Goatsie Oats Soap

The most frustrating part of making my own soap recipes is trying to fill the mold. It seems I can't get every cell filled. Soap ingredients are calculated by weight, not volume because it's chemistry. I'll do the math someday!

I'm looking forward to popping these little guys out of the mold in a couple days. OK, so these are the biggest bars I make at about 5oz a bar. The shape isn't great for a hand and body bar in my opinion but it's perfect for dish soap, which is what this is.

Interestingly, I found my homemade dish soap makes a great flea killing soap for my pets and gets out most stains from clothing better than commercial stain pretreatments (including motor oil), all while being skin safe. Cheers for homemade soap!

I went to make some dish soap this morning and my scale was out of battery. I'm so glad I have a backup scale for the small batches now! I'd wager most people have never seen a bar of dish soap!

Someone posted a question that got me thinking: "where do you get your goat milk from?" It baffled me at first because the answer should be obvious, "from my goats of course!" I have a small herd of dairy goats that I hand milk twice a day. What you see in the picture is a jar of fresh milk in a cold water bath. The cold water cools the milk more rapidly than it would cool in the fridge, preserving it's sweet flavor. Soap is not the only thing I use the milk for. I drink it, feed it to my children, make yogurt, cheese, pudding, etc. What is used in the soap is the same drinking quality milk I use for my family. Milk season is in full swing here now that it's spring and the ladies (goats) are happy to be back in the milking routine after having the winter off.

Each soap is special in it's own way. From the stimulating, cooling smell of peppermint soap to the plain and gentle unscented soap. Each bar is created by hand. Whether it poured smoothly or needed some persuasion to go nicely in the mold, each bar will be a little different. Some bars will be nice and flat on all sides, like a bar of factory made soap you can buy in the supermarket, or it might have some evidence of pouring so one side is not flat, or have a bubble on the side where the thick soap batter trapped a bit of air. These blemishes are superficial and go away with use. They don't affect the characteristics of the soap itself, just the looks.

Each recipe is created and tested here. These recipes are not from books, they're imagined, calculated, measured, crafted and tested before becoming available to you. While most are based off of one amazing base recipe, sometimes I modify it to get a specific effect with a particular soap. I don't use melt and pour soap bases. The soap is hand crafted. From milking the goats by hand, to measuring the lye and oils to completing the cold process and curing the soaps.

Our available varieties are:
Unscented goat's milk soap
Lavender goat's milk soap
Peppermint goat's milk soap
Pumpkin Spice goat's milk soap
Oats 'n' Honey soap
Cinnamon roll soap

I've got a few new varieties in the works so stay tuned!

Cinnamon rolls. A lovely, delicious treat for anytime of year but especially in the fall and winter. Sometimes eaten cold, sometimes warm. Here is a cinnamon roll that's not edible but smells so much like the real thing that I was tempted to take a bite! Every time I walk by or handle these soaps, I have to take a moment to smell their delicious aroma. They look ready to pop in the oven!

As with all Goatsie Oats Soaps, they are 100% natural without artificial ingredients or fragrances. This "cinnamon roll" gets its mild sweetness from real honey and has cane sugar and cinnamon powder in the swirl just like the edible kind! Honey is soothing and considered to be healing to the skin while the sugar and cinnamon add a nice level of abrasiveness like a sugar scrub.

The circular, swirled variety is limited edition. Future batches will be in the regular, rectangular bar form unless the rolls are requested. What do you think, should I add some icing to these little beauties?

Did someone say they wanted a pumpkin spice latte? I don't make lattes but here's some pumpkin spice soap! It contains real pumpkin and the essential oils of the fragrant spices that give pumpkin pie its delicious flavor. Pumpkin contains lots of nourishing factors such as beta carotene that are good for skin and it gave the soap a bit of a texture on top when I poured it. The soap itself is silky smooth and has a moderate lather with a lovely fragrance that lingers lightly on the skin after washing.

Interestingly, I've found it has also been good at removing odors! Fall is romance season for the goats who graciously provide the milk for the soaps and if ever you've met a billy goat in rut, they stink! And boy is that stink hard to wash off. The pumpkin spice has become my go to after loving on those stinky boys so my hands smell fresh and clean afterwards. If you try it, let me know if it does the same for you!

My 2 year old loves this soap and asks to use it over the cinnamon roll soap that I've been testing out before making it available. During testing, I found the pumpkin spice takes a bit longer to be ready than my other varieties so I've taken notes so you get a luxurious soap. I've been happy with the cinnamon roll too so stay tuned for its introduction!

Introducing our classic Lavender soap. It's hard to beat the timeless scent of lavender flowers. Known as a calming aroma and to be soothing to skin, lavender is perfect to pair with goat milk for a gentle soap that's great for the whole family and non-irritating to skin conditions. This soap contains real lavender essential oil instead of artificial lavender fragrance. I use this soap as hand and body soap for myself and my babies, including the furry ones! I've noticed it generally keeps the dog smelling better for longer than when I use dog shampoo on her.
(Ok, so the dog doesn't smell like flowers after her bath but the dog smell tends to not come back as quickly as when I use dog shampoo.)

If you try it, let me know what you think!

Since this is the first post, let me introduce myself and give a brief history of how Goatsie Oats Soap was born.

I learned how to make soap years ago and began to make soap for personal use starting in 2019 because I had difficulty finding a soap that worked well for my sensitive skin. I began trying to find my own formula and many batches ended up being laundry soap because they weren't meeting my expectations. I finally settled on a formula I liked and began to experiment with using essential oils and some food items to try to add color and fragrance.

Someone asked me, "have you ever made goat milk soap?" Well, no. I hadn't. I tried it. It's more involved than making soap without goat milk and there were several failed batches as I found a process that worked for me.

Happy with my product, I began to share my soaps with family and in 2023, Goatsie Oats Soap was born when I signed up for my first event and sold soap at Clermont Days in Clermont, GA. It was a success and I gained a few repeat customers.

I stopped making soap for awhile when pregnant with my second baby because my pregnancy altered sense of smell found good smells to be awful and I couldn't stomach making soap. I'm back at it and have several varieties in stock. And if you're wondering, yes, I do wash my little ones with my soap. 🙂

My focus is on making small batches of natural soap that is safe for the whole family. I do not use artificial fragrances or colorants, thus you will find that the fragrance is not overpowering when washing with the soap and will not leave a lasting fragrance on your skin. It is packaged in a bamboo cellophane bag to protect the soap from the Georgia humidity after it's cured.

The soap is available for purchase in person at Mountain Fresh Creamery in Clermont, GA or online through this page and via email at [email protected]

I'm confident that you'll like it as much as I do!