Thread: goat milk soap

My CRSW Select lathers like a champ. It is one of my favorites too.

I would think it would be very smooth & slick, although I've never tried it. The deal breaker would be that by the sounds of things, it dries too quick with problems lathering.

I've been wanting to try some CRSW, but it's been hard trying to let go of my collection

interesting info about using different brushes. Didn't know that a brush would make that much different. I guess I have an excuse to get another brush BTW, what is CRSW?
red

Originally Posted by redtruck

interesting info about using different brushes. Didn't know that a brush would make that much different. I guess I have an excuse to get another brush BTW, what is CRSW?
red

Cold River Soap Works

Originally Posted by redtruck

interesting info about using different brushes. Didn't know that a brush would make that much different. I guess I have an excuse to get another brush BTW, what is CRSW?
red

It could be also a water hardness issue, although my water is very soft, but when I changed brushes the soap started lathering as it should.

Originally Posted by redtruck

First off I am not sure if this is the right place for this, so if the admins need to, please move to the proper location. I had a question about why different soaps lather different. Is it just different ingredients? Is shave soap made differently than other soaps? I wonder because I have a friend who raises goats, and makes her own goats milk products, including soap. It is made into bars, and she does not specifically market it as shave soap, but her husband uses it, and loves it. My issue is that while it makes tons of lather, it is very thin, and disappears quickly, if that makes sense. Could it be technique? I also use the Biggelow branded Proaso, and two different scents from Maggards. I do not have a problem with either of those. Here is what i just did. I cut off a chunk from a bar of goats milk soap, while my brush was soaking in hot water in my mug. I dumped the water out, held the tip of the brush and rubbed the chunk on it a few times. Then put the chuck in the mug and attempted to build lather. I used the same amount of water that I usually use. I got lots of bubbly lather, but when I put it on my face it was gone after a few seconds. The same thing has happened with all the other soaps my friend gave me to try. I was a fine shave, but I guess I just like thick lather, and I can not seam to get that from her soaps.
Red

I'm oversupplied on soap because I ran across claims that goat milk, dead sea clay, glycerin, tallow, lanolin, etc., do wonders for your face. But the truth is, the more things I try the more confused I get.

I guess the only criteria I can understand is, I enjoy using some soaps more than others for whatever reason.

CRSW was my first tallow soap. I think the Select soaps are great. I can lather with a small dense brush or a large lofted brush. The soap needs a good deal of water. If you want dense lather, probably not the best, but for slick lather, it is the best I have. I also use Barrister and Mann. It too is a thirsty soap. With it, I find the transition from useful slickness to too-wet breakdown is in a very small window. The CRSW is a bit more user friendly, the BM an interesting challenge to get just right.

Old thread I know but just wanted to address some of the comments.

So my lovely bride took me to a craft fair over the weekend and at one booth the were selling goat milk soaps. There were different scents and formulations. They even had pucks...so to speak.




I've been curious about it for a while so I decided to give it a whirl.

Honestly, I don't know what the problem is people have with it. At least the puck I got lathered fine and stayed longer than I needed it to (i.e. there is always some overlap on unshaved areas). The same complaint is often made about Mitchell's Wool Fat soap. It may be expectations that are an issue. Neither of these makes a big, poofy, whipped cream looking leather like the canned goo but, personally, I don't even want that. All that foam just gets in my way. I like a flat leather and this puck gives that just fine. As with MWF, using the right lathering technique produced a fine, flat lather.

My complaint with it is that it doesn't leave much padding like the high fat soaps like MWF do for a second or overlapping pass. I had to relather to go over an area I had already shaved where the fatty soaps can be gone over again. That being said it does leave the skin smooth and soft. If you don't mind relathering it is worth a try, especially if you have dry or sensitive skin.

Originally Posted by redtruck

…I have a friend who raises goats, and makes her own goats milk products, including soap. It is made into bars, and she does not specifically market it as shave soap, but her husband uses it, and loves it. My issue is that while it makes tons of lather, it is very thin, and disappears quickly, if that makes sense.

There were quite a few replies until now that mirror your experience.
Most did not, however, state whether the goat milk soap in question was a dedicated shaving soap.

What you describe sounds to me like a typical thin, watery lather that you get when you try to shave with a hand or bath soap. The soap is just not optimised for shaving; and the characteristics of an ideal shaving soap differ significantly from those of a bath soap.

Even if it was marketed as a shaving soap, just because someone makes a decent hand or bath soap does not mean that they can produce a good shaving soap. This is probably exacerbated when the ingredients are not typical, like in the case of goat or sheep milk.

Yet, as Haslinger demonstrates with their Sheep Milk shaving soap, these soaps can be excellent.
This makes me suspect that the watery lather has more to do with either the fact that these soaps are not primarily intended as shaving soap, or a lack of experience in making a shaving soap that contains goat or sheep milk.


B.