With having 3 of my girls in milk each year I have come up with many beneficial ways to use the abundant supply. Most who have dairy goats usually have the standard breeds that give much more than the amount I get from my girls.
Between the fudge, ice cream, cheeses and yogurt as well as everyday use, I still end up with enough milk to make simple but nourishing to your skin soaps. I do not color my soap and don't wish to, the color is as natural as you can get due to the "saponification" process that occurs when all those oils and milk are combined with lye. No Frills is just that....simple goats milk soaps, hand cut or molded with added scents, nothing fancy, something my family uses everyday and enjoys.
I have not had opportunity to have my girls' milk tested yet as far as butterfat percent or protein but Nigerian Dwarfs are noted for having butterfat of up to 6% and sometimes more, so adding all that beneficial fat as well as the vitamins and minerals naturally found in raw goats milk into the combination of Oils I use for soap making adds to one very moisturizing and nurturing bar of soap.
I do use different scented oils to add to the " Clean, smell good" feeling that using hand made soaps offer...no additives, preservatives or things I can't pronounce, just an old fashioned process that I remember my granny doing.
For those that aren't picky about what part of an animal benefits us, I also hand render beef fat to make the pure white, solid, preservative free TALLOW that goes into some of my soaps...it definately makes for a better bar! Lasts much longer in the shower and has such creamy suds that you can feel the moisturizing qualities just soaking in! I also hand render pork fat for lard... no preservatives, just plain simple beneficial fats to make into soap.
My soaps consist of combinations of Soybean, Olive, Coconut , Tallow or Lard each of which are food grade and each has their own way of adding to a good bar of soap. I also will use Cocoa Butter in place of Tallow in some recipes as it adds hardness and nutrients to soap. My soaps are individually packaged with an ingredient label so it's easy to see exactly what is in each to make it. The process I use to make Dollys Acre soaps is called Cold Process, it is a precise calculation of oils with lye and milk to produce the reaction of Saponification.... once this occurs, lye is no longer an ingredient in the finished and cured product , you simply cannot make a true soap without using lye.... those blocks of "melt and pour" soaps you find at craft stores started out in the same way my process is done. The longer a bar is left unused, the better it is. Long lasting and hard.
All the naturally occuring Glycerin during the saponification process is retained in every batch, this adds to the skin loving properties in all of my soaps.
I've incorporated a few soaps with plants known for their different properties of relieving irritations from Poison Ivy, and other irritating plants... Jewelweed or Wild Impatience is steeped into tea with goats milk and Calendula Flower petals are also used as a tea to incorporate the healing properties in my "Specialty Soaps"
I mold quite a few of my soaps using Goat related plastic molds and a few others are cut by hand. Check out the Goat Milk Soap Store to see exactly which scents are available in the different forms. You may be surprised by the prices, lower than most Goat Milk soap vendors but certainly not lesser in quality... my pricing reflects what I would pay for a hard earned bar of long lasting hand made soap. Any feedback is welcome once you have tried my soap.