Easy Homemade Soap

While stirring, you can add scent to your goop. I like lemon, lavender or cucumber – something refreshing. Apple scent may be pretty nifty, too.

Now you can refill your detergent bottles and enjoy some more cackling, you savvy thing, you. Let the mixture cool before pouring it into the bottles and don't be surprised if it separates a little bit. That's normal. Really. Use 1/2 cup per load. It works like a dream.

QUICK CLIP: Need a Bleach/Brightener Substitute?

1 cup hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup lemon or grapefruit juice
12 cups water

Store in a labeled plastic jug. Add 2 cups per load.

Fancy soaps

You’ve tried your luck with tallow soap, enjoyed making your own laundry soap, and are fearless when it comes to hot lye mixtures. Congratulations! Now you are ready to tackle goat’s milk soap and pricey soaps. Why take baby steps? Because Rome wasn’t built in a day, folks.

Goat’s milk soap 

You can call this savon lait de chévre if you want to impress someone. Goat’s milk soap is praised for its texture and moisturizing qualities. And how difficult is it to make? Easy as pie.

When I first began making soap, I feared using goat’s milk like some people fear flying or an attack by giant spiders. I’d flip through soapmaking books and skip right over the goat’s milk pages. No way. The idea was way too scary. Finally during a frantic search for gifts online, I discovered countless Web sites with goat’s milk soap for sale. The sites showed photographs of the soap makers happily holding bars of homemade goat’s milk soap. I burned, I ached, I steamed with envy, and in no time I was making goat’s milk soap in my own kitchen and laughing at my formerly frightened self. So here’s the big secret:

Use slushy, frozen goat’s milk instead of water. Suddenly any soap recipe can be made into goat’s milk soap.

Measure the fats you wish to use in your soap and use a lye calculator to determine how much goat’s milk and lye you need. Place all the fats in a thick bottomed kettle. Sound familiar?

Divide the goat’s milk so that 2/3 of it is in freezer bags in the freezer. Place the remaining 1/3 in a pitcher in the refrigerator.

Once the milk in the freezer has frozen into a chunky mush, set it aside. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pitcher of goat’s milk from the refrigerator. Place the pitcher in your sink and surround it with ice and some water (but not enough to make it float).

Now add the lye to the goat’s milk very slowly and preferably a little at a time. Stir between each addition, alternating between lye and the slushy, frozen milk. Be careful not to splash. Use a soup ladle to add the slushy milk if you would like. Stir. Keep adding lye, then frozen milk, and stirring until all the slush and lye have been added to the liquid milk.