Rustic Coffe soap

Tried to resize, hopefully it is ok size.

This is my olive,- lard,- Coconut soap with a littlebit castor and a smidge of undeodorized cocoabutter. Not really a beautifull piece of soap, but that is ok!
Yes, I know, it looks like chocolate cake. I try not to think about it because then I want cake, and that is not ok on a tuesday...(cough)

I made this soap because I wanted something to take away the smell of onion and garlic on my hands. I use it in cooking all the time, and the smell lingers even after washing hands several times. I have used lemons, but wanted something soapy I could use.

We`ll see if the scent of coffee holds up 6 weeks of cure. Not holding my breath here, but got to try to find out!:think: (<---btw, that is my usual look plotting soapmakingideas...)


1) Grounded up 200 gr. fresh espresso roasted coffeebeans, infused that in the olive oil for 24 hours.
2) The following day I made a strong coffe sollution with real grounded espresso coffe and used that as my lyewater.
3) Melted lard, coconut and cocoabutter and added the castor, stirred.
4) Added the room temp. coffe/olive sludge to the heated oils, that made the temp come dow just right. I then added the roomtemp lyewater, and stirred first by hand to see if it became grainy from the lard and coconut. It did not, so I then proceded the usual soapmaking process of using my SB. It became a silky slurry.

No water discount as I was not sure how the soap would behave with all that ground up coffee. It behaved just wonderfully, and I had time to work without any stress.
Took a third of the soap and added half a teaspoon of TD and SB it really well.
Added a littlebit of lemongrass and may chang to medium trace in the darker soap, just to see if I could get a littlebit of citrus come though - but had no huge expectations of it making it through the process.

I could cut the soap after a day. The cut isn`t what I would call "clean", since some coffee beans got caught on the way down. But I don`t really care, I am the only one using them anyway.

Next time I will do two things different, if this recipe turns out to be any good:

1) Leave the sprinkling of the espressobeans after the soap has been cut and done curing, and then drop them on the soap with some M&P as glue.
2) Or instead make individual bars using silicone mold, so no cutting is involved.

Things that surprized me was that this soap smell like coffee after making it. Real coffee - with a littlebit of zing from the lemongrass and MC coming through. Not strong, but enough to make this a delishious combo. Will it survive the 6 week cure? Don`t think so, but we`ll see.

Washing with a thin endpiece the soap was suuuuuper delishious on the hands, and made them silky smooth and soft. The suds was beige/brown, but left no color on the skin. It has been two hours since I used the soap and my hands feel so good! The coffee grains exfoliated my hands in the process without being to harsh. I will try this soap in the shower after the cure to see if it makes a difference in my skin. If I smell like coffee afterwards, so be it. My husband loves coffe, I think I`ll be fine..

Any comments of what I can do differently, or tips, or any mistakes you think I did, please let me know! I am here to learn more about soaping after soaping less than a year.
Thank you.

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Well the first thing I said when I saw the pics was "Oooooooooooooooooo that's nice."

Love the beans on top (but in the shower)?

Your soap looks lovely. Great lather for early on. If it feels nice now, it should be amazing after cure! You could try cutting the soap on its side to prevent the coffee beans on top sliding down.

Thank you so much for sharing the method! my coffee soaps are still curing. can't wait to try them.

Thank you for the coffee soap lesson!
Looks very nice.
Now to sneak out the spare coffee grinder.

Absolutely lovely! It looks delicious.

Coffee soap is definitely on my short list of soaps to make. I love some exfoliation, and nothing wakes you up quite like coffee in the morning!

I can smell it from here! I think it looks great.

I have a way to get rid of onion and garlic smell on your hands that works great. We've been doing it in my family for years. Wash your hands as usual and while still wet, rub a stainless steel spoon over your hands. I roll the spoon around in my hands just as I do a bar of soap. OR...I have a stainless steel divided sink. One day I couldn't lay hands on the big spoon I use so I just rubbed my hands over the divider between the two sinks. Worked great so I seldom use the spoon anymore.

If I didn't know any better, I actually would have mistaken that for a tasty-looking piece of chocolate cake. Looks great and I hope the experiment is a success.

Nice looking soaps - I hope the coffee smell stays through cure.

Very nice! Im not a big fan with the crinkle cutter used on soaps, but I think that complements it nicely.

gemsupthepoley said:

Well the first thing I said when I saw the pics was "Oooooooooooooooooo that's nice."

Love the beans on top (but in the shower)?

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Thank you! Yes, they will guaranteed fall off in the shower, but I will probably just pick them off beforehand, otherwishe I would hurt me feet me thinks. Mainly this soap is for when I cut onions and garlic, so it won`t be used a lot in the shower (unless I love it way more than the oatmealbar I usually have in there, lol.

Rowan said:

Your soap looks lovely. Great lather for early on. If it feels nice now, it should be amazing after cure! You could try cutting the soap on its side to prevent the coffee beans on top sliding down.

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Thank you for your nice comment. Yes, the lather, it surprized me that it was so sudsy after such a short time. That was a great idea, cutting on the side, will try that next time. So obvious and yet I didn`t think about that at all, (doh...) Thank you!

mymy said:

Thank you so much for sharing the method! my coffee soaps are still curing. can't wait to try them.

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You are most welcome! Oooo, I am sure they will turn out lovely, would love to see pictures of them!

Steve85569 said:

Thank you for the coffee soap lesson!
Looks very nice.
Now to sneak out the spare coffee grinder.

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Thank you, and you`re most welcome. And yes, get the grinder out, it was so fun to grind and smell the aroma and add it to the soap!

leilaninoel said:

Absolutely lovely! It looks delicious.

Coffee soap is definitely on my short list of soaps to make. I love some exfoliation, and nothing wakes you up quite like coffee in the morning!

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Thank you ! Agreed, two things in one - exfoliation and coffe - scrub`n Sniff (hehe)

Deedles said:

I can smell it from here! I think it looks great.

I have a way to get rid of onion and garlic smell on your hands that works great. We've been doing it in my family for years. Wash your hands as usual and while still wet, rub a stainless steel spoon over your hands. I roll the spoon around in my hands just as I do a bar of soap. OR...I have a stainless steel divided sink. One day I couldn't lay hands on the big spoon I use so I just rubbed my hands over the divider between the two sinks. Worked great so I seldom use the spoon anymore.

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Thank you for the nice comment! Here we have stainless steel pieces available that are shaped exactly like an oval piece of soap, just to get rid of smells. They are super cheap and they even made one type that can hang on a toiletbowl so the water can flush over it. They last literally forever, but I do find soap a bit more fun to use. But they are great for those who prefer that type of smell remover. Using a spoon instead is ingenious, everyone has a spoon on hand, great tip, thank you!

Arimara said:

If I didn't know any better, I actually would have mistaken that for a tasty-looking piece of chocolate cake. Looks great and I hope the experiment is a success.

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Thank you! It does look chocolaty. Perhaps I one day should make one with a littlebit cocoabutter, cocoapowder and chocolate fragrance. But who want that instead of the real deal? (grin)

dibbles said:

Nice looking soaps - I hope the coffee smell stays through cure.

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Thank you! Me too, that would be awesome.

annalee2003 said:

Very nice! Im not a big fan with the crinkle cutter used on soaps, but I think that complements it nicely.

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Thank you for the nice comment! I just got the crinklecutter so had to test it out. I do like it, but I think I prefer a clean cut bar of soap a smidge better. I find wavy shape suitable for the more rustic soaps to compliment the rougher textures.

Thats a really beautiful soap. I loved seeing many beautiful soaps but this one has something magical about it and I agree, the crinkle cut enhances the awesomeness.
But, did you really use all that ground coffee in the OO sludge, all 200 grams of it?

kumudini said:

Thats a really beautiful soap. I loved seeing many beautiful soaps but this one has something magical about it and I agree, the crinkle cut enhances the awesomeness.
But, did you really use all that ground coffee in the OO sludge, all 200 grams of it?

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Thank you for your kind words. Yes I did, all of it, every single grain. It was reeeeeally finely grinded though, much to fine to make coffe out of. It may have been too much coffee, but we`ll see how it behaves after the cure, when I can test a big piece

MySoapyHeart said:

Thank you for your kind words. Yes I did, all of it, every single grain. It was reeeeeally finely grinded though, much to fine to make coffe out of. It may have been too much coffee, but we`ll see how it behaves after the cure, when I can test a big piece

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Yes! Please update us.

UPDATE - 3 weeks into curing.

1) It still sort of smells like coffee. Not sharp like a freshly brewed cuppa joe, but like a very muted and very soft coffeebeans-coffee. Adding water to the soap it develops a bit more coffee than just sniffing a bar.

2) The added Lemongrass and May Chang is more present now, more so than the coffee, when sniffing a dry bar. The two essential oils lovingly peak their cute noses out of the bar along with subdued coffee-undertones - to greet me with a zingy "hello!" when I put the bar up to my face.
It`s like a lemony hug. I absolutely adore it. All three gives a comfortable smell, and we`ll see if it stays there after the 6 week mark...:think:

So, I cut up a solid end piece that I have stored in my soapdish in the kitchen (not done curing but perfectly good to use without problems for my personal test use) The soap makes my hands feel incredibly soft, I absolutely adore the feel of the soap, actually so much so that I actually had to make a new batch without any coffee, and just added fragrance instead. A coupple of weeks into the cure now, can`t wait for it to finish.

BUT here`s the deal about the coffee-soap, and something I will do different next time:

In hinsight I actually think the 200 grams of added ground up coffee to my batch using 2 pounds of oils, was too much. Not scent-wise (as the smell is so soft) but because of the scrubby effect.

Because although I ground up the coffe into a finely milled powder (way to fine to make an everyday drinking coffee out of) it makes for a sort of scrubby bar that is just a bit over the top scrub-wise, for kitchen soap at least. Half the ammount of the coffee will suffice!

So, I wanted to try something and just moved the piece into the shower.

Yes. A thousand times yes. It smelled so fresh and clean, and it gave my skin the most lovely exfoliation and glow, made my skin SO soft. The grounds don`t cut me up, they aren`t sharp, they just get the job done. This will be perfect to use a coupple of times a week as a scrub bar for the whole body. And it didn`t make me smell like a cup of coffee either, just a soft whaft of something earthy mixed in with the Lemongrass and May Chang.

Love. it.
So after curing is done with the batch, this will actually be my shower/kitchen-combo soap. Yup.

Adding #3 to the list of earlier stated things I will do different next time:

MySoapyHeart said:

Next time I will do two things different, if this recipe turns out to be any good:

1) Leave the sprinkling of the espressobeans after the soap has been cut and done curing, and then drop them on the soap with some M&P as glue.

2) Or instead make individual bars using silicone mold, so no cutting is involved.

3) For a kitchen soap - scale down from 200gr. of ground coffee to 100 gr.
And instead make the coffeewater much stronger to compensate for less coffegrounds.
For an exfoliation bar - leave as is.

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Last note:
Looking for soapy inspiration and new things to try, I have scoured Instagram, and I have seen a lot of people making and selling soaps, several also using coffee grains claiming it smells like real coffee without anything else added like coffee-fragrance etc.
But they added USED coffeegrounds, like after you brewed a pot and then save it to add some to soap. But when seing their soaps they were creamy white in color, and had so little coffe in them, like if you put less than a quarter of a teaspoon of USED coffegrains in each 4oz bar.

My thinking after this experiment with this, is that I really (!!) am wondering how they can claim (or even dare to do so) that their soaps can smell like true coffee, when my overloaded & over-the-top-shout-it-out-from-the-rooftops coffee soap smells like subdued, mellow coffee soap??
Either they`re lying about the additives, or they know a top secret trick of how to make a soap smell like true coffee without adding any fragrance and only including 4 grains of coffee pr. bar....

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Thanks so much!! I've been wanting to make a coffee soap, and this is JUST what I needed.

FWIW I think we all see a lot of lies about soap on the intarwebs: "dried orange peel will add fragrance" "try vanilla beans" "you should only use therapeutic grade EOs" "add fresh rose petals for a floral smell". I think they do the same with coffee, but I like how you layered the coffee and added citrus notes.

Seawolfe said:

Thanks so much!! I've been wanting to make a coffee soap, and this is JUST what I needed.

FWIW I think we all see a lot of lies about soap on the intarwebs: "dried orange peel will add fragrance" "try vanilla beans" "you should only use therapeutic grade EOs" "add fresh rose petals for a floral smell". I think they do the same with coffee, but I like how you layered the coffee and added citrus notes.

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I think you should name your soap "Lemony Hug." I would buy that.

RE: lies on the Interwebs. I think people think of an idea that sounds good and then decide that since it sounds true, it must BE true, and don't bother actually test it out. For example, Archimedes decided that women must have fewer teeth than men, b/c our skulls and jaws are smaller. He didn't bother to get a few men and women to open their mouths for 10 seconds so he could count.

Thanks so much for the detailed reports. This is definitely on my to try list!

Seawolfe said:

Thanks so much!! I've been wanting to make a coffee soap, and this is JUST what I needed.

FWIW I think we all see a lot of lies about soap on the intarwebs: "dried orange peel will add fragrance" "try vanilla beans" "you should only use therapeutic grade EOs" "add fresh rose petals for a floral smell". I think they do the same with coffee, but I like how you layered the coffee and added citrus notes.

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You are so welcome!
And it is worth trying, it was a really fun project for me as it was my first try with coffee like that. It was interesting to discover how the really strong coffee-smell that used to whaft towards me when I opened the door to my storage, really eased up and played along nicely with the citrus tones. I was a bit afraid it would become a wonky not-so-nice combo since I put so much coffee in there. That is why also I got a real wakeup call reading about all those "coffee" soaps out there.
Ditto about the misconception of scents. A pinch of rose petals to make your soap smell like a meadow.
Uhm, right, that`s like claiming a sneeze is enough to make a ship sail into the sunset. Never gonna happen.

dixiedragon said:

I think you should name your soap "Lemony Hug." I would buy that.

RE: lies on the Interwebs. I think people think of an idea that sounds good and then decide that since it sounds true, it must BE true, and don't bother actually test it out. For example, Archimedes decided that women must have fewer teeth than men, b/c our skulls and jaws are smaller. He didn't bother to get a few men and women to open their mouths for 10 seconds so he could count.

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Lemony Hug it is, hadn`t given it a name, thanks for the confidence boost dixiedragon

You are right about a lot of theories floating around. I remember things that I read in the 1 year I did my research about soap (yes, I spent a full year reading about soapmaking before I made my first batch, I am a wooss:???
Anyway, I did a lot of doubble checking to see if this and that was in fact true, and was shocked to see that a huge ammount of things was just misinformation that was repeated by so many who didn`t bother to read up on the subject, but just repeated what they heard from others. Like: Oh yes, soap is perfectly fine to give away/sell after a week, `cause...you know...it doesn`t zap. Besides, I HP it..

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Deedles said:

Thanks so much for the detailed reports. This is definitely on my to try list!

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You are welcome!
I will update again when I have reached full 6 weeks.
Let us know how it turns out if you get a chance to try this

Today this soap is 8 weeks old. Just a tiny update of this coffee soap, just in case someone is interested.

1) This soap baffles me, it really does. Since my last post it has started to smell like a newly opened bag of fresh ground coffee. I mean, that first whiff you get? Thats the smell. I like it! I don`t understand how it can do that, as this soap is now 8 weeks old and shouldn`t really do that? But it is. I just remembered I used dark roasted espressobeans, perhaps that is why.
It is a comfortable smell, it doesn`t smell ashy or icky at all, just like nice coffeepowder! The Lemongrass, poor thing, is overwhelmed now, and is not strong. It is there, in the background trying to raise its voice. You take a sniff and it tries to let off a sound, but it is just a tiiiiny peep.

2) Way to much coffeegrounds in the soap. It is just too much. My recipe gave me 40oz of soap, and I used 200 gr. of ground up coffee. Half is better. But good to know untill next time I will make this soap, something usefull I can take from this mistake. (I use this in the shower for exfoliation on my celluli... eh, body. Love it for that, but it is not practical for a kitchen soap)

3) I will hereby never ever put coffeebeans on top of coffee soap ever again. Or any other soap, for that matter.
Did you hear me, people? Everyone who said something about the beans falling off, and me having to pick up coffeebeans all over the place, etc? You were 100% right. Now I am soooo annoyed by this!!!:sick: so I have SCRAPED every bean of of the soap I am using. Seriously a big no-no and so annoying in the long run. Looks cool? Yup, sure does. Practical? Big nope on that one.

Perhaps if the beans on tops were made out of soap, that is another thing, but then they better be stuck in the soap really well so it doesn`t fall off...

The soap is a Olive/ lard/coconut soap with a smidge of castor.