Goat Milk Soap Making Workshop
Cold Press soap making can be a little messy, but it sure is fun! 15 women joined us at the lovely Folded Hills Farm to learn and experience Goat Milk Soap Making with Grace Malloy. Soap making really puts those high school chemistry lab days to use! If you make soap at home you have to be extremely cautious and exact. Grace recommends starting with small batches first to fully understand the power of your ingredients and the process. Making soap is a fun, creative process that can help take your skincare into your own hands. You can experiment with scents, colors, textures and use responsibly sourced ingredients and know exactly what is going on your skin.
We love how Grace put it in her class hand out, "Home soap making, like the other home arts is a radical act! Taking your family's care into your own hands, growing your own ingredients, and reviving your ancestral home economy is a deeply satisfying spiritual, environmental and political activity. A true understanding of the process of how something is made - who it affects and how it does so - can empower us humans to inhabit our ecological and social communities much more compassionately."
Understanding the dangers of "Lye" while making soap is a priority. It is an extremely caustic chemical during the soap making process and will burn skin upon contact. There are several steps you can take to keep yourself and the ones around you during the mixing process safe, like wearing closed toes shoes, gloves, goggles, long pants and shirts. You must do your research before experimenting with soap making!
Learn to work with "lye" before making soap
Below are the resources Grace shared with us.
Soap Making Resources:
Ingredient Resources:
We hope that this post inspires you to learn about and experiment with soap making and that these resources help you understand the process!
It was my first time making soap and though it is a bit intimidating, I feel like I am up for the challenge. The soap I made is a green clay soap with cedar essential oils, it is curing, but will be ready to use after it cures for 3 weeks and I can't wait to lather up with it! Thank you to all who came out to our workshop and to Grace for teaching such a great class!
Happy Soap Making!
Love, Lauren
Photos by Brittany Smith