Coarsest exfoliant you've used

[CrisMaz]

I ground bean coffee as fine as I could, then passed the ground coffee through a fine strainer to get the "boulders" out. I then made a 1/2 and 1/2 bar by splitting a batch of nice bath soap and putting the coffee in half and leaving the rest plain. A light, thin cocoa pencil line to define the boundary. Turned out nice -- scrubby but doesn't leave scratches.

It looks great! The serial exfoliator in me just did a backflip! May I ask how much coffee grounds you used? The soap to exfoliant ratio looks pretty much like what I have been picturing for mine!

 

[jules92207]

I ground bean coffee as fine as I could, then passed the ground coffee through a fine strainer to get the "boulders" out. I then made a 1/2 and 1/2 bar by splitting a batch of nice bath soap and putting the coffee in half and leaving the rest plain. A light, thin cocoa pencil line to define the boundary. Turned out nice -- scrubby but doesn't leave scratches. Here's how it turned out:

This soap is beautiful DeeAnna, that is a great idea to run the grounds through a fine strainer. Great suggestion!

 

[DeeAnna]

Cris -- I used 30 grams of ground coffee in 1/2 of the soap batter -- about 800 g of oils. It works really well on dirty hands and would also be nice on calluses and such. I wanted the coffee half to be definitely scrubby but not scratchy painful, and this hits the mark.

 

[CrisMaz]

Adzuki beans are really nice too if you can get your hands on some.

I get mine at whole foods in the bulk-bin section.

I had never heard of these before, I feel silly! There's a co-op store that's kind of a mini whole foods by where I work that has a bulk aisle, next time I'm there I will check for them, out of curiosity...

 

[goji_fries]

Nigella Sativa or black seed --- scratchy :sick:

 

[snappyllama]

I had never heard of these before, I feel silly! There's a co-op store that's kind of a mini whole foods by where I work that has a bulk aisle, next time I'm there I will check for them, out of curiosity...

They are the red beans in a lot of Asian desserts and those super tasty sesame balls which I choose to believe are not dessert and can thus eat more of without feeling guilty!

 

[goji_fries]

I ground bean coffee as fine as I could, then passed the ground coffee through a fine strainer to get the "boulders" out. I then made a 1/2 and 1/2 bar by splitting a batch of nice bath soap and putting the coffee in half and leaving the rest plain. A light, thin cocoa pencil line to define the boundary. Turned out nice -- scrubby but doesn't leave scratches. Here's how it turned out:

This is a masterpiece.

Adzuki beans are really nice too if you can get your hands on some.

Do you grind them into a powder?

I make a coffee ground soap and also a pumice soap. Sometimes I put cornmeal in with the coffee ground soap. The coffee ground soap is great for the hands. My husband loves it for body soap. He's a farmer. i also really like the cornmeal/coffee mix. I love love the pumice though. It's just the right level of scratchiness for me.

Does cornmeal get soaked up and scratchy? Or do you have to do some additional grinding to it?

 

[Meganmischke]

Yes I get the whole dried beans amd grind them to a pretty fine powder. I really like them in emulsified sugar scrubs too.

 

[goji_fries]

Yes I get the whole dried beans amd grind them to a pretty fine powder. I really like them in emulsified sugar scrubs too.

Thanks Megan.

I have a coffee grinder that I use for herbs, flowers, and coffee, etc.. What do you use to grind into a powder?

 

[cmzaha]

I did not know this about oatmeal! I've never used it in soap and actually I don't even like to eat it (shocking, I know). I will have to search for some pictures of oatmeal soap that contains a coarser grind, I would like to see what it looks like, especially in lighter vs. darker soaps.

If you use quick cooking or 3 min oatmeal and leave it whole it is very scrubby without cutting. I make extra scrubby muds bars that many of my customers love. Steel cuts oats are sharper than the quick oats at least the ones I have tried.

 

[Pepsi Girl]

I use the rolled oats straight from the horse barn once. Way to rough for me. But I do like to use coffee.

 

[HorseCreek]

Does cornmeal get soaked up and scratchy? Or do you have to do some additional grinding to it?

I just use it how it comes out of the bag, lol. It's somewhere between pumice and coffee grounds to me.

 

[Meganmischke]

Thanks Megan.

I have a coffee grinder that I use for herbs, flowers, and coffee, etc.. What do you use to grind into a powder?

I first grind them in my blender and then my coffee grinder. I only use the blender first because my coffee grinder is junk.

 

[Ruthie]

I made soap for the local coffee shop which is finally cured and I'll be delivering it later this week. She wanted 2 kinds. One is the grounds from her espresso and it is a very fine scrubbie- more like finely ground oatmeal. The other is a course grind. It makes a more powerful scrubbie- even more than the Folgers. Incidentally, the coarse grind did something I'd never seen before. Even though most of the soap is brown from the liquid coffee, around the pieces of grind are clear spots. Best we can figure, it is because of the oil from that coffee, since it is a much oilier bean. Future project: go buy some fresh grinds and use them to make body butter!