Do you love the smell of coffee and want to infuse it into your soap? This coffee soap recipe is the perfect way to do that!
In this post I will show you how to make a delightful coffee soap that adds the perfect amount of exfoliation to your shower routine.
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Is there any smell that is better than fresh brewed coffee? I don’t think so! This soap bar combines the invigorating smell and exfoliation of coffee with the nourishing properties of tallow.
I am always looking out for fun new recipes to make using all natural ingredients as we have extremely sensitive skin in our family. If you still want fun bath products that are gentle on your skin, consider making your own.
Here is a fun entry way to making your own soap.
This post is all about a coffee soap recipe.
Materials Needed For This Coffee Soap
For all cold process soap recipes, there are a few materials that are always needed. Some of these are common around a house and others will need to be purchased specifically for soap making.
- Soap Loaf Mold (this recipe will fill one of these molds to the top, providing you with approximately 10, 4 ounce bars.)
- Soap Cutting Box/ Tools (you can use a knife and cutting board but the bars may not be even. I also love the look of the wavy soap!)
- Kitchen Scale (this doesn’t have to be fancy but it is a requirement to properly measure soap. If you do not use the exact amounts of oils and lye, the soap may burn you.)
- A Large Mixing Bowl (you do not want any of the soap overflowing!)
- An Immersion Blender (I am sure you could technically mix a soap batter by hand but it would take so much longer to reach trace.)
- Gloves (to protect your hands and keep things sanitary.)
- Eye Protection (to ensure nothing splashes into your eyes and potentially blinds you.)
- PH Testing Strips (to ensure a safe bar.)
- Fine Mesh Strainers (to remove the large coffee grounds)
What Ingredients Are In this Coffee Soap?
For all soap products, you will need lye. For a cold process soap bar, you will need sodium hydroxide. Remember, lye (sodium hydroxide) is caustic and will burn you if it gets on your skin. We will go over lye safety a little further into the post.
The oils you will need:
- 283 Grams of Tallow (To learn how to render your own, click here)
- 283 Grams of Coconut Oil
- 283 Grams of Olive Oil
- 170 Grams of Castor Oil
For the lye solution you will need:
- 145 Grams Sodium Hydroxide. You can find this at a soap supply shop or here.
- 388 Grams of Distilled Water
Is Lye Scary to Work With?
It can be very intimidating to start working with lye. I know when I first started I was nervous as well! There are some steps that can greatly decrease the risk you take and I will outline them for you here.
- ALWAYS wear eye protection. In the horrible event the lye water or soap batter splashes up at you, you want to make sure you will not get it into your eyes.
- Know what the MSDS says. Some people will tell you to keep an acid (such as vinegar) close to you in the event any lye gets on you. The MSDS disagrees heavily and instead tells you to focus on flushing the area with WATER for at least 15 minutes. Always seek medical care after you flush.
- ALWAYS keep your body covered. This means gloves, long sleeve shirts, full pants and shoes. You do not want there to be an opportunity to splash onto bare skin.
- Pour the lye into a heat safe container that has a lid such as a pyrex storage container and make sure the lid stays on the whole time.
- Always use lye in a well ventilated area. It creates a lot of fumes that can damage your lungs. It is also an exothermic reaction, meaning it creates heat so be careful when moving the lye mixture.
- Pour the lye into the water or in this case, coffee and never the other way around.
How to make the coffee soap
- The night before you intend on making the soap, brew a very strong pot of coffee. Pour the coffee into ice cube trays and freeze them over night.
- Weigh out all of your oils in a large, heat safe bowl. (283 grams each of tallow, coconut oil and olive oil and 170 grams of castor oil)
- Add in 50 grams of ground coffee.
- Bring the bowl over to a double boiler (or a pot filled with water) and allow the oils to melt down completely before lowering the temperature and allowing the oils to infuse for at least 3 hours.
How to strain the coffee from the oils
5. When the coffee oil has a fragrant smell, remove it from the heat using oven mitts and allow it to rest until it has cooled down and you can safely touch the bowl without a burn. Make sure the oils stay liquid though.
6. Add a fine mesh strainer to a secondary bowl and pour the contents of the first bowl, through the strainer into the second bowl. This will allow the small pieces of coffee to remain in your batter as a gentle exfoliant but will remove the large pieces that could scratch you.
7. Return the mix to the double boiler over low heat to re warm.
Making the lye solution
8. Now it is time to make our lye solution.
9. Weigh out the coffee ice in a heat proof bowl.
10. Weigh out the lye in a small heat proof container with a lid.
11. Take both outside and slowly pour 1/3 of the lye into the coffee, mixing slowly as ice water splashes easier than water.
12. Once the grittiness is gone, add another 1/3rd. Repeat the process until the lye is completely melted.
How to Saponify Your Soap
13. Allow the oils and lye mixture to cool down until they are within 5 degrees of each other.
14. Using an immersion blender, blend the oils and slowly stream in the lye mixture. You will notice it getting thicker. You want it to be the consistency of a thin pudding. This is called trace. Make sure you are scraping the edges as well to get all of the oils and lye. You do not want any unsaponified oils.
15. When it has reach trace, pour it into a loaf mold and flatten the top.
16. Allow it to sit for 3-5 minutes and then create a design on the top. I use a spoon and scoop the edges inward, finishing with some ground coffee on top. (Watch the video to see exactly how I do this.)
Cutting & Curing Your Soap
17. Allow the soap to sit undisturbed overnight and then slice it up. Seperate the slices and place them in a cool dark place for 1 month. The longer they sit, the harder they become. After the month, they are ready to use!
Thank you so much for reading! I hope the soap making goes beautifully for you!!
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Hi! I’m super excited to make this soap. I’m just confirming the 388 Grams of Distilled Water is actually 388 grams of frozen strong coffee?
Great catch! Yes that is correct 🙂 Thank you for the comment!
Hello! I made this soap a few times, but I’m having trouble with it getting to soft after several uses. Is your lye measured out for the remaining oils collected after infusing? Because I notice no matter how hard I try, I always lose oil volume after straining the grounds out. So Ive been adjusting my lye solution to the new oil volume. Thanks so much!!
Are you letting the soap cure for the entire 6 weeks? Sometimes that can lead to a soft bar. I have never had a soft bar with this recipe so Im not entirely sure why that is happening! You can always leave the grounds in the soap for an exfoliating bar and that might clear up the softness issue? Thanks so much for the comment!