Yes, you absolutely can use yogurt in soap making.
Yogurt is a beneficial addition to soap recipes, contributing several desirable properties to the final product.
Why Use Yogurt in Soap?
Incorporating yogurt into your soap recipe offers distinct advantages, primarily related to its natural components:
- Skin Benefits: Yogurt contains lactic acid, which is great for skin. Lactic acid is known as an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) and can help gently exfoliate the skin and improve its texture.
- Creamier Lather: It also contains natural fats, which contributes to creating a creamier lather in the finished soap bar. This can result in a more luxurious feel during use.
How to Incorporate Yogurt
When adding yogurt to soap, it's typically added during the lye water preparation phase or at trace (when the soap mixture thickens).
- Temperature Control: A key recommendation when using yogurt is to keep temperatures low for this recipe - about 80-90 degrees F for both the lye water and oil. This helps protect the beneficial properties of the yogurt and prevents potential scorching or off-odors caused by the heat of the saponification process.
- Preparation: Yogurt should ideally be plain and unsweetened. It's often frozen or chilled before mixing with the lye solution to help manage the temperature increase caused by dissolving the lye.
Benefits Summary
Using yogurt in soap can lead to a bar that is:
- Gentler on the skin
- Rich in moisturizers from the natural fats
- Produces a smooth, creamy lather
By carefully controlling temperatures as recommended, soap makers can successfully create nourishing and pleasant soaps using yogurt.
