Another question please.......

[Guinevere]

so I’m looking to make a “mechanics” soap and want to use an exfoliatiant. There’s a few to choose from. I’ve used corn meal on the past and like it purdy good however just wanted to see what it is that all y’all have used. What you liked about it it didn’t. I just want to say thank you for taking time to read and answer my post.

Guinevere

 

[Clarice]

• Pumice
• Garnet powder (used by stone cutters to cut stone when mixed with water and used in a water-jet type application)
• I prefer non-organic things for really dirty hands - not sure I am saying this right - non-plant stuff? so that whatever is being used as an exfoliant does not interact with the soap to make additonal goo? Make sense? Like cornmeal with water will get slimy and the water will get milky?

 

[lsg]

I use fine pumice and fine coffee grounds in my mechanics soap. I also use a little lanolin.

 

[Clarice]

YES! Coffee - may be the one plant based additive that i think works in a heavy scrub cuz it does not dissolve in water - silly me - that is the property I was looking for

Also - I really like @lsg suggestion for lanolin - I am going to try that! I am a HUGE fan of lanolin - I love how it smells!

 

[shunt2011]

I too use pumice and coffee.

 

[Misschief]

I make a gardener's hand soap, which I've given to a couple of mechanic friends, that uses pumice, corn meal, poppy seeds, and orange peel powder. It was a pretty good seller at last year's markets.

 

[Guinevere]

Read these and still trying to gather information. Wouldn’t ansalt bar work for a mechanics soap?

Guinevere

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

I make a "working hands" soap with coffee grounds, coarse sea salt and pumice with extra coconut oil (an additional 15% oil weight bringing the super fat to 20%). Boy is it exfoliating and everyone seems to love it, particularly the handyman on the activity centre site I work on, and the farmer. They are always asking for more. I went for that combination because I wanted a cooks soap (usually made with coffee) and a mechanics/gardeners soap combined. It's pretty much my favourite soap. Only downside is that with a very high level of "dry" ingredients, it does tend to break up once you're down to a fairly small stump. But I can live with that. If you can't you might want to be a bit more cautious about how much of all the dry stuff you put in. Total dry ingredients are about 120g to 690g of oils in my soap.

 

[aksamitka]

Salt bars for exfoliating properties are my favourites.
I also use pumice, ground coffe, poppy seeds, corundum, aronia seeds, walnut husk powder, nigella sativa seeds and raspberry/strawberry/elderberry seeds. In every exfoliating soap I up superfat a little bit (2 -5%). I don't like anything (with exeption of salt) in my soap, prefer it pure and clean, without any scratchy particles but I often give some exfoliating bars to my friends and they are quite happy with it.

 

[Carl]

When I've been doing this, I've been using the coffee as my lye water (just wait for it to cool a bit).

I then have been using the used grounds. I've read somewhere (can't remember where) that you should use the used grounds (can't remember why). I just remember reading it, LOL.

 

[Guinevere]

Yep yep yep, I used coffe for mine too the also put the grounds in.

Guinevere

 

[DWinMadison]

I vote coffee. It works great and looks good in the soap too. You can control the abrasiveness by controlling the grind.

 

[JasmineTea]

Cranberry seeds or almond meal

 

[Meena]

[QUOTE="Carl, post: 755796, member: 29014"
I then have been using the used grounds. I've read somewhere (can't remember where) that you should use the used grounds (can't remember why). I just remember reading it, LOL.[/QUOTE]

You did it right. You want used coffee and tea so you don't get halos in your soap from bleeding.

 

[SeaSuds]

I would like to make a soap with coffee grounds for my nephew who is a fisherman and his hands get really stinky! Do you guys brew the coffee in distilled water or am I overthinking?

 

[Carl]

I would like to make a soap with coffee grounds for my nephew who is a fisherman and his hands get really stinky! Do you guys brew the coffee in distilled water or am I overthinking?

That's a good question. I would let the Chemistry experts chime in. I've always thought that if you didn't have distilled water, you could just boil tap water and then you have distilled. But that leaves two or three open questions. How hot does tap water need to get (and for how long) to become distilled water? And how hot does the average coffee pot heat the water up?

 

[Primrose]

I don't think boiled water is the same as distilled water

As far as what to put in a mechanics soap. I use ground pumice, activated charcoal and borax

 

[Carl]

I don't think boiled water is the same as distilled water

As far as what to put in a mechanics soap. I use ground pumice, activated charcoal and borax

Yeah I just did some reading on this. You'd have to catch the steam and let it condense back into water to have distilled.

Which @SeaSuds is obviously not doing. If you just boil it, the impurities would still remain in your pot.

 

[SeaSuds]

You'd have to catch the steam and let it condense back into water to have distilled.

Thanks for your speedy replies! I have a coffee machine so maybe I could just fill the water compartment with distilled water use the coffee liquid for water replacement and then dry out the waste 'pucks' for exfoliant...I hope

 

[Michele50]

Thanks for your speedy replies! I have a coffee machine so maybe I could just fill the water compartment with distilled water use the coffee liquid for water replacement and then dry out the waste 'pucks' for exfoliant...I hope

When I've brewed strong coffee to sub for my distilled water, that's what I do--use distilled water to brew it. I've also dried leftover spent coffee grounds for a speckled effect in other soap, some are used my coffee soap. I've read that using grounds that haven't been brewed can cause streaks but I wouldn't know since I haven't done that.

@Carl "I then have been using the used grounds. I've read somewhere (can't remember where) that you should use the used grounds (can't remember why). I just remember reading it, LOL."

"This soap also contains used coffee grounds. It’s important to add used rather than fresh coffee grounds. Fresh coffee grounds may bleed in the soap. The bleeding doesn’t hurt the bars in any way, but it is a cosmetic issue. It’s also a great way to use up leftover coffee grounds!"
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/how-to-make-coffee-soap/