Coffee Butter from Brambleberry and SoapCalc.net

[scrubadubdub]

Hello fellow soapmakers! I am new here, this is my first thread - yay! Anway, I want to make a coffee soap using coffee butter from Brambleberry.com. I use SoapCalc.net for every recipe because it is the most in-depth lye calculator I've found thus far. However, "coffee butter" is not listed on SoapCalc. According to Brambleberry (which is the maker/supplier of the coffee butter) it contains: sweet almond oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and coffee seed oil. I assume that Brambleberry lists the ingredients in descending order (from greatest to least), but the website does not state the percentages of the oils that make up the coffee butter.

Since I like to know the soap quality and INS value of my soaps before I make a bar, I plugged in the individual oils that make up the coffee butter, along with my other soaping oils into SoapCalc. I used 3% for sweet almond oil, 2% hydrogenated vegetable oil, and 1% coffee seed oil. These percentages were a guess since the website does not tell how much of each oil makes up the coffee butter. I use Brambleberrys lye calculator sometimes, but find that it does not provide as much information as SoapCalc, and I have really gotten use to depending on those numbers to ensure my batches turn out well.

I want to make sure that I use the right amount of lye to turn the oils to soap; does anyone know the percentage make up of Brambleberry'c coffee butter? Id like to make this recipe today but I want to be sure than my soap turns out well. Any help or suggestions would be great, thanks!

 

[Bladesmith]

I can't give you their exact makeup but Brambleberry gives you the SAP value for it. That is all that matters when calculating amount of lye.

• SAP (bar) Value: 0.13
• KOH (liquid) Value: 0.19

Ive not used soapcalc but I don't think you can add new custom oils with it. Other calculators allow you to do so. I know soapmaker 3 can because that's what I use but it costs $$. I'm pretty sure soapmakingfriend.com allows you to add your own custom oils once you've made an account as well.

If all else fails, you can calculate it yourself using the SAP value. You just multiply the SAP value (0.13 in this case if you're using NaOH) by the amount of the oil you are using and that gives you the amount of lye to use (in the same units). This is with 0% superfat.

So if you wanted to use soapcalc I guess you could make the recipe without it and then manually calculate the amount needed for your addition of the coffee butter.

 

[steffamarie]

You could also try to find an oil in your calculator that has a comparable SAP value and use that oil in the calculations.

ETA: Just looked at SoapCalc. Passion fruit seed oil lists the NaOH SAP as 0.13. The numbers won't reflect the true properties of your soap, so you'd have to ignore those.

 

[earlene]

Brambleberry does have a calculator that includes Coffee Butter, so you could switch for just this one soap. https://www.brambleberry.com/calculator?calcType=lye

Or contact BB and ask for a more definitive breakdown of the major fatty acid profile for their Coffee Butter. That way you can calculate (with a bit of work) which oils bests fit the profile on soapcalc.

 

[cmzaha]

Coffee butter is some coffee oil Sweet Almond Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Coffee Seed Oil. It is not going to do much in soap so it would be much more cost effective to infuse one of your oils with coffee grounds. You can infuse it by heating the oil and adding in the coffee or in a jar for a few weeks. Once infused strain and use the oil in your soap. I used to make a caffeine soap using powdered anhydrous caffeine and coffee infused oils.

 

[scrubadubdub]

Hello fellow soapmakers! I am new here, this is my first thread - yay! Anway, I want to make a coffee soap using coffee butter from Brambleberry.com. I use SoapCalc.net for every recipe because it is the most in-depth lye calculator I've found thus far. However, "coffee butter" is not listed on SoapCalc. According to Brambleberry (which is the maker/supplier of the coffee butter) it contains: sweet almond oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and coffee seed oil. I assume that Brambleberry lists the ingredients in descending order (from greatest to least), but the website does not state the percentages of the oils that make up the coffee butter.

Since I like to know the soap quality and INS value of my soaps before I make a bar, I plugged in the individual oils that make up the coffee butter, along with my other soaping oils into SoapCalc. I used 3% for sweet almond oil, 2% hydrogenated vegetable oil, and 1% coffee seed oil. These percentages were a guess since the website does not tell how much of each oil makes up the coffee butter. I use Brambleberrys lye calculator sometimes, but find that it does not provide as much information as SoapCalc, and I have really gotten use to depending on those numbers to ensure my batches turn out well.

I want to make sure that I use the right amount of lye to turn the oils to soap; does anyone know the percentage make up of Brambleberry'c coffee butter? Id like to make this recipe today but I want to be sure than my soap turns out well. Any help or suggestions would be great, thanks!

Thanks so much for this informative reply. I’m

I can't give you their exact makeup but Brambleberry gives you the SAP value for it. That is all that matters when calculating amount of lye.

• SAP (bar) Value: 0.13
• KOH (liquid) Value: 0.19

Ive not used soapcalc but I don't think you can add new custom oils with it. Other calculators allow you to do so. I know soapmaker 3 can because that's what I use but it costs $$. I'm pretty sure soapmakingfriend.com allows you to add your own custom oils once you've made an account as well.

If all else fails, you can calculate it yourself using the SAP value. You just multiply the SAP value (0.13 in this case if you're using NaOH) by the amount of the oil you are using and that gives you the amount of lye to use (in the same units). This is with 0% superfat.

So if you wanted to use soapcalc I guess you could make the recipe without it and then manually calculate the amount needed for your addition of the coffee butter.

Thanks for the informative response. I hadn’t thought of calculating the SAP value. I will have to try that. Thanks again!

Coffee butter is some coffee oil Sweet Almond Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Coffee Seed Oil. It is not going to do much in soap so it would be much more cost effective to infuse one of your oils with coffee grounds. You can infuse it by heating the oil and adding in the coffee or in a jar for a few weeks. Once infused strain and use the oil in your soap. I used to make a caffeine soap using powdered anhydrous caffeine and coffee infused oils.

That’s a good idea. I saw a recipe made using herbal infused oils and I liked that idea. Infusing coffee into the oils also sounds great. I’ll have to try that as well. Thanks!

Brambleberry does have a calculator that includes Coffee Butter, so you could switch for just this one soap. https://www.brambleberry.com/calculator?calcType=lye

Or contact BB and ask for a more definitive breakdown of the major fatty acid profile for their Coffee Butter. That way you can calculate (with a bit of work) which oils bests fit the profile on soapcalc.

I thought about contacting them but figured they may not want to tell their proprietary blend, which is understandable. I’m going to give SAP calculation thing a try. Maybe I will contact BB just to see what they say. Thanks for your response!