Men Like Soap Too

Believe it or not, men really love handcrafted goat's milk soap. Although you will most likely not find too many of them stopping by your table at the local farmer's market asking to smell the Lilac bar, some of our best customers and soap supporters are men. The Drakkar scent from Brambleberry tends to be a best seller for us at craft fairs. Maybe the ladies figure that if they bring some soap home for the other half they can justify buying more for themselves?!

Drakker with Oatmeal Goat's Milk Soap is available on the sales page.

Drakkar Goat's Milk Soap is on the curing rack and will be available soon.

 

 

Spearmint Eucalyptus Goat's Milk Soap

 

Spearmint Eucalyptus Goat's Milk Soap~ Yum!!

Overheated Soap

Not every batch of soap turns out pretty enough for pictures, or even for resale or gifts. Especially soaps made with goat's milk can tend to be tricky to make because goat's milk easily overheats. Previously I have always wrapped my soap in old bathroom towels to insulate them after pouring the finished mixture into their molds, but recently several batches have overheated. At first I thought it was just the new scent I used, which could have attributed some to the heat level. But after the second, then the third batch had those eery looking teeth, I did some investigating and discovered that yes, my soaps were overheating.

After a few not so perfect batches I have since gone to the other side of the gel or not to gel debate and have started to pop my soap into the freezer, unwrapped, after pouring the fresh soap in the mold. Results: beautiful soap, no overheating, no eery teeth.

On the Curing Rack

Some new soaps are curing on the rack and will be ready to go in another week or so. The first bar is the ever favorite Oatmeal, Milk and Honey Goat's Milk Soap. Made as a special request order for a local customer this bar appeals to many who don't want any extra scents, just an all around great bar of soap with some extra exfoliates.

 

Baby Powder Blue Goat's Milk Soap is another trial bar using our new oil recipe, and it seems to be passing the test with flying colors! I love the bubbly goodness from the castor oil, and of course, farm fresh goat's milk is great in any bar of Nubian's Delight soap. The blue turned out very soft and pretty, and it smells so exactly like baby powder that your nose even tickles when you smell it!
 

Both bars will be ready for shipping in just a couple more weeks.

Lemon Poppyseed Goat's Milk Soap

Oooh~la~la!! This may be my new favorite bar!

It is certainly a new favorite design.

I am imagining numerous color variations and scents ...

the possibilities are endless.

 

Lemon Poppyseed Goat's Milk Soap, fresh out of the mold. Made with our new oil recipe (castor, olive, and coconut) which has proven to be a perfect blend for lots of sudsy bubbles, plus our farm fresh goat's milk and some poppy seeds mixed in for extra scrubbing power. What a fun, sunny looking bar!

How do you do that you're asking? Well, let me show you the trick.
 

At a light trace I separated my plain soap batch by pouring roughly 1/4 of the mixture into a pan and added some Poppyseeds.
 

Next, I added Fizzy Lemonade mica powder from Brambleberry into a couple tablespoons of oil and added it to my pail (with 3/4 of the soap) along with Lemongrass Essential oil. I mixed this concoction up to a heavier trace and poured it into my lined soap mold. Once it was starting to set up, I used my spatula to make some dips and curves.
 

Now comes the fun part. Before I started the soap I dug out an old pair of nylons, cut the toe off and used it to cover the opened end of my little plastic bottle of Black Oxide (yes, again from Brambleberry). I gently tapped the end of the bottle to lightly dust the yellow soap in the mold. It really doesn't take much at all.

 

 

Then I gently scooped the white poppyseed, unscented soap on top. I sprinkled a few more poppyseeds on top for looks and covered it lightly with saranwrap.
 

Since I have been having some trouble with overheated soap lately, I popped it in the freezer for an hour, then waited patiently until the next morning when I could finally cut it.
 

Love it!

 

 

I'll put it up on the sales page soon, but it won't be shipped and ready for use until mid May.

 

A Soapy Give Away

 

Come on over to OurCrazyFarm for a soapy give away!

Soap Labels

A fun, simple way to dress up your soap for resale: scrapbook paper labels.
 

With my paper cutter I cut strips of scrapbook paper about 2 1/2 inches wide.

Then I simply printed our name, Nubian's Delight Goat's Milk Soap, in a fun font on cream paper and cut it out using a fancy paper punch.

After wrapping the soap I glued the description onto the front, and printed out the ingredient list and our website to paste onto the back.

The colors and variations are endless!

Snow Soap

Winter just doesn't seem to want to go away this year, so we decided to take advantage of the record amounts of snow that keep falling and make some soap with it.

Our latest creation: Cranberry Pomegranate Snow Soap with cranberry seeds

sprinkled in the white "snowy" tops.

{{{Beautiful!}}}

We tried a new recipe for this batch, which will hopefully become another favorite.

There are thirteen bars sitting on the drying rack that will soon be available for sale ~

can't wait to use some!

Oatmeal Almond Scrub Goat's Milk Soap

Alexis and I have been having so much fun making soap! Between exciting goat deliveries (more on that soon, Lord willing), home schooling and the never ending laundry pile we have been able to whip up eleven batches of goat's milk soap in preparation for some upcoming Spring Craft Fairs. My soap racks are overflowing!

Almond is always a popular seller, so we made sure to make extra. Lots of folks like the Oatmeal Almond Scrub bar as well. We used our tried and true lard recipe which holds up well with the added oatmeal, along with 2 ounces of Brambleberry's Cybilla Almond scent.

At a light trace I poured about 1/4 of the soap mixture back into my oil pan, then added my scents and superfatted the original batch with the Castor Oil for extra luxurious bubbles and conditioning. Next I added the oatmeal, and mixed it back up to a thicker trace before pouring it into the mold.

The bottom layer turns that pretty brown from the Almond scent, with the plain white soap poured on top for some contrast, and a dash of cinnamon for an added dramatic effect. Beautiful!

 

These should be ready for sale by the middle of March.

Let me know if you want to pre-order some before they're all sold out!

New Soaps

Its been a busy Fall season of soaping! We have been enjoying experimenting with different colors and scents from Brambleberry. Love, love, love their Cucumber Melon! Yummy! Playing around with swirling, layering, and patterns, too. After nearly selling out at a local Women's Expo, we headed back to the farm kitchen to make several more batches of goats milk soap to cure for a Christmas craft fair. Time to make some new soaps before our inventory runs out!

Home Made Goat's Milk Soap Laundry Detergent

A few months back I had a fiasco soapmaking issue. It turns out that if you forget to cut a large log of plain goat's milk soap for five days the odds of ever being able to cut such bar short of a saw is impossible. So, I handed it over to Cole as he was requesting the privilege of shredding it. He got out the old grater and in no time we had a paper bag of soap slivers. The bag sat in my soap closet, forgotten, until a couple of weeks ago when I finally remembered to pick up the supplies to make homemade laundry detergent. After a short trial, and umpteen loads of laundry already, I'm lovin' it! What I really love is the cost, as I am hoping to not have to buy laundry soap supplies again until the New Year.

Since we have lots of farm clothes and kids who like to get dirty, I added some powdered Clorox stain fighter and color booster for an extra "oomph" to the standard recipe. For super sensitive skin the Clorox could be left out.

My recipe:

1 cup grated, plain Goat's milk soap
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Clorox stain fighter and color booster


Add 1 tablespoon per regular load of laundry. Vinegar can be added to the rinse cycle if you have a really dirty/smelly load.

I mixed up a gallon jar of it, tied a pretty bow around the top and found a vintsge tablespoon to throw in for measuring. It looks so cute in my laundry room:))

Soap Class

The other night I had the joy of teaching my first ever Goats Milk Soap Class. Back in July I had contacted our local Community Education program at the High School and offered to host a class. I wasn't sure just what the response would be in our little community so I set my hopes low and would have been happy with 4 students. It turned out that there was quite a bit of interest in this new found passion of mine and we had 9 ladies sign up for the class (one had to cancel at the last moment when her daughter got critically ill~ we missed you Deb). And what a great group of ladies it was! Several of them were coworkers of mine and all of them came with such excitement to learn how to make soap. We spent as much time laughing and enjoying each others fellowship as we did learning!

Several successful, beautiful batches of soap were made with only a couple of minor fights over scents:) In response to the word getting out about soap classes I have also had several other people contact me to set up private classes at The Farm and soap sales have been busy with the holidays coming up.

I could not have had such a good first night if it were not for Alexis' help. Over the past few months she has been learning the art of soap making and graced us all with her sweet, helpful self. Thanks Lex!

And to top it all off I received such a sweet Thank You note from the Community Ed director that nearly brought tears to my eyes. " Good Morning Terri, First let me tell you that you did an awesome job preparing and teaching the soap class. I do not think I have had any other instructor who came so well prepared and organized, and explained things so well. I would love to have you teach another class this spring. That would be Great! Again, thank you so much for doing such a wonderful job. Have a great day. Cindi" So it looks like I will be teaching another class in the spring. Looking forward to it!

Going to the Fair

Fair time is always exciting around here! Our family goes a little overboard on Fair entries but the excitement of seeing all those ribbons is worth the effort put into making all the projects. Besides goats milk cheese we also brought our goats milk soap to the Fair this summer and received several first places! Yay!

New Recipes

Thursday, June 17, 2010
At It Again

I have been pondering soap again and perusing the world wide web for some ideas and ways to make a better product. Ever since making my first batch of goats milk soap last fall I am definitely hooked on not using any other kind of soap. My hands are thanking me, too. As much as I liked the lard based soap I really wanted to experiment with some different oils and different scents to make a better bar of soap. My first batch is so far mostly a success and in 3 weeks when it has cured will really determine if this recipe is a keeper or not.

Lemon Poppy seed was one "flavor" I was excited to try. The poppy seeds are great exfoliants.

Being my mind has been on soap for a few months I have been noticing soap everywhere I go, and seeing some bars with flowers mixed in I knew I wanted to try some. I simply added some potpourri to a plain mold and the results are beautiful!

The honey oatmeal was also a success last time, so I made another oatmeal bar but this time with some hot apple pie scent and cinnamon. The colors are pretty, but so far the scent isn't too strong. Another great exfoliate for these farm girl hands. Cole stayed up and helped me cut the big blocks and arrange them to dry. I love standing back and looking at my creations:)) Beautiful if I do say so myself! The hopes are to have a stock for our home and maybe try some local farmers markets later this summer and try to sell some. We'll see how it all goes, for now I am having fun indulging in my little science experiments.

Making Goats Milk Soap

A while back I made my first batch of goats milk soap. This was the first time to make soap with the goats milk so I was anxious to see the results. I waited patiently until it cured, and was excited to finally try it out. I have to say.... I absolutely love it! I have only used the honey oatmeal bars so far, but assume the others will be just as wonderful. Normally in the winter my hands are so dry and even cracked and bleeding from all the exposure to the elements. After only a week of using this soap, and purposely no lotion, my hands are better than I can remember in years. I gave some out for Christmas presents, as well, and look forward to the feedback from others.

When I made the soap I knew I wanted to use what we can provide here from the farm as much as possible. I also wanted something that would have a nice lather, and I was interested in playing around with different colors and natural additives. I made 4 different kinds of soap. A plain soap; cinnamon swirled because it was so pretty; honey-oatmeal which is great for exfoliating; and a cucumber soap which is supposed to be good for acne. The basic recipe for all the soaps is the same. I checked out lots of different websites with soap recipes and tweaked them into my own as follows:
~
Goats Milk Soap
11 1/4 cups goats milk (slightly frozen)
7 1/2 cups lard
1- 16 ounce can of lye
4 Tbsp of Borax
~
Additives:
Honey Oatmeal soap: add 3 1/8 cups finely ground oatmeal and 1 cup (or more) honey.
Cucumber soap: add 2 finely chopped cucumbers.
Cinnamon Swirl soap: add 4 Tbsp to half the batch of soap after trace, then pour the colored soap into the plain soap, gently swirl. Don't mix too much, as you only want a pretty swirled look.

I started by using my handy dandy antique Chop-o-Matic to finely chop up the oatmeal.
Next I started the lard cooking on the stove. The lard should be heated to 85 degrees. I used lard from our butchered hogs so had to strain it after it was cooked down.
I found it worked really well to use frozen goats milk. The lye is so hot that it will actually scorch the milk if you are not careful, so even milk with some ice chunks still floating is great.
Measure out your milk and pour it into a stainless steel container. I used a stainless steel milking pail, and it was just the right size. I then put the pail of milk in a sink of ice water. If your soap turns orange it means the lye burnt the milk. Having the milk pail in the ice water seemed to prevent that. Slooooowly pour in the lye, mixing the entire time. Again, the lye is so hot it will scorch the milk if you go too fast. Allow this mixture to cool to 85 degrees. A word of caution here... when handling lye prepare yourself by wearing old clothes (barn coveralls are perfect), a long sleeved shirt that protects your arms, rubber gloves, and glasses. Even if you feel a splash and no burning, instantly neutralize the area with vinegar because it will start stinging within a couple of hours and can do serious damage to your skin. With all the hovering over the soap you need lots of ventilation. I actually ended up with burns like a sunburn on my face and neck from being so close to the lye. Don't be scared of it, just respect it.Once your milk and lye mix and lard is at the correct temperature (85 degrees) it is time to start mixing. Add the honey and oatmeal to the milk mixture (or cucumber), then add the lard sloooowly. I started out mixing with a wooden spoon. Mix for 15 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes, mix again for 5 minutes, etc. By the third batch I switched to a small blender. Just be careful that you don't mix too fast and send it all flying. A stick blender works great and speeds up the trace time to about 15 minutes. You are waiting for the mixture to get thick and form a trace, which means that if you drizzle a little of the mixture across the top it leaves an indent just before it settles. A consistency a bit like pudding. This takes alot of mixing, depending on how fast you mix. Once you see that nice trace, and notice the soap getting thick all of a sudden, it is time to pour it into your prepared molds. Rob built me a wooden box mold about 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" and a couple of feet long. When he makes some more I will probably have him make them about 3"x3". I used a garbage bag to line the mold, then poured the soap in. I also had some soap molds that I used. Spray first with cooking spray. Simple cardboard boxes lined with garbage bags worked well, too. You will want your soap to be thicker than 1" or else it will curl as it cures. Next, cover the molds with plastic wrap, then wrap everything in a towel and set somewhere warm and undisturbed. You want to keep them insulated for 24-48 hours.

~
Once your soap is hard it is time to cut it. We shaved the extra off of the molded soap then popped them out of their molds. The lye can still burn you at this point so make sure to wear gloves and be careful handling the fresh soap. To cut the big box mold soaps we used a heavy fishing line. I really liked the wooden box molds. Cutting was very easy and precise. The next step is to find somewhere for all of that soap to cure for 4 weeks or so. We layered boxes with paper bags and newspaper and layed the soap, untouching, on top. The soap needs to cure for 3-4 weeks. The soap has great sudsing and feels so good to use. Happy Soap Making!