• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Practical Self Reliance

Your Practical Guide To Self Reliant Living

  • Off-Grid
  • Foraging
  • Herbalism
  • Preserving
  • Brewing
  • Permaculture
You are here: Home / Crafts / Homemade Goat’s Milk and Honey Soap ~ Easy Melt and Pour Recipe

Homemade Goat’s Milk and Honey Soap ~ Easy Melt and Pour Recipe

November 13, 2018 by Ashley Adamant 35 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links.  Read full disclosure here.
8314 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

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.

Goats Milk and Honey Soap

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.

Goats Milk and Honey Soap

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.

Cut Goats Milk Soap Base

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.

Melting Goats Milk Soap Base

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…

Partially Melted Goats Milk Soap Base

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.

Adding Honey to Goats Milk Soap Base

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.

Honey Bee Soap Mold

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.

Goats Milk and Honey Soap

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?

Melt and Pour Goats Milk and Honey Soap #soapmaking #meltandpour #handmadesoap #naturalsoap #diysoap #soaprecipe #goatsmilksoap

Related

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Soap Making

« Winter Foraging in Cold Climates: 50+ Wild Foods in the Snow
Off Grid Living Near the Arctic Circle ~ 6 Lessons Learned »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Faith

    April 5, 2019 at 4:03 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Faith

      April 10, 2019 at 3:37 am

      I made this over the weekend and I’m absolutely in love with this soap! Thanks again for sharing this recipe.

      Reply
  2. Chris

    June 19, 2019 at 2:05 pm

    Can i incorporate this into a all in 1 loofa soap?

    Reply
    • Ashley Adamant

      June 19, 2019 at 8:13 pm

      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!

      Reply
  3. PJ Hoover

    July 12, 2019 at 1:45 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Ashley Adamant

      July 12, 2019 at 6:51 pm

      Indeed I do. Here’s a regular recipe for goats milk and honey soap.

      Reply
  4. Candy

    October 24, 2019 at 10:20 am

    If you put soaps in the fridge or freezer, it makes them sweat more.

    Reply
  5. Antonia

    December 26, 2019 at 12:59 am

    Hi, I am very please with this recipe. Do you have Teatree oil melt and pour recipes?

    Thsnk you very much!!!

    Reply
    • Ashley Adamant

      December 28, 2019 at 2:24 am

      I don’t actually, but my husband LOVES tea tree soap. I should make him that one next…

      Reply
  6. Veronica

    January 4, 2020 at 5:32 am

    Hello, could I add lavender nibs from my garden to this base; would it be too overpowering?

    Reply
    • Ashley Adamant

      January 6, 2020 at 2:42 pm

      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.

      Reply
  7. Abdul manaf

    July 15, 2020 at 4:04 pm

    Can I make the soap in different varieties of natural clays and plant’s powder like hibiscus powder with glycerine soap base

    Reply
  8. Barbara

    August 8, 2020 at 8:30 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Administrator

      February 25, 2021 at 8:03 pm

      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.

      Reply
  9. kelly

    September 24, 2020 at 3:13 am

    Can I use goat milk as a base for any type of soap?

    Reply
    • Ashley Adamant

      January 3, 2021 at 3:16 am

      Yes, the goat’s milk base is really versatile, and you can use it with all manner of add-ins, colors, and shapes.

      Reply
  10. Chris

    January 30, 2021 at 6:44 pm

    Can I add breast milk to this recipe?

    Reply
    • Ashley Adamant

      January 30, 2021 at 8:53 pm

      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.

      Reply
  11. Angie Ovaguimian

    February 2, 2021 at 7:16 am

    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😞

    Reply
    • Ashley Adamant

      February 3, 2021 at 4:52 pm

      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/

      Reply
  12. Emily

    September 17, 2021 at 12:33 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Administrator

      September 17, 2021 at 3:52 pm

      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.

      Reply
  13. Tauni

    May 29, 2022 at 3:51 pm

    How long of a shelf life will this soap have cause of the honey?

    Reply
    • Administrator

      June 1, 2022 at 7:37 pm

      The honey will not affect the shelf life at all.

      Reply
  14. Sue

    June 19, 2022 at 1:17 am

    I’d like to add colloidal oats to this , is there a specific quantity per lb of melt and pour?

    Reply
    • Administrator

      June 20, 2022 at 8:50 pm

      A good starting point is around 1 tsp per pound of soap base.

      Reply
  15. Laura

    July 2, 2022 at 12:10 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Administrator

      July 7, 2022 at 7:43 pm

      Are you asking about wrapping them before or after you put them in baggies?

      Reply
  16. sonny

    September 20, 2022 at 4:08 pm

    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 😉

    Reply
    • Administrator

      September 21, 2022 at 4:05 pm

      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?

      Reply
      • sonny

        September 21, 2022 at 4:23 pm

        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

        Reply
        • Administrator

          November 6, 2022 at 2:34 pm

          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.

          Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Meet Ashley from Practical Self Reliance

Ashley Adamant Author Bio

I’m an off-grid homesteader in rural Vermont and the author of Practical Self Reliance, a blog that helps people find practical ways to become more self-reliant. Read More…

Subscribe Here!

Footer

Amazon Disclosure

Practical Self Reliance is a personal blog and a woman-owned small business.  I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. For more details, visit my disclosures page.

Prepper Website

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework

8314 shares