figure, which is the default on soapcalc.

Because you used an equal water portion and concentrated gm portion, essentially your soap contains only gm as the liquid (at its normally reconstituted rate).

If you prefer, you can dissolve your lye in plain water as usual and sb powdered gm into your oils. That way is easy, too. But to get a 100% gm soap that way, you have to use quite a bit of powder, which can be tricky to incorporate. You may end up with a gritty soap in the end. So for the powder method, you may want to have, say, 50% gm and 50% water in the finished soap. Or, just hold back a small portion of your water and dissolve the gm powder into that reserved portion, making a milk slurry that you can add at trace.

hth

[guppygirl]

Here's an easy way to get a 100% goat milk (as your liquid) soap without scorching and without getting a lovely orange color and without the delicious aroma of ammonia permeating your house. LOL

But Crafty, the ammonia smell is my favorite part LOL!! And the yellow/orange is sooo pretty. Really I gotta try it the way you suggested - thanks!

[Crafty1_AJ]

But Crafty, the ammonia smell is my favorite part LOL!! And the yellow/orange is sooo pretty. Really I gotta try it the way you suggested - thanks!

Well I put the directions in the recipe section for easy future reference. (So you don't have to dig for this thread when you're ready. LOL)

[cmharris6002]

I make 100% GM Soap by slightly defrosting frozen milk and smashing it up with a fork until there are no chunks left just a mound of GM snow. Then, add the lye very slowly while stiring constantly. As soon as the mixture is all liquid it is ready to add to the warm butters/oils. Doing it this way will give you nice ivory, nearly white bars.

Christy

[asheebeans]

I cheat and use GM powder! 1T ppo into the warm oils....works like a charm!