Coffee soap benefits?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jul 21, 2020
Messages
511
Reaction score
1,324
Location
Portland, OR
Going to cut my first loaf of coffee soap later today, and I'm wondering about some of its benefits. I made mine with strong coffee in place of the water, and added finely ground used grounds to the batter. Is it true that washing your hands with it helps reduce odor from things like onions or garlic? What else makes coffee soap special?
 
Label appeal. People like coffee. The only way for you to get an answer to your question is to test a bar (just cut a tester sliver and use it once a week to see). While I have made coffee soaps before, I tended to also include the grinds for exfoliation so odor control was not a focus for me.
 
Is it true that washing your hands with it helps reduce odor from things like onions or garlic?
Yes. But non-coffee soap will do so just as well (unless off course it is garlic-flavoured by itself). AFAIK the coffee-against-smell legends is based on two factors: first coffee has a pleasant smell by itself, that is able to cover off-odours, and secondly the ground coffee (like recommended for fridge desodoration) has a large surface that can absorb stinky molecules. Coffee can't play off either of these two advantages particularly well in soap. That doesn't mean that it's bad, just that it is, like @Arimara has said, more label appeal (and profiting from hearsay) than anything else. That doesn't mean it's useless, just don't expect wonders from it.

And regarding garlic: you know that the best way to reduce the offensive smell is to eat dishes that are strongly seasoned with garlic. 🤤😳
 
I'll chime in to say that my scrubby salt soaps that have ground coffee as the scrubby component, definitely cut odor better than my scrubby salt soaps without ground coffee. It is especially effective against garlic and onion odors, which otherwise linger even after using regular soap or other scrubby soaps sans coffee.

@ResolvableOwl this is probably my version of your "butyric acid really can smell ok in soap" argument. I swear, it really does work for me! 😁
 
Who am I to object? Ground coffee in soap might well have the ideal texture to knead/massage/peel skin to release Allium spp. smell; or it has some other effect that I'm not aware of. Great trick when it works!
 
Timely post as I just threw some coffee in an ice cube tray so I could make some coffee soap today. Bought Caramel Coffee FO from Nurture.
SoapDaddy, tossing coffee around like that is very messy! I hope you cleaned up after bad self. Personally I hate cleaning up all the coffee stains my husband leaves behind in the sink, and I don't think he purposely 'throws' the coffee around. ;)
 
Thank you @Arimara and @ResolvableOwl . I thought the wash away odor thing was too good to be true, but I was still hopin'. I'm liking the idea of garlic-scented soap though. I could market it as vampire repellent!
But I neve said it couldn't work. Only stated it was never a concern. Coffee does a marvelous deodorizing things like a bathroom, your fridge, stinky shoes. So if it did work to at least cut that garlic smell, that would be amazing.
 
Personally I hate cleaning up all the coffee stains my husband leaves behind in the sink, and I don't think he purposely 'throws' the coffee around. ;)
I wish all my husband's coffee mess was contained behind the sink. He's often carrying a cup around with him and leaves a coffee trail wherever he goes. May be time to buy him a tippy cup ;)
 
As for whether coffee soap has any deodorizing magic, I guess the thing to do is wait for mine to cure, then wash up after cooking and see how it does.

I've also read that the caffeine has some good effects on the skin. Not sure if the caffeine survives saponification or if soap is on the skin long enough for it to matter.
Just cut mine, and it's kinda pretty whether or not it has magical powers :tub:

PXL_20210922_171914919.jpg
 
I dont know about how well coffee deodorizes when its in soap personally, but i can tell you that at the hospital the ER nurses put coffee next to stinky patients lol.

So if you happen to wake up in the hospital with a filter full of coffee grinds next to your bed, you might need to rethink your hygiene practices :nodding: LOL
 
I dont know about how well coffee deodorizes when its in soap personally, but i can tell you that at the hospital the ER nurses put coffee next to stinky patients lol.

So if you happen to wake up in the hospital with a filter full of coffee grinds next to your bed, you might need to rethink your hygiene practices :nodding: LOL
Because I travel & stay in many various hotels & motels, I do periodically stay in smelly places. And because most of them provide a coffee pot with usually 2 packets of coffee (1 regular & 1 decaf), what I do with those packets is use them as odor absorbers. I open the packets to expose the coffee and put them in whatever spot might need it most. It has always helped, unless the room reeks of a horrendous odor or cigarettes, then I exchange rooms (I always ask for non-smoking rooms, but sometimes the clerk doesn't always catch that request).

In any case, packets of coffee really do absorb odors quite well.

If coffee grounds in soap absorbed odor, then wouldn't the added FO's disappear totally? In my experience coffee grounds do not give off any lasting fragrance in soap, and when FO's are added to coffee soap, the fragrance seems to last about as well as if added to a soap without coffee grounds.

Regarding used coffee grounds in soap: I have usually done that myself, so as not to waste fresh coffee grounds because Hubby is a coffee drinker. BUT I don't think used grounds even if left to dry would absorb odors as well as unused grounds, and even less so in soap. But let us know @JoyfulSudz if your experience is different.
 
This is indeed a mystery in need of a solution, so tomorrow I'm making a pot roast with loads of onion and garlic. In the name of science, I will thoroughly immerse my hands in the seasonings and then wash up with the coffee soap. It will only be a week old (the soap, not the pot roast), but this mystery is too intriguing to wait for a full cure. I will report back soon.
:washingdishes:
 
This is indeed a mystery in need of a solution, so tomorrow I'm making a pot roast with loads of onion and garlic. In the name of science, I will thoroughly immerse my hands in the seasonings and then wash up with the coffee soap. It will only be a week old (the soap, not the pot roast), but this mystery is too intriguing to wait for a full cure. I will report back soon.
:washingdishes:
Please do report back on the roast, er, I mean soap. :)

I'm hungry now.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top