Mechanics soap?

[hellogorgeous]

My dad is a mechanic and has requested I make him a good cleaning scrubby soap that will cut the grease and motor oil. I was thinking something simple like coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, castor oil, pumice, and orange/lavender EO. Should I add a butter in there too to moisturize a bit? Maybe a higher superfat? Anyone have experience in making something like this?

 

[lsg]

I love the recipe for Mechanics Dream soap from Cole Brothers. You can run it through SoapCalc to make sure of the amounts of lye and water needed.

http://www.colebrothers.com/soapcalc/free.html

 

[nebetmiw]

I thought you said simple. Make it with 3 and drop the lavender EO, the citrus EO is great though. It is not a girl soap and many guys do not care for it. You can superfat it but do not go too high. It needs to cut grease and if you over super fat it might not do that. It should be a good hard bar too not soft as it will last longer.

 

[lizflowers42]

What about coffee grounds? It provides good exfoliation and helps absorb any odors...plus you wouldn't need to add any scents to it.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Peppermint EO (or Orange EO) and Pumice in a 100% Coconut Oil soap with a 5-7% superfat will be an easy and extremely effective mechanic's soap. I wouldn't worry about making it too conditioning, because you really want it to be highly cleansing to remove grease. If you're concerned about it being too drying, you could try 90% Coconut/10% Castor with a 10% superfat and it will be a little more conditioning.

 

[hellogorgeous]

I thought you said simple. Make it with 3 and drop the lavender EO, the citrus EO is great though. It is not a girl soap and many guys do not care for it. You can superfat it but do not go too high. It needs to cut grease and if you over super fat it might not do that. It should be a good hard bar too not soft as it will last longer.

Compared to what I usually make, that's pretty simple! lol And funny you mention dropping the lavender, I've yet to have any women request it. Lavender is the top requested from guys on my facebook page. ????

I do want to stick to the orange eo. I wonder would the coffee grounds and orange eo smell terrible together? I think it'd make a pretty ugly bar anyways! I know it's a mechanics bar, but I want it to look half decent.

I might just try the coconut/castor for now. He did mention he doesn't want it too drying.

 

[Gryfonmoon]

100% Coconut with 20% superfat

 

[dianne70]

I'm wondering...would a salt bar be scrubby enough to get rid of the grease? Then you could do the 100% coconut oil

 

[CaliChan]

What about coffee grounds? It provides good exfoliation and helps absorb any odors...plus you wouldn't need to add any scents to it.

you read my mind! adding in very strong brewed coffee helps to. i brew mine 5x stronger for my soaps. except i get everything set up in a mason jar (filter on in the jar held up with a rubber band and pour hot water into the grounds in the filter slowly) and let it set over night so it can cool. then you can either use it for your lye solution or do a water discount and add it at trace.
But your soap will only smell like coffee for the first week or so while its curing. after that it doesnt smell like anything. Im not sure if its the lye or it being dried out for so long.. but i dont think mechanics will to be to concerned with how it smells

 

[Yooper]

I was just thinking, It's not a mechanics bar, just a regular bath soap, but I did an oatmeal stout/orange EO soap and I love the aroma. It's not "perfumy" at all, but it's pretty nice with the brownish color and the orange EO actually stuck around in the smell, even after long curing.

The recipe was 50% deer tallow, 22% coconut oil, 22% olive oil pomace, 6% castor oil. The beer was boiled down to get rid of the carbonation and alcohol, and use for all of the liquid in the recipe.

I think it's the castor oil and the beer that create the lather, while the tallow and coconut oil make it rock hard! You could even add some coffee grounds for extra exfoliation.

And even though I'm not a guy, I'm a brewer so I love the idea of beer soap and make it alot!

 

[hellogorgeous]

I was just thinking, It's not a mechanics bar, just a regular bath soap, but I did an oatmeal stout/orange EO soap and I love the aroma. It's not "perfumy" at all, but it's pretty nice with the brownish color and the orange EO actually stuck around in the smell, even after long curing.

The recipe was 50% deer tallow, 22% coconut oil, 22% olive oil pomace, 6% castor oil. The beer was boiled down to get rid of the carbonation and alcohol, and use for all of the liquid in the recipe.

I think it's the castor oil and the beer that create the lather, while the tallow and coconut oil make it rock hard! You could even add some coffee grounds for extra exfoliation.

And even though I'm not a guy, I'm a brewer so I love the idea of beer soap and make it alot!

Oh I love the idea of a beer / orange eo soap. I dunno if it'd be too fussy for mechanics soap or not. hmmm. I've also made soap with coffe grinds before and it's never scrubby enough. I think our coffee here is just too finely ground, it's more like a powder. So either way, I'd still use the pumice in it.

Someone also mentioned loofah. I have ground loofah, but has anyone bought whole loofahs and embedded them in their CP soap? I'm wondering how that would turn out.