Why Goat Milk Soap? Here are 4 Benefits You Should Know

Though it’s been around for thousands of years, goat milk has only recently exploded in popularity. It’s rich in key minerals and less allergenic than cow milk, but people aren’t just drinking the magical elixir — they’re also incorporating it into their personal care routines. More importantly, people are discovering that goat milk soap is much safer and healthier than the highly toxic conventional soap found on most store shelves.

We used goat milk soap to help ease our son’s eczema, and it was because of the incredible results we saw in his skin that we ultimately decided to launch Bend Soap Company. But you don’t have to take our word on the powerful skin-nourishing benefits of goat milk soap. It’s believed that Queen Cleopatra bathed in goat milk to keep her skin soft, supple, and wrinkle-free. And if goat milk is good enough for royal skin, we think it’s good enough for ours — and yours! — too.

Still wondering whether goat milk soap is really worth all the hype? Here are four reasons why goat milk soap is much better than the conventional stuff.

#1 Goat Milk Soap Provides a Deep (but Gentle!) Clean

While you may love a rich, foamy lather when you soap up, the harsh ingredients that create that lather in traditional soaps leave much to be desired. You may think you’re getting a deep clean, but ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) — the main lather-promoting product in soaps — can irritate the skin, eyes, and lungs, while also increasing the risk for organ system toxicity. Meanwhile, 1, 4-Dioxane — a byproduct that is created when traditional soap ingredients are mixed together — can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, as well as kidney and liver disease.

But you don’t have to put your health at risk to get a deep clean. Aside from the luxurious and totally safe lather that’s created when goat milk is combined with all-natural hydrating oils, goat milk soap is also full of naturally occurring alpha-hydroxy acids. These acids gently slough away dead skin cells by dissolving the connective tissues between them. The result is a deep, but gentle clean that is far superior to harsh exfoliators that can do more harm than good.

#2 Goat Milk Increases the Skin’s Moisture Naturally

We are constantly surprised by the number of lotions and creams on beauty and drugstore shelves. Some promise to be firming, while others are anti-aging or formulated especially for dry skin. Without fail, however, they’re all designed to replenish the moisture that we lose throughout the day. The weather certainly plays a key role in this, and the winter months are sure to wreak havoc on the skin, but the truth is that one of the key causes of dry skin is traditional soap. 

You can blame ingredients like SLS and other chemical detergents for your need to beeline from the bathtub to lotion jar, but goat milk soap provides a completely different experience. In fact, with repeated use, goat milk soap actually decreases the need for lotions and creams altogether.

While synthetically produced lactic acid is sometimes added to lotions, facial moisturizers, and other personal care products, it is found naturally in goat milk. And like other alpha hydroxy acids, lactic acid is a known humectant. Put simply, humectants help the skin remain soft and supple by pulling moisture from the air into the skin and, according to research, “promoting a superior skin lipid barrier and dry skin resistance.”

(A note: We love the fact that using goat milk soap makes us less reliant on moisturizing products, but we still love Bend Soap Company’s goat milk lotion. Like our soaps, it’s completely all-natural, hypoallergenic, and deeply moisturizing.)

#3 Goat Milk Promotes More Youthful Looking Skin

Dry skin caused by conventional soaps leads to wrinkled and aged skin—and who wants to speed up the already turning hands of time whenever you pick up a bar of soap? 

Vitamin A has been shown to improve the fine lines and wrinkles associated with aging by helping the skin retain moisture and boost collagen production. This certainly explains conventional anti-aging products that are often supplemented with retinol, a synthetic type of vitamin A. Goat milk, however, is naturally rich in vitamin A.

In addition to Vitamin A, goat milk also contains vitamins B, C, and E. All together, these nutrients prevent and reverse sun damage, diminish the appearance of dark spots and redness, and help to create a more youthful appearance overall.

#4 Goat Milk Relieves Irritation and Inflammation

There are plenty of sensitive skin soaps on the market, but they’re only partially effective. While they may prevent further irritation of acne, rosacea, and other skin conditions, they’re not going to actually provide a solution to your skin’s problems. In short, your fave sensitive skin soap must be paired with a pharmaceutical cream or gel that will actually get to the root of the issues.

Or, you can switch to goat milk soap. 

When our son, Chance, was first diagnosed with eczema, we tried a number of different things to get his dry, irritated skin under control. We tried changing his diet and testing for allergies and sensitivities, but not nothing worked. His skin was still dry, itchy, and bumpy. Ultimately, we discovered that the ingredients in the conventional soap he was using were contributing to his eczema and preventing his skin from truly healing. But once we made the switch to all-natural goat milk soap — made with the milk from goats raised on our family farm — we saw immediate improvement.

Thanks to the nutrients in goat milk, and the nourishing oils that we add to each bar of Bend Soap Company’s goat milk soap Chance’s itching stopped after a couple days, and his eczema began to fade. After two weeks, his eczema was completely gone.

What Makes Bend Soap’s Goat Milk Soap Superior?

If you’ve ever read the ingredient listing on a traditional bar of soap (and if you haven’t you should), you probably realized pretty quickly that you couldn’t actually read the ingredients listed. Chemicals like triclosan and 1, 4-Dioxane aren’t just hard to pronounce, either. They’re also hard on the skin. 

Even before we launched Bend Soap Company, there were other companies producing goat milk products, including soaps. But in the hunt for soaps that would nourish Chance’s skin during his eczema journey, we discovered that some of these products were made with GMO oils or pre-made goat milk bases that likely contained other harmful ingredients.

As a result, we formulated our original, unscented goat milk soap with just four ingredients: raw goat milk, coconut oil, red palm oil, and olive oil. The result is a soap that doesn’t just cleanse the skin. It also provides deep-penetrating moisture and beneficial vitamins and nutrients. It’s also gentle enough for those with the most sensitive skin (even newborns!)

Back to You

Whether you’re looking to increase your skin’s moisture, treat eczema or psoriasis, or simply get a good, deep clean, goat milk soap is a far superior alternative to the highly toxic conventional soaps lining store shelves. If you’ve never used goat milk soap before, we encourage you to give it a try. Our Oatmeal & Honey (great for exfoliating and eczema relief) and Hint of Lavender (with calming lavender essential oil) bars are some of our most popular, but you can’t go wrong with any of our 16 varieties.

If you’ve already tried our goat milk soap, leave a comment below and tell us which scent is your favorite!

Continue Reading

• Blog Post: From Farm to Shower: The Journey of a Bar of Goat Milk Soap
• Blog Post: How to Get Soft Feet in Minutes
• Blog Post: Using Goat Milk Soap as Face Wash
• Blog Post: Your Exfoliating Face Wash is Doing More Harm Than Good
• Blog Post: The Benefits of Milk Baths You Need to Know About