Need soaping help

[Cjennmom]

I made a "single bar" recipe designed so you can try out new stuff as you experiment with soaping. I make my soap from recipes in the Basic to Basics book I got from Readers Digest back around 1990. Essentially these are soaps containing lard or tallow and are cold process. The recipe I wanted to try was a coffee soap since I've seen it done in several youtube videos before and it really appealed to me. For my tester batch I replaced the water with brewed coffee and then put in 1-2 tsp. of coffee grounds. After unmolding my soap, it doesn't really *smell like coffee so I'm wondering what went wrong. Has anyone else had experience trying to make coffee soap? What does it take to get a good strong coffee scent in soap?

 

[DeeAnna]

Nothing went wrong. Just because a cup of coffee or ground coffee smells good doesn't mean the smell will be detectable in soap. This is true of many additives that might have a nice aroma. The scent isn't nearly concentrated enough to give a strong aroma after being diluted by the other ingredients in soap and the fragrance chemicals may not survive being munched on by lye. The way to get a definite coffee smell in soap is to use a fragrance oil.

 

[Cjennmom]

Okay, so what does one do to get the scent they want?!

Nothing went wrong. Just because a cup of coffee or ground coffee smells good doesn't mean the smell will be detectable in soap. This is true of many additives that might have a nice aroma. The scent isn't nearly concentrated enough to give a strong aroma after being diluted by the other ingredients in soap and the fragrance chemicals may not survive being munched on by lye. The way to get a definite coffee smell in soap is to use a fragrance oil.

 

[Ktaggard]

Okay, so what does one do to get the scent they want?!

Add a coffee scented fragrance oil! I add after trace, right before I pour into molds.

 

[Cjennmom]

Is that the only option? I've bought fragrance oils before and am fine with them, but I really thought that this was something I could do with supplies on hand.

Add a coffee scented fragrance oil! I add after trace, right before I pour into molds.

 

[DeeAnna]

Is that the only option?....

Um, yeah, that's pretty much it. You will want to use a fragrance oil to get a definite coffee scent in soap.

A few people claim they can smell a faint coffee scent when using coffee in their soap. Having made a few batches with coffee myself, I'd say the scent is so faint I have to use my imagination to smell it.

Additives don't always work out the way you'd like them to.

 

[Dawni]

I'm one of those who claim there was a faint smell of coffee without using an FO, but I added the coffee after my HP cook... And I still also said the scent only stuck around for about a month, tops.

FO is the only way.. Or the EO which I hear isn't cost effective.

 

[earlene]

Yes, pretty much. I've made lots of coffee soap (my husband likes it) and the only one that a coffee scent carries through with is with a Coffee-scented Fragrance Oil.

Even with lots of added grounds (be careful as it can get scratchy) there really isn't enough coffee scent except while it's curing and it fades fast.

Remember, a lot of people use coffee grounds to absorb bad odors, so I think it makes sense that the coffee scent won't linger.

 

[Lin19687]

You might want to start reading and posting in the Beginners section. There is a ton of info on there for you to learn from.

 

[TheGecko]

For my tester batch I replaced the water with brewed coffee and then put in 1-2 tsp. of coffee grounds. After unmolding my soap, it doesn't really *smell like coffee so I'm wondering what went wrong. Has anyone else had experience trying to make coffee soap? What does it take to get a good strong coffee scent in soap?

Nothing went 'wrong' per se, your soap looks really nice. Yes, and the same thing happened. Fragrance Oil.

Even if you were to brew a coffee so strong that you could stand a spoon up in it, the heat from the saponification process will 'cook' it off.

 

[Deborah Long]

As most have mentioned, it takes an FO to get the coffee smell! I drink espresso, grind my own beans and used my coffee at 100% of my water and still no coffee smell!
I have used a small amount of used (then dried again) coffee grounds as an exfoliant, but I don't like really scratchy soap, so not so much - maybe 1tsp in my 2lb batch.

You probably want to protect your gorgeous soaps from DOS by using something underneath them so they're not touching the wire on your drying racks. Try cross stitch plastic - it's cheap, very available and does the job! Here's one on Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/y4nxn52c

Your soaps look great! Have fun!

 

[penelopejane]

You probably want to protect your gorgeous soaps from DOS by using something underneath them so they're not touching the wire on your drying racks. Try cross stitch plastic - it's cheap, very available and does the job! Here's one on Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/y4nxn52c

Your soaps look great! Have fun!

Yes. Do this now! ^^^ parchment paper or tea towels by themselves are not enough to protect your soap from metal.

 

[Cjennmom]

The racks are coated ... ? I've already dried 4 batches on them and had no discoloration problems.

And thanks. The individual molds I have are new, prior batches have been entirely in the log molds. Those I got off of Amazon, the wooden box with flexible silicone liner, maybe 3 lb. size.

The fragrance oil issue looks to be complicated. I prefer pure tone scents to mixed and when I looked up coffee fragrance oil everything was mixed with something else. I'm considering making a big batch of coffee and simmering it down to half the level, i.e. coffee concentrate, and will hope it works. I had replaced the entire water content with my brewed coffee.

As most have mentioned, it takes an FO to get the coffee smell! I drink espresso, grind my own beans and used my coffee at 100% of my water and still no coffee smell!
I have used a small amount of used (then dried again) coffee grounds as an exfoliant, but I don't like really scratchy soap, so not so much - maybe 1 tsp in my 2 lb batch.

You probably want to protect your gorgeous soaps from DOS by using something underneath them so they're not touching the wire on your drying racks. Try cross stitch plastic - it's cheap, very available and does the job! Here's one on Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/y4nxn52c

Your soaps look great! Have fun!

 

[penelopejane]

The racks are coated ... ? I've already dried 4 batches on them and had no discoloration problems..

It doesn't matter whether they are coated or not. They will eventually lead to DOS. Honestly just get protection for them so you (and we) can sleep easy. It is so worth it.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...The racks are coated ... ? I've already dried 4 batches on them and had no discoloration problems...."

It's a known fact that it doesn't take much metal contamination to trigger rancidity in soap. It also typically takes awhile for rancidity to become obvious after the process has been triggered by metal contamination, so soap that looks fine now might not be so fine in a few months. A soaper can lose multiple bars and even whole batches of soap by the time she knows there's a problem.

Most racks sold for consumer use are meant for cooling cookies or storing canned peaches, not for long term exposure to alkaline chemicals, including soap.

The coating or plating may not be sufficiently chemical resistant to withstand weeks and months of exposure to the alkalinity (high pH) of soap, so even if the coating is fine at first, it may not stay that way.

There can also be small chips and scratches in the coating or plating that might not be easily visible. Every one of those tiny weak spots can be a trigger for rancidity.

Even people who have put a thin barrier such as parchment or waxed paper between their soap and metal shelving have learned this is not enough protection against metal contamination in their soap.

That's why many of us use an abundance of caution and never cure soap directly on metal shelving, whether coated or not. If I cured on wire racks, I'd cover the racks as PenelopeJane recommends. But YMMV of course.

 

[shunt2011]

The racks are coated ... ? I've already dried 4 batches on them and had no discoloration problems.

And thanks. The individual molds I have are new, prior batches have been entirely in the log molds. Those I got off of Amazon, the wooden box with flexible silicone liner, maybe 3 lb. size.

The fragrance oil issue looks to be complicated. I prefer pure tone scents to mixed and when I looked up coffee fragrance oil everything was mixed with something else. I'm considering making a big batch of coffee and simmering it down to half the level, i.e. coffee concentrate, and will hope it works. I had replaced the entire water content with my brewed coffee.

Won't make a difference. I've done and tried it. Coffee scent will be super faint or not at all after cure. Same with other additives. The only way to get a scent is from an EO or FO to hold in CP or HP. Botanicals don't work either. With beer I sometimes get a yeasty smell.

 

[TheGecko]

The racks are coated ... ? I've already dried 4 batches on them and had no discoloration problems.

Concur with others that it doesn’t matter. You need a chemical resistant coating and you’re not going to that in the baking aisle.