When you rub a bar of goat milk soap over your skin, there is friction. This friction introduces tiny air bubbles to the surface of the wet soap. Our article, How Soap Works, discussed the fact that soap molecules have two ends – one that loves water (hydrophilic) and one that hates water (hydrophobic). The water hating end wants to get out of the wet soap, so it attaches itself to the nearest air bubble. These air bubbles are soon covered in the hydrophobic ends of the soap molecules. The air bubbles are now trapped, and lots of trapped air bubbles covered in soap molecules are what we call soap lather.
There are many things that affect how well a goat milk soap lathers.
Quality of your water. Hard water retards lather, while soft water enhances it.
Condition of your skin. If your skin is particularly greasy (from dirt or from lotion), there is little friction when the soap rubs over your skin. This introduces fewer air bubbles and therefore less lather. Many of you find that if your hands are greasy, the first time you wash them, you get little lather. If you rinse and wash again, the second time you wash there is much more lather.
Condition of the soap. A brand new bar of goat milk soap usually doesn’t lather as well as after it has been used a few times. The longer a soap has been cured the better it will lather as well.
Ingredients in the soap. Different goat milk soap ingredients produce different types (bubbly or creamy) and amounts of lather.
One thing to remember is that soap lather itself does not clean your skin. So judge a goat milk soap by how your skin feels after using it, not by how much it lathers.
You can watch how Goat Milk Stuff soap lathers in this video:
