Milk Soaps Challenge – Buttermilk

Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey Soap: Scented or Unscented. Why not both?

Some people love fragrance oils and some people prefer a more natural option. I made a 6 pound batch of oatmeal, milk, and honey soap to please both. I was a little shy about using milk, so I used more water than buttermilk for this attempt.

Ingredients
30 oz Canola
30 oz shortening (Crisco)
30 oz coconut
6 oz olive oil
13.8 oz lye
24 oz water
1 Tablespoon un-iodized salt
1 cup buttermilk
4 oz oatmeal
2 oz honey
2 oz rice bran oil
8 grams vitamin E
1 oz oatmeal, milk, and honey fragrance oil

First I dissolved the salt into the water. Then I mixed the lye into the water. I weighed out the canola, shortening, coconut, and olive oils and
put them in a large enamel pot on the stove on low heat. While the lye solution cooled and the oils melted, I ground the oatmeal into a fine powder with a coffee bean grinder. I mixed the rice bran oil, vitamin E, oatmeal, honey, and buttermilk in a small bowl. When the lye solution and the oils were both at about 110 degrees, I mixed them together with a stick blender. When the soap was almost to trace, I blended in the buttermilk mixture. I poured about 2 pounds of this soap into a 6 cavity silicon muffin pan, creating 5 ounce bars of unscented soap. Then I blended the fragrance oil into the remaining 4 pounds of soap in the enamel pot. I poured the scented soap into a loaf mold, creating 4.5 ounce bars of scented soap. I sprinkled oatmeal on top of both bars for a decorative touch. Best of both worlds! I
got 6 unscented bars and 15 scented bars.

In the future, I will not put salt in the water. It made the soap set up really quickly after I added the buttermilk mixture. I had to work fast to
get it into the molds before it seized in the pot. I tried buttermilk soap before Andee’s blog post. The batch had incomplete saponification and my buttermilk curdled when I added the lye! I love Andee’s half and half method. The soap turned out great.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

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