Handmade Soap - Calendula Milk Soap
We've all heard of stories of some famous beauties including milk in their beauty routine (e.g. Cleopatra, royalties, celebrities). For the longest time, I've been intrigued by milk soap. In my imagination, I'd have these flawless snow white delicate bars of soap to lather up.
Then comes the reality...
Lactose (in Milk) + Heat (from Soaping) --> Caramel Color + Weird Odor
As usual, I consulted Google and Youtube and pored over tons of articles/videos. Most "successful" authors tell you to make milk ice and dissolve lye (sodium hydroxide, NaOH) slowly and carefully dissolve it over a ice bath. Full disclaimer, from the videos, it works. I'm just lazy, i.e. I don't like to bust out additional bowls and invest in precious freezer space to make this happen.
Fast forward to my half-hearted first attempt with milk ice + NaOH, but without ice bath. The mixture still had a hint of yellow in it (even though it didn't warm up too much during the process) and it definitely smelled like burnt milk when I was making lye solution. That tint of yellow looked like milk stain, totally unappetizing. I ended up, last minutely, added some activated charcoal into the mixture to mask the color. The resulting bar was grey instead, at least now it looks chic. Phew....
Finally, I came across some articles that described a split batch approach. The good news is, I'll have my snow white bars. Although, this method is not without a catch, a diluted milk solution is used instead of the "unadulterated" version and it's a much more dangerous procedure. Basically, you make the soap with a much more concentrated lye solution (DANGEROUS!) made with regular water, and milk is added to the batch towards end of the process (when the batch is about to trace). This way, the milk is minimally affected by lye and its color and characteristics are better preserved, albeit in a diluted form.
I'm fine with that. In fact, I favor this method, because I think the heat generated from dissolving lye is way more damaging than the diluting milk. But then...that's also just my personal opinion, without much scientific research into it. The end goal of a block of WHITE milk bar is definitely reached, without any doubt and no surprises along the way.
Calendula Milk Soap
Oil phase: 30% rice bran oil, 26% coconut oil (unfractioned), 20% shea butter, 16% sweet almond oil, 4% mango seed butter, 4% castor oil
superfat 3%
Other additive: salt, sugar, dried calendula flower
Water phase: ice (~55% of the required water amount), full-fat milk (~45% of the required amount)
Note: this method is SIGNIFICANTLY more dangerous than the normal procedure due to the highly concentrated lye solution. The lye solution made here is near sodium hydroxide's normal dissolution limit. Make sure all sodium hydroxide is properly dissolved before proceeding with the rest of the process.
If you wish to proceed, please make sure you fully understand the concept/process and take necessary safety measures.
- Watch YouTube videos on how to make soap.
- Plug the oil phase parameters into SoapCal (soap calculator) to obtain the right quantity for your batch size
- Make lye solution with ice, continue to make soap according to instruction. Add milk and dried flower when solution is near trace.
- Wait minimum of 4 weeks before using the soap (it will make the soap last much longer, the chemical reaction was done long ago)
First use date: 2018-02-01
Comments:
This soap lathers up quite nicely, although don't expect it to create commercial worthy amount of bubbles. I used it to wash both my hands and my face. It cleans well, and doesn't leave the skin feel tight and dry afterwards.
It does, however, take about 10ish sec of rinsing to get rid of the slippery feeling (if you choose to rinse it off). For people who's used to commercial soaps, this might come as "not squeaky clean" feeling. But the effect is partly due to the presence of naturally occurring glycerin from the soaping process. It's actually a key ingredient for keeping skin hydrated.
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