Loaded with nutrients and vitamins, goats milk has been proven an excellent ingredient for personal cleaning products. When used in a consistent skincare regimen, goat milk benefits include moisturizing skin, reducing acne and exfoliating the skin. It also good for people with sensitive skin.
These days goat milk is finding its way into an array of cleansing and personal products including bar soap, liquid soap, body lotion, lip balm and laundry detergent.
Benefits of goat milk products
There is good science to back up goat milk benefits.
According to a 2016 study published in the Journal of Biological Research and Applied Sciences conducted by the Department of Microbiology at Jinnah University for Women in Karachi, Pakistan, titled “Antimicrobial Pattern Associated With Handmade Goat Milk Soap,” chemical-free goat milk soap is a good alternative to commercially made soaps that contain synthetic ingredients.
While those commercially produced soaps do remove pathogens from the skin when used in regular hand washing, they also contain synthetic ingredients which, according to the study, have been linked to causing cancer and serious diseases.
Goat milk soap, on the other hand, does the same thing without the dangerous synthetic chemicals.
“Goat milk soap has a variety of benefits [and] it has been used for therapeutic purposes for centuries,” according to the study results. “Goat milk is effective for treating acne and skin infections [and] it has antimicrobial properties that delays growth of pathogenic organisms.”
The pathogens used in the study included E. coli, Staphylococcus, Candida, Salmonella and Streptococcus.
Results from the study showed that goat milk soap fights off and neutralizes these pathogenic organisms, the team reported in its conclusion.
They also noted goat milk soap contains a variety of nutrients and vitamins including Vitamins D, C, B1 and E.
Experimenting with what to make with goat milk
In doing her own research by reading articles online and talking to others who use goat milk in making soap, soap maker Julie Rayder said she has learned that goat milk soap contains alpha-hydroxy acids such as lactic acid which help remove dead skin cells from your skin’s surface.
“There is so much science to making a decent, high-quality bar of soap and science was my thing in high school,” Rayder said. “Now I get to combine science and art in my soap.”
She learned that palm oil and tallow used in soap making are high in palmitic and stearic acids, which help make a bar of soap last longer.
Saturated fats like coconut oil, for example, contain lauric and myristic acids which result in a soap that is very cleansing and bubbly, Rayder said.
On the other hand, a soap made with olive oil that contains the oleic fatty acid gives her a gentle, milky and non-foaming soap.
“The addition of fatty goat milk results in a soap that is incredibly creamy and moisturizing, Rayder said. “Many of my customers who use our goat milk soap say it feels like lotion so that they no longer need [hand] lotion — even in the winter.”
The future of goat milk products
The Jinnah University for Women study concludes goat milk has great promise as an ingredient for new therapeutic products.
“Keeping in view its antimicrobial effect, goat milk can be used for a variety of purposes such as making cosmetics, detergents and other skincare products,” the report stated.
Rayder is constantly on the lookout for new products she can make using goat milk.
“I’m always testing, researching [and] learning,” Rayder said. “So I’m sure my recipes will constantly be undergoing a form of microevolution.”