You may be seeing a rise of soap's made with cow's milk or goat's
milk at your local health food store and in several online shops. Even
The Soap Distillery
has soaps made with goat's cheese (which gives the soap many of the
same benefits of goat's milk). But, what's the deal? Why buy soap with
milk or cheese in it? Is it a marketing scam, or does it actually do
something? Why can't I just drink my milk? Why would I want to shower
with it, too?
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| It's looks so creamy...creamy enough to bathe in! |
Well, I'll tell
you something. I've used bars of soap that have milk in them, and I've
also used soaps that don't have milk in them. There is a noticeable
difference between two bars of soap that share the same ingredients
except for the milk. In the soap with the milk, the lather bubbles up
much more (most likely because of the sugars in the dairy product) and
the bubbles quickly come together in a small, tight, and thick manner,
hence creating an amazingly creamy lather. It's much different from a
salt bar, though. The lather is not lotion-like and stiff like a salt bar, but
still smooth and creamy, much like milk itself. The bar has more slip to
it, and generally just feels better. Now, this isn't to stay that a
non-milk bar can't be amazing, because it definitely can. However, as
mentioned before, I'm only comparing two soap bars that have the same
ingredients, except one is made with milk and the other with water.
For
the purposes of this short post, I'll be talking about goat's
milk/cheese. Aside from the visual and tactile experience, what else
does it give? Oh boy...this is the best part! Not only does it feel
better, but the milk makes your skin actually FEEL better. When I dried
my skin off, I could notice how softer my skin felt. Why is this? Well,
one thing that allows this to happen is the extra fat that's in milk and
cheese. Soap bars need to be made with some type of fat and lye to be
soap. The extra fat that does not get turned into soap moisturizes your
skin, and helps to prevent that tight, dry feeling skin that needs
moisture can get. The addition of goat's milk makes this happen. Now,
what else?
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| Creamy, moisturizing Pink Lady goat's cheese soap. Just in time for Valentine's Day! From The Soap Distillery |
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Aside from the addition of extra fat, goat's
milk is loaded with vitamins, specifically vitamin A, which helps to
repair your skin. Studies that have been made about the benefits of
vitamin A show this to be true, but of course, without getting a
specific soap tested by the FDA, we can't say how effective it would be
for each person. I can say that many people with skin issues tend to
like to use unscented or mildly scented goat's milk soaps because of what they offer the
skin. Between vitamin A and lactic acid, goat's milk is the way to go.
The best way for you to know for sure is to try a soap with goat's milk/cheese! Don't just take my word for it :)
