You can use 1 ounce less milk (for a total of 8 oz milk in the recipe), if you’d like your soap to firm up faster, or if you’re using silicone molds. Types of milk for soapmaking: We get this one a lot. It may seem odd since shampoos usually seem geared to a specific hair concern like dry, oily, coloured, damaged (need we go on?) etc. But in our opinion, we don’t think it’s needed if you make a good shampoo, and hair just needs to be washed. And if you look closely you might notice that there isn’t much difference in the ingredient listings anyway. It’s kind of like pet food made specifically for indoor pets and outdoor pets (which is actually a thing) – not sure what difference this would make. You can use rose petals in most any soap recipe, when incorporated as an infused oil or infused liquid (tea). They won’t add scent or color to your soap, but some people feel the benefits remain in the soap. (I’m in the camp that believes they do too.) Since this is a milk-based recipe, you can infuse your milk with rose petals before using, if you’d like.

My soap had cocoa butter and I used cream in it, but you could really add vanilla bean to any soap recipe, even the one in this post for milk soap. Another alternative is to reconstitute the powdered milk so it’s a liquid milk, freeze it and proceed with the recipe as normal, using the frozen milk to make your lye solution. We combine small amounts of 5 different natural cleaners as this can be gentler on the hair than one concentrated cleanser. We chose natural cleansers that wash and foam up fairly well, although the foaming action isn’t quite as intense as it would if we used a synthetic detergent like SLS (or other common culprits that end in –fate). But we’re happy to make this small trade-off to use more natural ingredients that are healthier for us and the environment. This just means a little more agitation required to build up the lather, which if you look at it another way, a great excuse for a head massage. Our Milk Shampoo is one of our most popular products. It was originally made for a family member who had a scalp so itchy they went to bed with olive oil on their scalp and cling wrap around their head. It took us 6 months of trialing until we were able to banish the cling wrap to the kitchen for good.

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The natural Milk Shampoo is suitable for all hair types. However, those with sensitivities and dryness will get along extra well with it. As it is made with a combination of coconut and glucose-based cleansers, free from harsh synthetic detergents (SLS) that can dry out the hair. It also has Milk Protein in it to help protect hair fibres and revitalizes its natural protective layer.

Because we make our products for our families, we have a strict ingredient philosophy that excludes ingredients like Parabens, Phenoxyethanol and penetration enhancers.

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One thing we hear a lot about our shampoo is how lovely the smell is. We couldn’t agree more. For this, we sourced a phthalate-free fragrant oil so you can have beautiful smelling hair without the sensitivity. Wooden Mold – I use one homemade by my husband. Its inner dimensions are 8″ x 3.5″ x 3.5″. Wooden molds should always be lined with parchment or freezer paper. Palm free soap recipes that are higher in olive oil, like this one, can take a little longer to set up and cure. Olive oil is a soft/hard oil. It starts off causing the soap to be on the softer side, but once it cures for an extended time, the bar will grow very hard, yet extremely gentle on your skin. You can reduce the amount of milk by an ounce or two, if you’d like to speed up the process. Reducing liquid is also helpful when using silicone molds. Directions to Make Milk Soap When we first started making products, we used a blend of essentials oils to give them a lovely fragrance. But many people have severe reactions and allergies to them, even in small amounts. As a result, and because we make products for people with sensitive skin, we took them out of most products. Instead, we helped to develop a special kind of fragrant oil, whereby each component in it is less than the EU allergy threshold. This is how we can have a pleasant-smelling product without the reactions. The scents we use are proprietary blends from the company we get them from, and we’ve had no reactions since we made the switch. Also, of course, it is free from phthalates, which is the main concern in fragrances.

This program is free to join and easy to use. Ready to give it a 'GOO and make an impact? That's MOO-sic to our ears. How does it work? So glad you asked. In 4 simple steps you can make help us make a MOO-ve to less in landfill. Sign up today! This recipe can also be used exactly as it’s written, only using frozen breast milk instead of animal or vegetable milk. If making soap for a baby, do not add essential oils or fragrance oils, and remember that babies need very little soap on their skin. No handmade soap is tear free – avoid using soap around the eyes because it will sting! A note about high olive oil soaps: I use whole milk – sometimes raw and sometimes pasteurized, since that’s what we drink, but you can use lower fat versions as well. When using milk substitutes, the less additives, the better. Milk Soap Video: Apply generously to wet hair, massage into a lather through to ends, then rinse the hair thoroughly. After shampooing, follow with Nourishing+ Coconut Milk Conditioner for best results.

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Silicone Column Mold (from BrambleBerry) – when using silicone, decrease the amount of liquid to 8 ounces and allow to stay in the mold a few extra days. You can also add 1 1/2 teaspoons sodium lactate (a natural salt solution from corn or beets) to the lye solution after the lye is completely dissolved, to make the soap batter firm up faster in the mold.

Compared to common inexpensive store-bought soaps, soap making isn’t more cost effective. If you compare to ready-made organic or other handmade soaps, then the playing field evens out. It’s also nice to know exactly what’s in your bar of soap – no mystery ingredients! But, overall, I don’t consider soap making a frugal hobby or past-time. There’s some investment up-front in getting the equipment and ingredients. I liken it to raising our own food though. It’s not really more cost effective for us to do so, but it’s leaps ahead in quality of anything we can buy in the store and we can be 100% sure of what we’re exposing our family to. Usage rate is 1 tsp. of seeds in 16 oz. of oil to get a nice pale yellow. To get a darker orange color, use 4 tsp. in 32 oz. After infusing for a full week, use this oil as your base oil in your soap recipe to achieve the color desired.” Step 5: Pull out the milk you plan to use in your soap recipe. If it’s in the form of ice cubes or chilled/slushy liquid, weigh out the amount you need, into a heat proof plastic pitcher. If you already weighed and have a solidly frozen amount of milk in your pitcher, then move on to step 6. A hand mixer, like the first one, isn’t going to speed up soap trace like an immersion blender. With the immersion blender it should take no more than 10 minutes (maybe on the rare occasion 12 minutes) to reach trace, but a hand mixer on a high olive oil soap like this one is going to be s-l-o-w like stirring by hand. (Which would take hours.) You do want to keep the amount of vanilla bean “caviar” on the low side or your soap could turn out scratchy.Lye is a requirement when making homemade soap. It seems scary and dangerous, but I assure you – if you can safely and responsibly work with strong chemicals such as bleach and ammonia, then you can handle lye. ( Read more about that why you need lye to make soap HERE.) You could also infuse some of the oil with rose petals to use in the recipe. Here’s a post that tells how to make rose infused oil: Aqua (H₂O’s Fancy Name), Cocamidopropyl Betaine (Coconut-Derived Cleanser), Decyl Glucoside (Glucose-Derived Cleanser), Lauryl Glucoside (Glucose-Derived Cleanser), Glycol Distearate (Emollient), Sodium Cocoyl Sarcosinate (Coconut-Derived Cleanser), Coco Glucoside (Glucose-Derived Cleanser), Glyceryl Oleate (Natural Ester), Piroctone Olamine (Olamine Salt), Fragrance - Oatmeal (Phthalate-Free), Allantoin, Hydrolyzed Milk Protein (For Hair Repair). Find your perfect hair match with OGX, now with NEW upgraded pH balanced formulas for salon-quality, gentle cleansing that will help give you stronger hair with more shine, less frizz and long-lasting smoothness. OGX Nourishing+ Coconut Milk helps to add strength, elasticity and hydration into hair. This tropical blend helps bring out your hair's natural strength and moisturises for total nourishment. And I just guessed on 5 lb batch since those are more common than my 2 1/2 lb batches but you could half the amount, if needed. You could also search ‘how much oatmeal to add to cold process soap’ or something like that.)