There are lots of reasons why breastfeeding mothers might express breast milk for their babies. For example, a mother might express breast milk when she’s planning to be away from her baby for a few hours.

Or perhaps, because she knows the benefits of breast milk, she might simply want to make sure there’s a stash of chilled or frozen breastmilk in the event of an emergency.

More often than not, no case of emergency arises. As a result, she’s left with a freezer full of frozen breast milk and not enough time for her baby to use it all.

What to do with left over breast milk?

Has anyone considered breast milk soap?
Any breastfeeding mother who has expressed breast milk for her baby knows the amount of time and effort it takes to express and store it correctly. For that reason, rather than discard any unused frozen milk, she might be looking for another way she might use the leftover milk for her little one.

If you’re expecting a baby or you are already a breastfeeding mother, you’ve probably heard all about the many benefits of breastfeeding.

You can read more about this in BellyBelly’s article 5 Benefits Of Breastfeeding For Baby and Mother.

Breast milk also has other uses, apart from providing your baby with the best nutrition.

Did you know, for example, that breast milk is also good for sensitive skin?

One way to use breast milk that’s no longer fit for consumption is to add it to a bath.

Another great way to use excess expressed milk is to make your very own breast milk soap.

This article will show you the benefits of breast milk soap and how to make it at home.

Breast milk soap benefits

Breast milk has natural healing properties, so it offers just as many benefits when used in the form of breast milk soap as it does when your baby drinks it.

If you or your little one suffer from dry skin or eczema, homemade breast milk soap could be the perfect solution. Human breast milk has antibacterial properties, so breast milk soap can actually help to kill pathogens on your baby’s skin.

For more information on treating infant eczema, you can read BellyBelly’s article What Are The Eczema Symptoms, Signs And Treatment?

Breast milk is higher in fat than cow’s milk, which means soaps made from breast milk are less dry and more creamy.

Even if you’re not suffering from any particular skin condition, breast milk soap can make your skin feel softer. It will also reduce redness, control oiliness and prevent acne.

These properties mean that breast milk soap is perfect for the whole family – not just for your children.

How to make breast milk soap at home

It’s really easy to produce your very own homemade soap.

You might not even need to go to the store. Depending on how much soap you want to make, it’s likely you will already have everything you need to make a soap base right there at home.

Here are all the things you need to get started:

Freshly expressed or frozen breast milk
Cakes or bars of regular soap
Essential oils
Containers or molds to form the soap bars
Soap recipes.

Breastmilk soap recipe (without lye)

Lye (sodium hydroxide) is a chemical used in commercial soap making.

Lye mixture is also an ingredient in commercial and industrial oven cleaners and drain openers. The reason it’s used in soap is that it makes the soap softer and easier to dissolve.

A bar of soap made with lye also produces more bubbles.

The chemical process involved in the production of commercially made soap can contribute to dry skin and eczema in lots of people – especially in babies and children.

By using natural ingredients, and a melt-and-pour method, it’s possible to make a more gentle soap that doesn’t contain lye.

Breastmilk soap recipe (with a soap base)

Here’s a simple breast milk soap recipe, for making your own ‘melt and pour’ soap. It has an existing soap as a base.

To make your soap, you will need the following ingredients:

500 grams of regular soap
250 ml or 1 cup of room temperature breast milk
2-3 drops of essential oil (chosen for its scent).

If you’d like to use essential oils, try lavender, geranium and chamomile oils.

These oils can be soothing for a baby’s skin but are best avoided on irritated or broken skin.

Use this method:

To melt the soap, heat slowly in a pan on the stovetop, set to medium heat
Pour the soap base into a container and add the expressed breast milk to the hot melted soap
Stir the mixture gently. Add the essential oils and stir the ingredients until combined
Allow the liquid to cool slightly, then pour it into the plastic or silicone mold you wish to use to make your soap
Set the molds aside in the fridge for a couple of hours, to allow the breast milk soap to set.

Here’s a top tip for making soap:

If you use goat’s milk soap instead of a regular soap base, it will be even more gentle on your little one’s skin.

How to make breast milk soap with oatmeal

Natural oatmeal contains antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cleansing properties. This makes oatmeal the perfect ingredient to add to your DIY breast milk soap.

Oatmeal has also been found to be useful in treating dry skin.

If you want to make breast milk soap using oatmeal, you can use the method above to make your soap base, with the following additional steps:

Blend 1/4 cup of oats with 1 cup of water for 30 seconds
Add the oats to the melted soap and breast milk

If you plan to make breast milk soap with oatmeal, you might like to replace the essential oil with honey instead.

Oats and honey don’t only make a great tasting breakfast, they also make an oatmeal honey soap that will smell as good as it feels.

As well as an essential oil, you can also add olive oil to your breast milk soap. Olive oil helps to produce a rich lather. This is particularly beneficial when you make soap without lye, as it tends to have fewer air bubbles.

Does breast milk soap go bad?

Just as store-bought milk and frozen milk have an expiry date, so too does breastmilk soap.

The ‘melt and pour’ soap-making method will not preserve the milk component of the soap.

Unlike breast milk intended for consumption, using expired breast milk in soap making will not harm you but, eventually, room temperature breast milk will start to smell bad, even if you’ve used an essential oil in your breast milk soap recipe.

Can you store breast milk soap in the refrigerator?

To preserve the soap for as long as possible, you can store it in the fridge, or wrap it and leave it in a cool place.

Breast milk soap that has been refrigerated can last up to 6 months. In comparison, non refrigerated breast milk soap would have an expected shelf life of closer to three months.

Another way to make breast milk soap last as long as possible is to make it using a cold process method.

How to make cold process breast milk soap

If you want your breast milk soap to last longer, a cold process method might be more effective. The shelf life for soaps made using a cold process method is 6 months.

Cold process methods for soap making involve the use of lye.

Soap made with lye is suitable provided you are not suffering from any existing skin conditions, or if the soap is not intended for an infant.

Note: The use of lye causes a chemical reaction that quickly creates heat and emits fumes.

For this reason, it’s recommended you take the following safety precautions when working with lye at home:

Wear rubber or latex gloves
Wear protective eye goggles
Wear a long-sleeved shirt
Work in a well-ventilated area
Add lye to distilled water to dissolve it before adding to your soap base.

Breast milk soap recipe using lye

Here are the steps for making breast milk soap using the cold process method and lye:

Freeze 80-100 ml of breast milk in an ice cube tray
Place frozen milk cubes in a plastic container
Place the container in an ice bath
Gradually add 50 grams of lye, while stirring continuously
When the lye has completely dissolved, stir the mixture for an additional minute
Remove from ice bath and set aside to cool
Add essential oils
Blend ingredients using a stick blender until a pudding-like consistency is achieved
Scoop soap batter into smaller silicone molds
Place soap in the freezer overnight
Leave it at room temperature for 24 hours before removing soap from molds
Leave the finished soap to cure for 6 weeks.

Important note regarding the use of lye in breast milk soap

Lye is a caustic chemical, meaning that it has the ability to damage surfaces it comes into contact with. This could potentially include sensitive skin, particularly the skin of an infant.

For that reason, it might be worthwhile making your breast milk soap in smaller batches, so you can make sure it will be used before it expires and avoid the use of harmful chemicals.

Is it legal to sell breast milk soap?

The National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a branch of the National Institute of Health, states the following in regards to the sharing and sale of human milk:

‘Laws prohibiting the sale of bodily materials provide little protection against the informal sale of human milk, as human milk is not included within the scope of the National Organ Transplant Act’.

It goes on to say:

‘Many states exclude ‘replenishable’ or ‘self-replicating’ body fluids and tissues, such as human milk, hair, and sperm, from the scope of their laws prohibiting the sale of certain bodily materials’.

The NCBI further states:

‘Sellers may face criminal liability under federal and state laws if they know they have certain communicable diseases that are transmitted through breast milk, such as human immunodeficiency virus, tuberculosis, and syphilis, and nevertheless sell their milk to unknowing buyers.

‘In addition, sellers may be liable under federal law for shipping adulterated products, or under federal and state criminal and tax laws in certain circumstances.

‘However, because these laws have yet to be enforced against informal sellers of human milk, they are unlikely to serve as deterrents to this practice’.

This information means that, although there might be concerns about the selling of products containing human milk, it’s unlikely that you would be penalized for informally selling homemade breast milk soap.

Is there a market for breast milk soap?

A quick search of the Etsy marketplace shows there are currently more than 60 sellers in Australia and the United States offering their homemade breast milk soap for sale online.

There are also rumours of mothers selling their breast milk on the black market to elite athletes and bodybuilders.

As you can see, from the information above, although you might not be penalized for selling your breast milk, you might find it more ethical to donate it to a worthy cause.

The Mothers Milk Bank Charity in Australia provides screened and pasteurized donor breast milk to families where the mother’s own milk is not available to her baby.

Other uses for breast milk soap

As well as the uses already listed in this article (treating dry skin, eczema or other skin conditions), breast milk can be used to treat other minor conditions. For many years, breastfeeding mothers have discussed different uses for breast milk and now, research has found that breast milk soap might also be useful in treating the following: