Coffee Soap Scrub Step by Step Tutorial

This recipe is one of my favorite! Who will not love this Scrubby Coffee Soap Recipe when you’re skin is full of dimpled fats (lol)! Well, this soap recipe we will make can have many versions, you may opt to use other expensive oils. But, in this one we will try to minimize our oils and try to use not the dearer type and yet still able to get the properties we want in a coffee soap. In making this soap, I have considered the type of oils that are economical in your pocket, nevertheless very moisturizing and rich in vitamin e. The essential oil I used paired nicely to the natural aroma of the coffee grounds, the natural coffee fragrance, will surely make you jump into the shower for a nice ‘wake me up’ bath!

Batch: 625g

*Note: All ingredients are in a % amount, taken from the number of batch or the 'Batch'.

We will need:

1. Coffee Water (for Coffee Water LYE Solution)
2. 1/3 Cup Fresh Coffee Granules added to 162.5g Hot Purified Water, set aside & freeze while prepping the other ingredients (26% of water requirement above for Coffee Water LYE Solution)
3. 62.5g Goat Milk (10%, deducted from water requirement above & to be used for dissolving our Natural Preservatives*)
4. *Natural Preservatives:1/16 tsp Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda + 3g (0.5%)Potassium Sorbate
5. 212.5g Canola Oil
6. 206.25g Coconut Oil, 76 deg.
7. 140.6g Palm Oil (from sustainable source)
8. 62.5g Castor Oil
9. 3.125g Stearic Acid (Palm Derived Stearic Acid)
10. 2 tsp Silk Mica (to add that silky feeling when soaping)
11. 2 tsp White Clay (as Fragrance Fixative)
12. Extra Superfat (Optional): 18.75g Apricot Kernel Oil or Rose Hip Oil or Virgin olive Oil
13. 31.25g Vanilla Oleoresin or Vanilla Fragrance Oil
14. 1/4 Cup Used Coffee Grounds
15. 1 tsp Titanium Dioxide (dissolved in 2 tsp purified water) – If Swirling

METHODS: (This is a Hot Process Method but, you may also opt to make it on CP)

Step 1 Make sure all ingredients listed above are prepared.

Step 2 It has always been my practice to line my mould with a butcher paper, a plastic or anything that could ease unmoulding after 24 hours.

Step 3 Weigh your required Coffee Water then, put in the freezer while preparing for the other ingredients.

Step 4 Weigh out the oils required in this recipe & mix together in the crock pot. Turn crock pot on HIGH. Let the oils heat up from 15-20minutes.

Step 5 Prepare the LYE COFFEE WATER SOLUTION.

Weigh required LYE (sodium hydroxide or caustic soda), then get your coffee water ready. Using a teaspoon, slowly add the LYE to the Coffee Water while stirring. It’s important to add very slowly, your solution could get very hot and before you know it, the lye is already boiling over your counter!

Step 6 As seen on photos above, when all the oils & stearic acid are melted & heated, add in 2 tsp Silk Mica, stir until pearly mixture is achieved. Then, stir in your lye coffee water solution to the oils in the crock pot. Stir manually while pouring. Once the mixture is opaque, use your stick blender, bursting every few seconds and stirring manually, alternate stick blending and manual stirring until you achieve 'TRACE’.

Step 7 Once you achieve a ‘TRACE’, cover the crock pot. This is the start where we cook the soap batter till the completion of the ‘GEL PHASE’ or TRANSLUCENT STAGE’, at this point as well, you are neutralizing your soap mixture that you are able to use this soap right after unmoulding it. Watch the mixture as it fold over and become translucent. Do not leave the cooking, this might boil over so, try to stir the soap batter every 5-10minutes.

Step 8 Once cooked & neutralized, you may now begin to add the other ingredients. I have listed the ingredients one by one, follow the addition as it was listed. Make sure the crock pot is on LOW.

a. 62.5g Goat Milk + *Natural Preservatives

1/16 tsp Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda

3g (0.5%) Potassium Sorbate***

***{it is said that in order for Potassium Sorbate to work, your pH has to be inclining to more acidic, my soaps has always been ranging from pH 6-6.5 and they lasted for more than a year without turning rancid}

b. Extra Superfat (Optional)

18.75g Apricot Kernel Oil or Rose Hip Oil or Virgin olive Oil

c. 2 tsp White Clay (as Fragrance Fixative)

d. 1/3 Cup Used Coffee Grounds

e. 31.25g Vanilla Essential Oil or Vanilla Fragrance Oil

6. Now, if you want a bit of swirl, you may now add your titanium dioxide
on one side of the crock pot and use your stick blender to stir the titanium
dioxide fully, on that one side ONLY. Then, fold over three or
four times to swirl.

Step 9 Glop in the mould and bang on hard surface a few times to let the bubbles smooth out.

Step 10 You may now un-mould as soon as the soap has cooled down or after 8 hours or even after 24 hours. Enjoy your Coffee Scrub right after un-moulding & cutting!

Please leave a comment below should you like this soap making tutorial.

Thank you for reading my blog! - Lee Strachan