HISTORY OF MY GOAT MILK SOAPS

My goat milk soaps were created because of a dream I had to milk goats.  Upon moving to Minnesota from Wisconsin in 2007, my husband bought me two goats to satisfy my curiosity of making goat milk soaps, and build my dream.

Mrs. Milly and Sweet Thing produce the goat milk I integrate into each one of my bars of soap, that you, in turn, ENJOY!

We dairy farm organically and believe in self-sustainability.  Our lifestyle is something that some would call “simple”.

Simple Soaps came to be the day I learned to make hand soap from my mother-in-law, who is a very practical, yet fun-loving, woman.  At that moment, I was hooked.  Which was convenient since I had so much goat milk to begin my experiments.

I handcraft cold process soap, which means the soap must cure for 4-6 weeks before it becomes useable goat milk soap.  I believe good things take time and patience; I love the texture and quality of my goat milk soaps after the curing period passes.  I hope you do, too!

Soap-making is an interesting union of chemistry and art.  The actual soap making process is called saponification, which according to Webster’s Dictionary means, “To convert (as fat) into soap; specifically: to hydrolyze (a fat) with alkali to form a soap and glycerol.”  To put it “simply”: FAT+LYE=SOAP

In my goat milk soap production, sodium hydroxide is considered the alkali, and organic olive, castor, coconut, and palm oil are the primary “fats”.  The purpose of goat milk in my soaps is to help create a lye solution that will allow the lye molecules to more easily reach the molecules of the oil.  When the molecules of lye come into contact with the molecules of oil, they rearrange themselves to become soap and glycerin.  Putting lye directly into the oils without a liquid (goat milk) would cause a different reaction process, resulting in a nasty, caustic mistake that doesn’t resemble soap!  The goat milk is also full of fats, proteins, and vitamins that have been noted by cosmetic companies to be beneficial to skin health.

Many commercial soaps contain synthetic additives, colors, fillers, and if you read the fine print, are “detergent based”.  In the commercial soap-making process, high heat and pressure are used to take the glycerin OUT of the bar.  This is to make the bar of soap last longer--a good thing, but it also removes the moisturizing effect the bar could have, if the glycerin was left in it.  Emollients are added to replace the glycerin; then the soap is dried and made into flakes that are pressed under high pressure to make the factory perfect, hard, and shiny bar that we are all have come to know.  Automation and convenience in today’s commercial soap-making processes causes sacrifices in other areas--a connection to the art and quality of soaps.

Simple Soaps adheres to the simple, humble beginnings of soap-making to create wholesome, genuine goat milk soaps that balance art and quality.