Candy Cane-Peppermint EO Goats Milk Soap

I sure had a fun afternoon of soap making!  I decided to make an old favorite, Peppermint Essential oil (EO) goats milk soap.  Around the time of Christmas it’s fun to make it a red and white swirl like a peppermint candy.

I used lard, Crisco and Palm Kernal oils for this soap and started melting them on the stove first and then began working on my goats milk lye mix.  I use 100% goats milk for my milk soaps.  The key to keep the colors true and not have the sugars in the milk caramelize is to keep the lye mixture cool and the whole batch cool (to include not letting it gel). 

I measured out my frozen goats milk cubes into the pitcher, and slowly added my lye crystals to the cubes as I stirred continuously and held the pitcher in a sink of ice water.  My solution never got above 70 degrees F.  My oils though took forever to heat up and were near 100 degrees.  I cooled them in the ice water but by the time the temperatures were right my lye mixture was really thick.

When I added my mixture to the oils it sank and didn't incorporate.  I was really concerned that this soap would not turn out at all but quickly placed the pot on the stove to add some heat.  Over a few minutes the oils were incorporated into the lye mixture and I began to see normal soap creation though it was a bit thick.  With more heat it thinned a bit but I knew I didn't want to add too much heat to ruin my color intentions.  It was finally time to take about 10 ladles of soap out of the pot into my glass measuring cup to color with Merlot Mica.

I mixed both, at times adding heat to each, then nearly forgot to add the peppermint!  Finally I was ready to pour in my slab mold.  The slab mold is the best for goats milk soap since the greater surface to volume ratio allows the soap to dissipate the heat produced and keep my goats milk soaps from turning the usual tan color.  I tried my best to swirl with the glops of off white and reddish soap but it was thickening up way to fast.  Oh well, smells great so I won’t worry about a perfect swirl this time.

I think the biggest issue was that the lye solution thickened up so fast since it stayed in contact longer solely with the goats milk.  I need to make sure my oils are nearly melted before beginning to make the lye solution. I also hate bumpy soap!  The swirl marks are still left on the top of the soap, we’ll see if I want to plane it smooth or just deal with it.

Pretty happy with the results considering!  I'll wait a couple days before cutting the bars.