Gardeners soap

[Soapstars]

Hello everyone, do you know what gardeners soap is like? Just wondering if 5% superfat 100% coconut oil soap could be used as gardeners soap as it will be REALLY cleansing I imagine?

Or would it just lead to damaged skin?

 

[DeeAnna]

I pretty much use a decent bath soap recipe for gardeners soap, but I add finely ground coffee to the soap and a herbal blend of essential oils that are refreshing and healing. (I do NOT label my soap as having any health benefits -- I just include the EOs in my ingredients list and let the consumer decide what that means to her.)

Gardener's hands don't need a harsh drying soap. A little scrubby-ness is nice, otherwise just make a good soap.

 

[Soapstars]

Thanks DeeAnna. Is the 100% coconut oil soap with just 5% superfat any good for anything as I have some....

 

[dixiedragon]

I use my regular soap recipe (lard, coconut, olive, sunflower, castor, 5% SF) and add coffee grounds and Tea Tree EO.

 

[earlene]

Soapstars, maybe if you grate it up and add it like confetti to another new soap that has a low cleansing number in the formula it would help offset some of the harshness. It's a way or re-batching without having to melt down the grated soap. Some confetti soap design can be really pretty. But with this, I'd probably just go for an overall light sprinkle throughout all the new batter.

 

[penelopejane]

Thanks DeeAnna. Is the 100% coconut oil soap with just 5% superfat any good for anything as I have some....

I do the same as the others for a gardening soap.

With 100% CO you could add 50% plus salt and make a salt bar. I add other oils instead of 100% CO but others don't.

 

[DeeAnna]

If you have the 100% coconut oil soap with 5% superfat already, then I'd follow Earlene's advice.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

I've recently made a "Working Hands" soap for sale for my charity. Basically I took the base recipe (which could be any you fancy) and added about 15% extra oil weight coconut oil (bringing the superfat up to about 20%), 25% oil weight sea salt, 5% oil weight pumice and 2.5% oil weight coffee grounds. I didn't scent it but used very strong coffee left overnight to cool and stew a bit to make the lye, keeping the grounds in. The coffee aroma stuck quite well and it was very dark brown with darker speckles in colour. You could use a coffee scent I suppose. All of the testers loved it, especially the men. It is VERY scrubby. The only criticism I have of it is that towards the end of its use when its got to a small stump it tends to break up - probably because there is not actually much soap left in it! Apart from that it is one of my favourite soaps.

 

[Soapstars]

Mmm..lots of good ideas there. Many thanks!

 

[Kittish]

I've recently made a "Working Hands" soap for sale for my charity. Basically I took the base recipe (which could be any you fancy) and added about 15% extra oil weight coconut oil (bringing the superfat up to about 20%), 25% oil weight sea salt, 5% oil weight pumice and 2.5% oil weight coffee grounds. I didn't scent it but used very strong coffee left overnight to cool and stew a bit to make the lye, keeping the grounds in. The coffee aroma stuck quite well and it was very dark brown with darker speckles in colour. You could use a coffee scent I suppose. All of the testers loved it, especially the men. It is VERY scrubby. The only criticism I have of it is that towards the end of its use when its got to a small stump it tends to break up - probably because there is not actually much soap left in it! Apart from that it is one of my favourite soaps.

Just how strong did you brew the coffee you used? Water:grounds ratio, about, if you remember? I'm really wanting to be able to make a coffee scented soap without resorting to FOs (not a viable option, I'm allergic to them).

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

My recipe is 600g oil weight usually. I used 15g of very strong French coffee in 172g of water. I brewed it like coffee with boiling water and left it overnight to cool. It isn't "knock your socks off" coffee aroma, but most people can tell its a coffee based soap.