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Goat’s milk and honey soap is a beautiful handmade gift to make or receive. By using a goat’s milk melt and pour soap base, you can skip the risk of dealing with lye and the hassle of milking a goat.
The resulting soap is still handcrafted with love right in your home kitchen, and the shape, add-ins, and scents are all your own.
A while back I shared a recipe for an easy goat’s milk and honey soap for beginners hoping to convince people that soapmaking doesn’t have to be scary. Done right, avoiding the main soapmaking mistakes that newbies make, soapmaking with lye is fun and safe. Lye still scares people though, and now that I’m a mother of two small children it’s tricky to get a day in the kitchen alone for soapmaking.
The thing is, there’s a lot more to soapmaking than lye and oils. Choosing shapes, colors, scents and add-ins takes more time, effort and creativity than the actual saponification process itself. By making melt and pour soaps, you can still get your creative juices flowing without pulling out all the safety gear.
I put my 1-year-old down for a nap and my 3-year-old excitedly joined me in the kitchen for soapmaking time! The melting point of melt and pour soap is right around 120 degrees, so it’s not scalding hot.
My little one was able to help stir and pour the soap without a worry about safety. The only concern is mess, but with good supervision and a careful child, it’s no problem.
Supplies for Melt and Pour Soap
This soap is simple and only has one mix in ~ honey. If you’d like, feel free to add a tablespoon of your favorite oil like jojoba or sweet almond for a more nourishing bar.
- 1 lb Goats Milk Melt and Pour Soap Base
- 2 to 4 Tbsp Honey
- 1 Tbsp Nourishing Oil such as Jojoba or Sweet Almond (optional)
- Double Boiler or Microwave Safe Bowl
- Silicone Spatula
- Soap Mold (I’m using this one, but there are a lot of other beautiful choices here too)
- Yellow Soap Colorant (optional)
How to Make Goat’s Milk and Honey Melt and Pour Soap
Start by chopping the block of melt and pour soap base into small cubes. Roughly 1 centimeter (1/2 inch) cubes work well. The idea here is to increase the surface area and help the soap melt more evenly. Melt and pour soap bases are quite soft and you won’t have trouble going through it with a good chef’s knife.
Place the chopped soap base in a heatproof bowl and slowly melt it, stirring often. It’s important to avoid burning melt and pour soap as that’s the one thing that will completely destroy a batch. If you’re using a microwave, cook it for no more than 30-60 seconds at a time and then stir in between.
Believe it or not, I don’t have a microwave and so I’m making it on the stovetop. On the stovetop, direct heat can quickly burn a batch so it’s important to use a double boiler.
You don’t need anything fancy, just a heatproof bowl that fits nicely on top of a small saucepan. Add a bit of water to the saucepan and place the bowl containing soap chunks on top.
Turn the heat on and allow the water to come to a simmer. The indirect heat from the steam will slow the melting process and prevent burning.
Even in a double boiler, it only took about 2 minutes for chunks of soap to go from solid to this…
At this point, turn off the heat and stir until the soap base is completely dissolved. This should take no more than 2-3 minutes. If you need to, turn the heat back on for a bit more melting action.
Once the soap base is completely melted, remove it from the heat altogether. Add in the honey and stir to completely incorporate it.
I had a darker-colored honey from our backyard bees, and I thought it added a nice color to the soap. If you’d like, feel free to add a few drops of yellow soap colorant to enhance the “honey” color of the soap.
At this point, with the soap melted, honey mixed in and oil or colors added (if using), this goat’s milk and honey soap is ready to go into the mold. Pour the liquid soap base into a silicone soap mold of your choice.
I’m using this round honey bee mold, but there are a lot of great honey-themed soap mold choices out there. This one is particularly elaborate, and I really love the detail. You could also use a goat-themed soap mold to take things in a different direction.
A one-pound soap recipe makes 10 small round bars using the mold I chose. Unfortunately, the mold only holds 6, so the rest stays in the double boiler to be remelted gently in an hour when these have set.
Allow the soap to set in the molds for about 45 minutes to an hour. If you’re in a hurry, placing them in the fridge or freezer will really speed things up and you can have soap ready to come out of the molds in as little as 15 minutes.
At this point, if you have more soap mix in your double boiler, re-melt it gently and pour it into the mold. Most soap molds hold about 1 pound of soap, mine was just extra small.
Once dry the soaps are ready to gift or use. Melt and pour soaps are high in glycerine, which makes them extra luxurious, but it also means that they’ll attract moisture if left out for extended periods.
If you’re gifting them, try wrapping them in tissue paper and packaging them in these screw-top 4-ounce salve tins. They’re a bit deeper than the standard tin which will accommodate for the soap’s extra height.
Those same tins also work great for small chocolates and homemade lotion bars. Once you’ve got a cute honey bee silicone mold, might as well make use of it in more ways than one, right?
Can Epsom salt be added to MP goat milk soap bases? If so, how much per pound? Thank you!
You can add salt but you want to use a fine salt, preferably some kind of mineral salt. You can start off with 1 tsp per pound of soap base.
hi! are essential oils necessary for added scent or does the honey provide sufficient scent? i’m also adding lemon tea (dry from baggies) for pretty added visual effects for gift giving. how much would you suggest? ty 😉
You can totally leave the essential oils out if you wish. Are you wanting to just add the lemon tea to the tops of the bars or are you wanting to incorporate it into the soap?
i would like to incorporate throughout the soap. also, adding wildflower honey. i would like the bars to have a nice scent…for gifts. ty
I would be careful of adding too much throughout the soap and you probably want it to be ground into a fine powder but you can sprinkle larger pieces on top for visual appeal. You probably won’t get much scent without the essential oils but if you’re looking for something really subtle, then it would be totally ok to leave the essential oils out.
I’m making these for my baby shower. I’m going to put them in clear baggies, should I wrap them in tissue paper or just plastic wrap in order to keep moisture from messing them up.
Are you asking about wrapping them before or after you put them in baggies?
I’d like to add colloidal oats to this , is there a specific quantity per lb of melt and pour?
A good starting point is around 1 tsp per pound of soap base.
How long of a shelf life will this soap have cause of the honey?
The honey will not affect the shelf life at all.
Can I add an essential oil or pure oil scent to this recipe? I just purchased the most glorious smelling Honey Oil and would love to add some.
You can definitely add essential oil to this soap. I would just be sure that any other kind of oil has specifically been used or tested for soapmaking. Otherwise it could affect the recipe.
I want to make homemade soap but I don’t know nothing can you teach me and I don’t know what I need to buy and from where to start😞
If you’re looking for melt and pour, this guide has everything you need:https://practicalselfreliance.com/melt-and-pour-soap/
If you want to make soap with lye, here’s the guide for you: https://practicalselfreliance.com/how-to-make-soap/
Can I add breast milk to this recipe?
You can substitute milk from any animal into a soap recipe, this however is a melt and pour recipe that’s using a soap base that already has the goat milk in the soap base. If you add breastmilk, or any other milk, there’s no lye action to sterilize everything and it would spoil. If you want to make your own breastmilk soap, you can, but you can’t do it as melt and pour. Here’s a discussion of using breastmilk in soap for more info.
Can I use goat milk as a base for any type of soap?
Yes, the goat’s milk base is really versatile, and you can use it with all manner of add-ins, colors, and shapes.
How do you wrap these for gift giving. I have read that they need to leave out for a month, but I think that is for the lye made soaps versus the melt and pour soaps. I have made this recipe, but don’t know the best way to wrap. I have put in shrink wrap but do they need air?
Melt and pour soaps are very high in glycerin and other humectants. This causes them to attract moisture from the air. It is a good idea to wrap them tightly. Shrink wrap would be perfect or some other product that is more eco-friendly.
Can I make the soap in different varieties of natural clays and plant’s powder like hibiscus powder with glycerine soap base
Hello, could I add lavender nibs from my garden to this base; would it be too overpowering?
I think it’d be lovely. Lavender flowers are less concentrated than essential oils and I don’t think they’d be overpowering. I personally would dry them first though.
Hi, I am very please with this recipe. Do you have Teatree oil melt and pour recipes?
Thsnk you very much!!!
I don’t actually, but my husband LOVES tea tree soap. I should make him that one next…
If you put soaps in the fridge or freezer, it makes them sweat more.
We’re moving to Tenn or NC next year and I want to make goat soaps from actual goats & bees we will raise. Do you have info about on this?
Indeed I do. Here’s a regular recipe for goats milk and honey soap.
Can i incorporate this into a all in 1 loofa soap?
Yes, you can definitely make this into a loofa soap. Just put the loofa into your soap mold and then pour the melt and pour batter over it. Odds are you’re going to have to slice the loofa to make it fit, but melt and pour works great with a loofa in it. Enjoy!
This recipe looks and sounds wonderful. I’ve been looking for something nourishing for my skin without having to add essential oils since I use the same soap for my 3 year old. Since I’m about out of my last batch of soap, I am definitely going to be making this tonight. It’s even better since I have all the ingredients. Thanks for sharing!
I made this over the weekend and I’m absolutely in love with this soap! Thanks again for sharing this recipe.