Making Soap with Goat Milk Kefir - Soap Authority: Learn how I make soap from goat milk kefir along with helpful tips.

To make an all natural “foodie” type soap, I couldn’t resist using my homemade goat milk kefir!

Keep in mind that when using any type of fermented food in soap making, you are destroying most, if not all, of the living probiotics. If the lye doesn’t “do them in” then they will starve during the curing process. If your soap gets too hot, then most of them will very likely suffer a heat death.

Some probiotics may survive, but there is no probiotic benefit to using soap made of fermented foods. The good news is, goat milk kefir does make a wonderful soap similar to plain goat milk. There are plenty of vitamins and antioxidants that remain thanks to the probiotics fermenting the milk.

Because the good bacteria eat the lactose in the milk, making soap with milk kefir will make a slightly different bar than plain milk.

To watch the process, click the video link below. You will even get to see me eating the leftover food ingredients after clean up. That’s not something you typically get to do after making soap!

Drink ingredients used

I replaced 100% of the liquid normally used for the lye solution with homemade goat milk kefir.

Food ingredients used

Baby food “carrots”

Greek Yogurt – 5% milk fat

(The food additives were calculated and incorporated at 1 parts food to 8 parts base oils.)

The baby carrots add natural color to the soap and the Greek yogurt adds a creamy luxurious feel to the lather.

RECIPE

8.71 oz (247 g) olive oil

8.75 oz (248 g) coconut oil

5.82 oz (165 g) beef tallow

4.37 oz (124 g) shea butter

1.48 oz (42 g) castor oil

4.11 oz sodium hydroxide

NO WATER – Used 7.3 oz homemade goat milk kefir in it’s place (frozen)

1.5 tsp sodium lactate (added to lye solution)

1.3 oz  (37 g) orange 10x essential oil

.35 oz (10 g) patchouli essential oil

.2 oz (6 g) grapefruit essential oil

2.92 oz (83 g) “carrot” organic baby food

.73 oz (21 g) Greek yogurt (I used Fage)

Coloring the soap:

1 tsp activated charcoal + 1 Tbsp of olive oil

1.5 tsp yellow Brazilian clay (mixed in carrot puree)

1.5 tsp red Brazilian clay (mixed in carrot puree)

After making the soap, I covered it and put it in the fridge for 24 hours to keep it from heating up and turning darker or going through a partial gel.

A special thanks to Amy Warden at soapchallengeclub.com for putting together some great information about using foods and drinks in cold process soap making!

Related posts:

3 Compelling Reasons to Try Tallow Soap Making

 

Making Soap with Goat Milk Kefir - Soap Authority: Learn how I make soap from goat milk kefir along with helpful tips.

 

18 Comments on Making Soap With Milk Kefir

  1. This looks incredible, Jaimie! I love the brilliance of the orange colors – the Brazilian clays really enhanced the color from the carrots beautifully, and the swirls are fantastic! I’ve made kefir from regular cow milk, but not goat milk – sounds amazing! The dried botanicals are a nice touch as well.

    • Thanks, Amy! The clays really added more vibrant color than I expected. That’s cool you make kefir, too! It seems experimenting with foods and soap go hand in hand.

  2. That is so cool that you make your own kefir, I have only attempted making my own yogurt once, but it was cow milk. I love the colors of your soap, they are so vibrant, great job!

  3. Your soaps are gorgeous! From the vibrant colors and swirl to the ingredients and botanicals on top, it’s truly beautiful!

  4. Thanks for the advice to put wrap up the soap and put it in the fridge so it doesn’t go bad. My wife loves to use new soaps on her body for different skincare remedies. I’ll talk to her about using goat milk soap and that if we do we’ll need to keep in the fridge so it lasts longer.

    • Hi, Franklin! It’s good to hear your wife likes to use good quality soap for her skin care routine. The only time I put the goat milk soap in the fridge is for the first 18-24 hours to keep it from getting too hot. Milk has natural milk sugars in it, so when the soap is made it tends to heat up a little more than normal as it goes through the final stage of the soap making process. If it gets too hot, it scorches the soap making it turn a tan brown color. It’s harmless, but sometimes it’s nice for the milk soaps to stay whiter in color so they look more like milk. Once it’s cut, cured and ready to use, there’s no need to store it in the fridge… unless you want to hide it from family members or visitors so they don’t get their hands on the good stuff. Haha!

  5. Jaimie,

    I don’t see Lye in the ingredients list. How much lye do you use? And do you recommend a particular brand?

    • Hi, Sandy! In the ingredients list, the lye is listed as sodium hydroxide and it’s the 6th ingredient listed in the recipe. It calls for 4.11 ounces for lye. I’ve purchased lye from Essential Depot in the the past. They sell it in a variety of sizes and I’ve never had any issues with it. It can be ordered on Amazon or purchased from their website.

  6. Hi!
    That soap is just gorgeous! Wow, what a beauty!
    I do my own kefir (yum!) and soaps, but have not yet combined the two of them.
    I was wondering by curiosity… Have you tried the pH of the kefir soap? If yes, would you tell me the result, please?
    Thanks in advance!

    • Hi, Anette! Thanks for such a nice compliment. How cool that you make your own kefir, too!

      I haven’t tested the pH of the milk kefir soap. It should be pretty close to what an average soap should be. I imagine the acidity of the milk kefir might slightly neutralize the alkalinity of some of the lye, resulting in a small increase in the superfat of the soap.

      I have noticed that kefir soap as compared with regular goat milk soap has a tiny bit less lather and that’s probably because the goat milk still contains it’s milk sugar content, since sugar increases lather. The kefir would have less sugar, since the little bacteria in the grains eat the milk sugars for their meal.

Leave a Reply to Anette Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *