Scruby Coffee Hand Soap

[Anstarx]

I recently bought a coffee bean shaped mold. Was using it for making frozen coffee cubes for latte but then I thought I could use it for soaping as well.
I've been playing around with clay lately. It was fun but it sticks to my hands so I had to wash my hands every 10 mins lol. I have commercial liquid soap at home which I don't mind usually but frequent washing really dries my hands and applying hand lotion each time is annoying.
This soap recipe was created to be used during clay working only-something that cleans well and can keep my hands soft until I finish the clay working without needing to apply and re-apply hand lotion constantly.
Here's the recipe:
Palm Kernel 25%
Shea Butter 15%
Olive 30%
Sweet Almond 10%
Cocoa Butter 15%
Castor 5%
I plan to use black coffee with sugar as water. Got some coffee ground from a coffee shop and I will grind them further with my spice grinder to be used as exfoliate.
I read palm kernel is supposed to be milder than CO and I ordered some with my recent purchase. Figured might as well try it out.
Here's the data from Soapcalc:

 

[shunt2011]

I say give it a try. See if you like it. You can always change it next time. I like PKO but I use it in conjunction with CO. Let us know how you like it.

 

[Dawni]

I'd lessen my cleansing factor if I didn't wanna use lotion all the time. Or increase my superfat. At these numbers I'd still need to, but that's me. It took me a while to figure out what works for me n mine.

You could also try this as is in a small batch and go from there after testing.

 

[earlene]

Anstarx, I have a few suggestions.

For testing purposes with a new-to-you soap recipe, start with a small batch. 500 grams or about a pound of soap is a good test recipe. That generally makes about 4 or 5 standard sized bars of soap, which is more than sufficient for learning if this recipe works well for your skin.

Second, depending on your age and how sensitive your skin, I would also agree on decreasing the PKO to perhaps 20% (I prefer 15% myself, but my skin is rather old). But perhaps a test batch at 25% & another at a lower % might also be useful.

Third, be sparing with the coffee grounds. It doesn't take much to create a lot of scratchy exfoliation. If your spice grinder is a really good one that can really pulverize the grounds, that would be best. I have found that even ground oatmeal can be very scratchy to my skin. So, it depends a lot on the sensitivity of your skin and how fine the grind.

 

[ItsForrest]

From making coffee soap I have found a couple things;
When using coffee as grit or exfoliant, it does help to grind it very, very fine or it is like coarse sandpaper on your skin.
Also, you may want to use used coffee grounds for that. Fresh coffee grounds will color the soap and hey, you might as well get another pot of coffee out of it and get two uses out of grounds that would just be thrown away otherwise.

To regrind the used grounds, they need to be very dry or they won't grind. I spread them out on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven on lowest until they are totally dry, then put them in the grinder. You don't need to toast ehm, just dry them. You don't need much, either. I think I used 1 teaspoon per pound on my last coffee soap.

 

[Anstarx]

Anstarx, I have a few suggestions.

For testing purposes with a new-to-you soap recipe, start with a small batch. 500 grams or about a pound of soap is a good test recipe. That generally makes about 4 or 5 standard sized bars of soap, which is more than sufficient for learning if this recipe works well for your skin.

Second, depending on your age and how sensitive your skin, I would also agree on decreasing the PKO to perhaps 20% (I prefer 15% myself, but my skin is rather old). But perhaps a test batch at 25% & another at a lower % might also be useful.

Third, be sparing with the coffee grounds. It doesn't take much to create a lot of scratchy exfoliation. If your spice grinder is a really good one that can really pulverize the grounds, that would be best. I have found that even ground oatmeal can be very scratchy to my skin. So, it depends a lot on the sensitivity of your skin and how fine the grind.

Thanks for the advice! My skin is rather the opposite end of sensitive...but since this is meant to be a nourishing soap I think I will set PKO to 20% and up my olive.

From making coffee soap I have found a couple things;
When using coffee as grit or exfoliant, it does help to grind it very, very fine or it is like coarse sandpaper on your skin.
Also, you may want to use used coffee grounds for that. Fresh coffee grounds will color the soap and hey, you might as well get another pot of coffee out of it and get two uses out of grounds that would just be thrown away otherwise.

To regrind the used grounds, they need to be very dry or they won't grind. I spread them out on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven on lowest until they are totally dry, then put them in the grinder. You don't need to toast ehm, just dry them. You don't need much, either. I think I used 1 teaspoon per pound on my last coffee soap.

I actually don't drink coffee often so I only have instant coffee at home.I got my coffee ground from a local cafe-used most of it for deodorizing my new furnitures and saves a little for soaping- so it's used and dry.
1 tsp PPO seemed like a really small amount. I plan to make a 200g oil batch (my molds are small) so maybe just 1/2 tsp?

 

[earlene]

I have never used instant coffee in soap, and don't drink it. But have in the past. As for how much to use, I really can't say as I've never used instant in soap. Unless someone here who has experience with instant chimes in with a recommendation, then I'd say making a small experimental batch would be the best way to start. You can make another small experimental batch with a different amount of instant coffee for comparison.

 

[ItsForrest]

Thanks for the advice! My skin is rather the opposite end of sensitive...but since this is meant to be a nourishing soap I think I will set PKO to 20% and up my olive.


I actually don't drink coffee often so I only have instant coffee at home.I got my coffee ground from a local cafe-used most of it for deodorizing my new furnitures and saves a little for soaping- so it's used and dry.
1 tsp PPO seemed like a really small amount. I plan to make a 200g oil batch (my molds are small) so maybe just 1/2 tsp?

I think it should be fine. The sugar will make it extra hot when adding lye so maybe freeze the coffee and sugar or at least get it good and cold before adding lye and let it cool before mixing into the oils. Not too cool though with all the solid oil and butters.

 

[Arimara]

I have never used instant coffee in soap, and don't drink it. But have in the past. As for how much to use, I really can't say as I've never used instant in soap. Unless someone here who has experience with instant chimes in with a recommendation, then I'd say making a small experimental batch would be the best way to start. You can make another small experimental batch with a different amount of instant coffee for comparison.

Instant coffee is easy to use- just make it like you would if you were going to drink it. It's the coffee grinds that can get a little tricky. I have yet to have a proper use of espresso ground coffee yet but since I can get it in bulk, I will get to find out soon enough.

 

[Anstarx]

I'm updating my progress!
I made the soap last week and just unmolded this Saturday. Here's the picture:

The recipe was:
Palm kernel 40g
Shea butter 30g
Olive 60g
Sweet almond 30g
Cocoa butter 30g
Castor 10g
5% SF, I used frozen black coffee (instant kind) as my water. Added cocoa powder (for color) , ground coffee and coffee FO at 3% oil

I checked the ingredients to make sure there is no sugar in my coffee even though it's instant and it traced kinda slow. I think I SB it on and off for around 5 min just to reach light trace, another 2 min or so for medium trace.

I let it sit on my counter top for a week before I unmold it and yet it's still sticky as heck! You can see in the pictures that he top of each soap bean is a bit distorted as the top parts were almost clay soft when I was trying to taking it out. The bottom part was pretty solid so no distort on that. I'm letting them dry on the racks now.

If I or anyone were to make this recipe, sodium lactate will definitely be needed.
P.S. the coffee FO completely vanished and all I can smell is coffee ground. Maybe I can try infuse coffee ground with oil next time instead of FO.