Ingredients and Materials

• Choosing quality goat milk is the most important factor in making good homemade goat milk soap. Although you can still use pasteurized goat milk to make your soap, filtered goat milk (unpasteurized but run through a milk filter to remove foreign objects) provides the richest goat milk for soap since it still contains all the amino acids and enzymes that provide goat milk with most of its moisturizing ability. You may not be able to find filtered goat milk, but you can use pasteurized goat milk; however, the pasteurization process removes some of the amino acids and enzymes, resulting in a less moisturizing soap.
  
  Essential oils, exfoliants and herbs that you add to your goat milk soap make your soaps special. If you choose to add scenting oils to your soap, use natural essential oils instead of fragrance oil, which is produced through the use of a chemical and could irritate sensitive skin. Some popular natural choices include lavender, peppermint, rose, and tea tree. Napoli suggests oatmeal, chicory, apricot seed and cornmeal as good exfoliants. Herbs and other possible additives include jasmine tea, chamomile, aloe vera and honey.
  
  Although you can buy soap molds online, creating your own molds from materials around your home is a less-expensive option. Possible options include small cardboard boxes such as shoe boxes lined with wax paper, ice-cube trays, glasses or plastic cake pans. Avoid using aluminum, since the lye will eat through the surface. For this same reason, make sure your pots are stainless steel.
  
  

Process

• Since you'll be working with lye, which can burn your skin, take extra care when making your soap by wearing rubber gloves and goggles. Always pour the lye into the cold goat milk to reduce your chances of getting splashed. If you do spill lye on your skin, rinse immediately with water and plenty of soap to remove the residue and minimize your chances of burning.
  
  Soap occurs as a result of a chemical reaction (saponification) between the fats and lye. Getting your soap to the trace stage (the point when your mixture thickens) is the key to successfully making goat milk soap. Fast stirring and high temperatures help your soap trace more quickly, but watch your thermometer since heat in excess of 230 degrees F can cause splattering. Ten to 20 minutes of stirring should be enough time to make your soap trace. You'll know your soap has traced when a small blob of soap forms after you've collected and dripped a spoonful of your mixture back into your pot.
  
  

Packaging

• Packaging can play an important role in making your soap more attractive. You could wrap your soap with plastic wrap or lightweight cardboard as low-cost options. Decorative fabric or tulle and ribbon will enhance the appearance of your homemade goat milk soap, especially if you'll be selling your bars of soap or using them as gifts. You could also use small mesh bags, hand-decorated boxes or a custom-designed logo, and you can even carve your soap into figurines.