Here’s an idea for all you cosmetic “Do-It-Yourself-ers” out there: According to Traditionalmidwife.com, you can make your own soap using breast milk. 
Not having kids of my own yet it’s hard for me to decide if this idea is appealing or appalling. It could be appealing because there is something natural and wholesome about using mother’s milk. And it could be appalling because this feels kind of like a gimmick that may not necessarily be better for your skin.
The science of soap
The recipe from the website is for a type of lye soap, which is made by neutralizing oils and fatty acids with high pH sodium hydroxide. (Lye is another name for sodium hydroxide, it’s also sometimes called “caustic.”) Lye soaps have been used for thousand of years and while they do the job they can be very harsh in drying to your skin. For this reason they’ve largely been replaced by modern soap bars which are in, in fact, made with synthetic detergents. These are much milder on your skin. Modern soap bars use synthetic detergents that do not strip as much natural oil from your skin so they leave it better moisturized.
While I give the midwife a lot of creative credit for coming up with the idea, I’m not sure it’s better for tender baby butts or not. And here are a few other concerns you should be aware of if you’re planning on making soap from breast milk.
- Be aware of the bio-hazards associated with using someone else’s breast milk for soap making.
- Use precautions when handling raw, unpasteurized human milk.
- You will need to pump and store your milk in the freezer until you have at least one cup or as much as 6 cups. Add a little beer to your diet, it might help production!
- The quality and texture of frozen milk may vary after it’s thawed.
What do YOU think about the idea of breast milk soap? Leave a comment and share your soapy thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
–Mid Brain
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Soap is not soap unless it is made with lye, fat and water. “Bars” cannot be labeled soap unless they have been made with lye. To say that “modern soap bars use synthetic detergents” is to misstate what soap is. If it not soap, it is detergent. A true soap made correctly with the glycerin left in (as Ivory and other commercial soaps do not) is much more mild and gentle on your skin than a detergent is.
The human milk soap sounds kind of gross. Not to mention that many women don’t make enough of it for their own babies, let alone soapmaking!
I wonder what they will think of next…
All I can say is eeeewwww. I can’t say whether there are health benefits or not, but it really doesn’t matter…yucky.
oh! I haven’t even tasted my own breast milk. Soap-it is just beyond any imagination I could’ve direction into beauty treatments.
I will be making breastmilk soap for a dear friend from her excess pumped milk. I think its a neat thing to have as a memory of this time and it is very natural.
I think its funny that so many people are fine drinking cow milk, bathing in goatsmilk, but freak at the idea of mother’s milk. No wonder breast feeding is not as popular as formula in America.
I also wanted to add old Lye soaps were lye heavy and not as good for your skin. Now with new recipes and new oils (old soap was made like some of what you get in the grocery stores of animal fats), homemade soap is very gentle to the skin and far better for you then those detergents. You won’t ever see Olive oil tied to cancer (unless its as a why to keep it away!)!
I think the idea is disgusting and I would never buy it. Breast milk should be fed to babies and not used to make
any beauty product. The woman who thinks
that it is a neat idea and great memento of her breastfeeding should give her head a shake. Her memento is her baby!!
I have to say that I wouldn’t use a bar of breast milk soap but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s disgusting. I agree with soapmaker that people shouldn’t freak at the thought of a mother’s milk.
It’s milk after all! There are far worse beauty treatments like the bull semen for hair that the beauty brains posted about before.
Now that’s disgusting!
I don’t see why you’d bother – just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s better for you (tree frog poison is natural, just as a really obvious example…) On the other hand, I don’t think there’s anything particularly disgusting about it, it’s just yet another mammal’s milk. There are other products that would probably work as well/better though as far as cleaning yourself goes, natural or not, & it’s true that soap does have a higher pH than some synthetic detergents.
Remember in the late 80′s when Mary Kay went through loads of legal trouble when the details of using umbilical cords in their makeup to make it softer came out?
I sort of feel like this comes close to bordering along the same lines…
If a soap is superfatted or further purified as are commmercial soaps, the excess lye is either neutralized or removed. Therefore, contrary to the statement in the post, most soaps are not caustic. The exception to this is Castille soap which is made from olive oil, this is often quite alkali.
As Cindy in the first comment states, cleansing products made from detergents are not necessarily better and can be harsher than a good soap.
You are obviously speaking from complete ignorance when you say that synthetic bath bars are better for your skin. They are absolutely drying chemical packed, and stripped of all things good, including the natural glycerin. With regards to Lye soaps, once the soap is fully saponified, there is no trace of lye left in the soap, just the bi-product, glycerin, which is very moisturizing.
Where in the world are you getting your info from? I make cold process olive oil lye soaps, and they are absolutely soothing, moisturizing and fabulous. I would never use a synthetic, drying bath bar. I rather use just water.
By the way, ALL soaps are made with lye. All of them.
It’s nothing but appalling.
I just don’t understand why anyone would EVER use breastmilk for anything other than FEEDING A BABY. How can you possibly have so much that you can make soap out of it? I had a huge freezer stash, and I donated it to the mom of a preemie who wasn’t making enough milk herself. And if I hadn’t donated it, I would have given it to my own child in a sippy cup long after I stopped nursing/pumping. PLEASE someone tell me why you wouldn’t give it to a child instead of making soap?
I would make breast milk soap. Here’s why: a recent report of out Australia claims a scientist has discovered the presence of stem cells in human breast milk. Now some of us with years of experience breast feeding know that mother’s milk has healing properties. It’ll clear up pink eye in a day or two. It’s great on diaper rashes. Take that statement right there — diaper rash. If my baby has a skin condition like a rash, washing his little butt with breast milk soap would lead me to believe there would be healing properties. It’s amazing that some of you find it appalling — yet have no problem washing your face or hair with other species’ milk. To each her own I guess. To me the idea of mother’s milk soap is appealing.
I think it is a great idea. I have excema and I haved suffered from all types of rashes, and breakouts from house hold cleaning products and products supposedly made for sensitive skin that broke me out and left me skin weeping, sore, and itching. I would embrace anything that gives me relief. I make soap to and I can tell a big difference in my skin when I use my soaps which are made with milk. My skin feels soothed and its not as itchy and dry. I think it is beautiful idea to use breast milk. My cousin had abdominal surgery and her wound would not heal. She had just had a baby and used some of the breast milk and soapy water to wash her wound and it immediatedly healed. If its okay to use cow, goat, coconut, and soy milk, what’s wrong with human milk. Its not a waste product. The person won’t be drinking it. These people sound like someone is using human urine or something worse. The soap is cooked long enough to kill any germs. Think about it. I would try it in a heart beat.
Im going to make the soap this week! I love the idea! I have breastmilk in the freezer that i didnt get to fast enough (it only stays good in the freezer for a few months, then you have to toss it) instead of tossing it, i can use it for the milk. The benefits of breast milk is absolutely AMAZING. When i started breast feeding of course like any breast feeding mother knows that the sucking power of an infant is VERY STRONG. The latch caused cuts on my breasts, instead of using lanolin i was told to use the milk. It cleared up right away. Same thing as when i had a pimple or fever blister or when my son scratched himself with his nails… they cleared up 10 times faster than using neosporin! Like the previous person said the milk is boiled at such a high temperature which would basicly purify it, plus I dont have any illnesses that would make me concerned with using it. I overheard my sister talking about her acne and offered her some soap when i make it, she was estatic that i would share it with her! funny how cows milk is healthy enough to drink but moms milk isnt good enough for soap, wondering if any of you appallers were breastfeed even once…Nichole I will send you a bar if you like. Breastmilk has sooo many uses it crazy just look at this site: http://www.freedompondmoonworks.com/pb/wp_2e517814.html
I don’t think it is gross at all. I think if you have breastmilk in the freezer that is too old to feed, it is a great way to use it up. Lots of people make soap from goats milk, what is the harm in making breastmilk soap for your own family?
I have breastmilk in the freezer from when I pumped for my baby girl. She died when she was six weeks old. That milk was for her. I can’t bear the thought of dumping it. I hope that I am able to make mine into soap. It is unfortunate that people are so ignorant as to be disgusted or appalled. Unless they have first hand experience in such things, they ought to keep an open mind; and certainly should respect a person’s right to try this if they wish.
I made this soap! It’s awesome! I changed the recipe a bit though. I used olive oil and avacodo oil. I had pumped milk for my first son while I was working full time, and then when my husband went back to work and I stayed home with him he stopped taking bottles. The milk got too old to be fed to anyone, so I used it for the soap. Oh, it’s wonderful. It’s moisturizing, and rinses so clean! This is really great stuff. I plan on packaging up some for the kids as gifts when they’re older.
I doubt synthetic detergent soap is more moisturizing. A detergent soap like Ivory has a ph level of 9.5. It dissolves oils and does not replenish your skin. Cold process soaps made with lye can contain many moisturizing oils such as olive oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, and glycerin created through the saponification process. A well made soap should not contain lye anyways.
Also I think detergent soaps replaced lye soap because its cheaper to make and has a longer shelf life.
It’s just hilarious that women are so grossed out by this. Yet, how many would be comfortable using goat’s or cow’s milk soap? The use of goat’s milk in soap is very common and very moisturizing for the skin. Human milk is naturally anti-bacterial and helps clear acne.
As for the comment that ‘many’ women don’t make enough milk to feed their child let alone make soap, that is just completely incorrect. Only about 3-4% of the WORLDS population do not make enough milk. It’s a likely excuse as to why a woman CHOOSES to stop breastfeeding.
I lactated so heavily my sheets would be soaked with milk by midnight. My poor kids nearly drowned! I even donated milk through to a woman who couldn’t make enough, but the more I gave the more milk I’d make. I wish I’d known about this back then. Expressing milk while I was in the shower just to get a little relief felt like such a waste. I felt bad about it, but I headed to the shower with all the anticipation of a cow heading to the barn, lol. For the record, my husband’s back was perpetually drenched at night for quite a few months, and his acne did clear up. He thought it was very funny. I bet he’d buy the soap just for giggles.
There are shampoos and soap with cow’s breast milk in them. Why don’t people find those disgusting?
The women that are so disgusted by this are probably the same women who are too lazy to breastfeed in the first place, or are happy to stick a bottle of cows milk (not meant for babies) in their childrens mouths (I’m not saying the women who CANT breastfeed, I’m saying the ones who don’t make the effort and give their child second best because of their selfishness). Most of them at least. They probably also cringe at the idea of a mother bf-ing in public.
I once used my milk to flush out my son’s eye. LOL! I love this for so many reasons but the main one is that I already use my milk to moisturize my skin as all breastfeeding mothers do without knowing it. The fat in mother’s milk keep nipples from cracking far better than any product that can be applied. I’ve taken in to the next level by using it to clear of some contact dermatitis I got from a scratchy sweater this winter. Talk about instant relief! It’s the germ-specific antibodies that did it along with the soothing fats. As for it being gross, that feels silly to me. Mother’s milk is the ONLY thing in nature that’s actually made for human beings to consume. There’s no other substance on Earth that can claim to be OUR food, or OUR precious resource. There’s nothing radical about cherishing this beautiful gift or wanting to preserve it in soap form.
Wow! I think it is awsome, especially since it has so many different healing properties. I think those who are discusted by it are not aware of this, either that or they are afraid for some odd reason
The reason I got to the site is because I was looking for a recipe to make soap with my left over breast milk. Like other mothers here, I froze breast milk, it’s too old for my son and he will not drink it. And I worked hard to get that milk. I am NOT wasting it! I don’t understand the women who think using the breast mild is gross. Going through child birth is not exactly a “pretty” process. But beautiful in it’s own way. I think the reason some women find using breast milk to be appalling, is that they see anything coming out of our bodies as gross. There is no logic going on there. You find breast milk gross but other mammal milk, intestines (used for sausage), cow stomach (tripe), brains, livers, giblets, etc OK?
To say women don’t make enough milk for soap is crazy! Some women may not but I can tel you that I sure do! I can pump for 1 minute and get a oz of milk and I can pump for even longer and still have enough for my daughter! I am a soap maker and I amgoing to try my breastmilk soap for only my family. I don’t think it is weird for my family but I wouldn’t use it if it were another womens milk.
I love how people think that anything to do with human breast milk is disgusting but they’ll drink, make cheese with, and even bathe in milk from a cow in some unknown factory farm any day. What is really more disgusting?
I’m suspicious if it complies with ethics.
I think that if people are so willing to use/eat/wear animal products, the idea of human breastmilk should not be disgusting. Gimme a break people. Cows’ milk (among other animal milks) is in a ton of beauty products and people consume it by the gallons and yet our own milk is repulsive? Go ahead and research farming practices and the treatment of those animals and you’ll really get squeamish! As for the chemicals…take a look at the labels on your expensive beauty products. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, chances are you shouldn’t be slathering it on your skin.
I think that people that think that it is disgusting are so far from their human nature. They imagine themselves as a product and not as a being. Breast milk is natural and there are many ways you can use it. I wish I had some left over so I could make some breast milk soap and be proud of it.
I’ll tell some of you why a mother may use breast milk to make soap instead of giving it to her child:
I have extra lipase (google it, if you don’t know what it is) in my milk and have over 250 oz of milk in my freezer that my son won’t eat because he does not like the taste. He will only drink fresh or scalded breast milk.
I have filled out an application to donate this and they will not take it because of a blood pressure medication that I take.
I googled things to do with breast milk and this is what I came up with. It’s a proven fact that breast milk is good for your skin. Why is it gross to use as soap? You have no idea what kind of things are in other products we use. At least I know this is something that came from my own body.
So some of us have milk we can’t use, milk that we worked hard to pump, milk that would be wasted if we just dumped it down the drain.
My milk will expire in two months and my son will not yet be on solids, I don’t have the option of mixing it with anything for him to eat.
Dr. Oz had a show today on “true beauty” or “bogus”. A gal had homemade breast milk soap. Dr. Oz had a team of scientist evaluate the product and it is indeed a “true beauty” solution. Scowl if you will but it is indeed a good thing to have/use.
Beauty Brains you disapoint and offend me with your ignorance about soap. Like the few other posters stated, it’s not soap if it does not go through SAPONIFICATION, it’s a chemical process in which lye and oils react, the end product is soap. Detergent bars are NOT soap if they do not go through this process which they generally do not. Look at your typical bar of dove soap, look at the box, does it state that it is soap? No because it cannot make that claim, it is merely a “moisturizing bar.”
I thought you were chemists but now I rather doubt that……..
To answer about the mother’s milk – why the heck not, I am always open to trying new things.
This is a very interesting thread and, although your information is seriously in error, thank you for starting this topic. As many others have stated, “True Soap” which is classified exactly that way by the Consumer Product Safety Commission a branch of the FDA. This is the legal common definition of, handmade with sodium hydroxide soap, no lye, no soap, no lie. Others can claim to be beauty bars or moisture bars but they are nothing more than detergent. Once saponificaiton has completed the caustic soda or lye has done it’s job which is to convert fats/oils into soap and glycerin and is gone. Glycerin is a wonderful moisturizer. It is a humectant, which means it actually draws moisture to itself.
That said, mothers milk, regardless of the type of the mothers species is pure perfection. Since the beginning of time, societies utilized wet nurses when mother was either to busy, or unable to nurse her own baby. This practice was particularly vogue if you had copious amounts of money. We make premium soaps out of all types of milk because milk which is high in lactic acid is a skin softener and it clears up all sorts of rashes. Obviously, no one is suggesting to deprive your infant of nourishment to make a beautiful Mothers Milk Soap. But if you are among those blessed with abundant milk supply, by all means make soap. Your babies skin will thank you for it and the entire family can use it. You won’t go back to commerical beauty bars, I guarantee that. It’s milk, afterall, it’s a wonderful gift to us all. If you’re not a soaper but would like to turn your extra supply into soap visit our website, Soap is what we do.
With the front wheels on the crest of the only car scraped bottom when we went a bit fast on.
I think anyone who’s commented that Mothers milk soap is gross isn’t understanding who this article is written for. And are obviously not parents, who have nursed. Our milk contains so many antibodies and it’s healing properties can be used on a Mothersand her own child!! Not soap made from any lady’s milk sold to or used on random people. I plan on treating my own face with my milk. It makes sense & it’s free!!! The people who have negativity on here are just uneducated & shouldn’t comment till they are parents I can’t wait to see of it works on my stretch marks!!!
I can’t believe how many ignorant idiots are posting here. Breast milk is yucky but junk food and soda are not. Read up and get documented before blogging!! Kudos to those that use the last extra bit of the breast milk for anything. Someone was saying that moms use the milk to make soap instead of giving it to babies. You’re wrong Miss. My son is two, I am still breastfeeding him, I have donated loads of milk and still have a freezer full. But I guess I should just throw it because YOU think it’s yucky to make soap out of it. It would be for my use if I made it not for yours, so if you have nothing interesting to say, don’t blog here. If you’re bored read a book. Opinions are like a-holes. Everyone’s got one!
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