Coffee + Soap

[Shalisk]

Was thinking of brewing coffee and subbing the water for Coffee and maybe mixing in some of the grinds/powder into the soap itself, anyone done this?

What was the result?

 

[Dorymae]

There are many coffee scrub soaps out there. I found this after a quick search;

http://leestrachan.hubpages.com/hub/Coffee-Soap-Step-by-Step-Tutorial

Search coffee scrub soap and you'll get to see a lot of different types that use coffee and the grounds.

 

[CanaDawn]

Yup, I have. I found my fine (I thought) coffee grounds to be a bit too scratchy, but I would do it again (with a more powdered coffee - maybe expresso ground.)

I have read that caffeine helps with cellulite bumps, but have no experience on that.

The soap itself turned out fine. There wasn't much coffee scent - I have heard of others using fragrance oils or essential oils to boost the scent.

 

[Obsidian]

Regular ground coffee is too scratchy for me too so now I grind my coffee in the store on turkish grind. Its even finer then espresso and feels much nicer on the skin.

 

[Shalisk]

Excellent, thank you

Got any pics of your cofee soaps by any chance?

 

[Obsidian]

This is my second coffee soap. Unfortunately the yellow bits overheated and I had to rebatch it into a plain brown bar. Its a very nice bar though. I need to render some tallow and try to make it again.

 

[CanaDawn]

Doesn't seem like I have any photos of mine, but the coffee sections of Obsidian's are definitely done with finer coffee grounds. Mine looked more like poppyseed cake than that!!

Obsidian, how much coffee do you add? Do you just make coffee and then use that, or do you make lye with liquid coffee and then add the grounds?

 

[Obsidian]

I like to stuff as much coffee in my soap as possible so I make a 12 cup pot and boil it down to a syrupy consistency and add it at trace. I generally get about 2 ounce of syrup into a 2 lb batch this way. I also use fresh grounds, added at trace.

My first coffee soap I used extra strong coffee and used it as 100% of the liquid, it smells really bad when you add the lye.

 

[pamielynn]

Coffee grounds work great for a "kitchen" soap. Nice and scrubby

 

[Nevada]

My Three Coffee soaps

 

[Relle]

Links
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=7147
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=13367
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=22853
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=31259

 

[Ellacho]

Yes, I have done it, too. If you swirl, it will look like a chocolate soap! However, the coffee scent will disappear in no time without adding coffee fragrance.

 

[Candybee]

I tried it and found the coffee grounds made the soap way too scratchy. I will check out the superfine ground coffees and see if those work better.

 

[CraftyRedhead]

This was mine, I used coffee for the water, used coffee grinds from my coffee pot, and a little peppermint eo. I was aiming for a peppermint mocha type.. the scent wasn't great, but it did smell like coffee to me while I was using it. The coffee grounds were too scratchy at first, then I guess I got used to them. It was a soap that made me feel super clean, so it was great after working in the garden or something. Here's the pic!

 

[CanaDawn]

Mine looked like CraftyRedhead's.

 

[kylie_au]

When i made mine i used very strong coffee, mixed with the lye, added to oils, at trace added heaps of fresh ground coffee.
Yes, this method makes for very stinky soap at first, but cures out to a mild coffee smell. not as strong as i had hoped, but it is ok.
Does boiling it down to a syrup and adding at trace help make it more of a coffee smell? should i be adding coffee fragrance as well? or just go with the natural light scent and let the coffee grains do their thing naturally?

 

[jmullican6]

I infused olive oil with coffee grounds over night in the crock pot. Then I strained it through a cheesecloth and used the oil for the olive oil in my recipe. I divided my batter in half and put used coffee grounds from my K-cup into one half and poured one on top of the other. I didn't use any fragrance oils and it smells mildly of coffee. Because the grounds were used and very fine, it's not too scratchy at all. A lovely little soap!