Question about using brewed coffee in soap

[SoapMakerDeluxe]

So I want to try this recipe:

http://soapdelinews.com/2015/06/homemade-coffee-soap-recipe.html

As you can see, it calls for

6 fl. oz. distilled water
4.9 oz. lye/sodium hydroxide

5.8 fl. oz. extremely strong brewed coffee

But I want to use a different fat profile (I've have success with equal parts coconut, olive, and palm), which throws all of the calculations askew.

My question is, how does the brewed coffee-water factor in to a recipe like this?

Can you throw it in as "extra," like adding fragrance oil, or is it something you have to calculate into the recipe? And if so, how?

 

[shunt2011]

So I want to try this recipe:

http://soapdelinews.com/2015/06/homemade-coffee-soap-recipe.html

As you can see, it calls for



But I want to use a different fat profile (I've have success with equal parts coconut, olive, and palm), which throws all of the calculations askew.

My question is, how does the brewed coffee-water factor in to a recipe like this?

Can you throw it in as "extra," like adding fragrance oil, or is it something you have to calculate into the recipe? And if so, how?

Whatever your recipe you will just substitute 1/2 of your liquid amount recommended on the caluclator for strong coffee and the other 1/2 as water to dissolve your lye. Add the coffee to your oils before your lye mixture.

You can also use it for all of your liquid to dissolve your lye.

 

[Arimara]

Whatever your recipe you will just substitute 1/2 of your liquid amount recommended on the caluclator for strong coffee and the other 1/2 as water to dissolve your lye. Add the coffee to your oils before your lye mixture.

You can also use it for all of your liquid to dissolve your lye.

This is what I have done. I love using my coffee soap in the kitchen and for baking. I honestly think it's one of the best liquids to soap with, if you're not using goat or coconut milk.

 

[SoapMakerDeluxe]

That makes sense. So the total amount of water isn't necessarily for the purpose of dissolving the lye then! Today I learned.

 

[Susie]

I use coffee instead of water at 1:1 substitution. I just make sure the coffee is completely room temperature first. Don't count on it retaining any coffee scent, though.

 

[SoapMakerDeluxe]

I use coffee instead of water at 1:1 substitution. I just make sure the coffee is completely room temperature first. Don't count on it retaining any coffee scent, though.

How does the color turn out that way? I'm aiming for this:

http://soapdelinews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/natural-food-soap-recipe-500x319.jpg

(The one on the left)

 

[earlene]

My husband loves coffee soap, and so does my son & DIL, and coming from a big strong-coffee drinking family (all day long, everyday for most of them for as long as I can remember), I make it fairly often. At trace, I add coffee grounds for exfoliation, which also darkens the bar.

If you are going for the lighter color soap in the picture, you need to use less coffee so it doesn't get quite as dark. With a very white soap recipe you can obtain a lighter colored coffee soap as long as you don't add a fragrance that darkens your soap, such as vanilla. Or I suppose you could add TD, but I have never done that myself, so cannot say for sure. But I have seen recipes using TD in part of the mixture for a layered latte or cappuccino look.

Speaking of fragrance, the coffee fragrance does not remain in the soap, no matter how strong the coffee I have used as my liquid for the lye solution, at least it never has for me.

I generally use cooled brewed coffee in place of 100% of the water for the lye solution. Once the lye solution cools down sufficiently, I strain through a strainer to prevent any lye crystals showing up in my soap, just in case.

I have made coffee soap CP, HP and from rebatched soap. It's the rebatched soap that tends to come out lighter, because it's usually soap that did not start out as coffee soap, so has less darkening agents.

If you want really dark coffee soap, you can add a little cocoa powder and that will really darken it up. I made some HP coffee soap that way and it looks like bars of fudge. Almost smells like fudge. I think my brothers may have been disappointed when they opened their Christmas presents last year and found what looked like fudge was actually inedible. :think:

 

[Susie]

This is the color of my coffee-for-liquid soaps:

http://topdycha.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/cafe-au-lait.jpg

If you want it darker, just use cocoa as mentioned above. But don't expect any of the cocoa scent to remain, either.

 

[MySoapyHeart]

I did a coffee soap experiment last year. I made it with coffee for water, coffee steeping in oil and then used for soaping, + added coffee grounds.

The thread is here in case you want to take a look at them and the process I did.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57458

This reminded me, I should dig up a bar and test it again, haven`t used one in months...

ETA: Check out post # 15 & #20, I give some updates on how it fares during the weeks.

 

[BlackDog]

My husband is addicted to coffee soap. If you're looking for coffee color, as the others said it won't turn it that dark but I use a blend of BB'S Espresso and Turkish Mocha and it turns it a nice deep brown. Smells amazing too.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I used a very strong coffee mix as my water and got a nice brown from it. Can't find the post as I'm on the app, but will look on the computer in a bit and see what I can find

 

[Halibaal]

Has anyone tried using already prepared lye water thats still hot to brew their coffee with? I wonder if that would help the coffee to carry through.

 

[earlene]

Has anyone tried using already prepared lye water thats still hot to brew their coffee with? I wonder if that would help the coffee to carry through.

I don't brew coffee, but if my husband caught me using his coffee maker to brew coffee lye solution, he'd probably have me arrested for attempted murder!

But I suspect you probably mean via a drip method with a filter and a funnel and lye-safe containers. No, I have not tried that. It is an interesting idea, though. If you do it, please document and report!

 

[Halibaal]

I don't brew coffee, but if my husband caught me using his coffee maker to brew coffee lye solution, he'd probably have me arrested for attempted murder!

But I suspect you probably mean via a drip method with a filter and a funnel and lye-safe containers. No, I have not tried that. It is an interesting idea, though. If you do it, please document and report!

I did do it! For my most recent cake like soap. I added 2 tsps of coffee grounds to my lye solution after it was fully dissolved and slightly cooled- and yeah it had a stink but more like really burnt coffee with a sour note, and i added 2 tsps to my melting oils. I wouldnt call the result coffee scented but its certainly..something? Its not horrible especially with the whiffs of cocoa powder. Its like chocolate-ish tar, well-done.

 

[cmzaha]

I am assuming you mean you added 2 tsp coffee grounds to your oils? Did you strain your lye solution when you added it to your oils? I ask because that will result in a very scratchy soap, depending on batch size which I guess it no large. I make 6 lb batches and that would be to much ground coffee in my soap. I find it takes very little coffee grounds to make an exfoliating soap without being to scratchy. Sadly no matter what you do the scent in soap will not hold with using fragrance. It is just the nature of the beast. You really could have accomplished the same thing by using strong coffee for all or part of your water, or you can infuse oil with coffee grounds.

 

[RobinRogers]

One of my favorite handsoaps is a coffee soap. I brewed the coffee using espresso. The grinds are so much finer. I added it to my lye with the same measurement for water. I then added the used grinds to my water. I put in a very small amount of cinnamon scent. The soap is amazing because it takes off all odors from hands. I feel as though I’ve used lotion because otnleaves my skin feeling so nourished.

 

[MarnieSoapien]

I was flipping through a soap making book I picked up from the library and found a Java Mint Soap recipe that uses the oil profile you were looking for.

Java Mint Soap from Natural Soap Making by Elizabeth Letcavage

Edited to remove recipe

 

[earlene]

I was flipping through a soap making book I picked up from the library and found a Java Mint Soap recipe that uses the oil profile you were looking for.

Java Mint Soap from Natural Soap Making by Elizabeth Letcavage
.

MarnieSopien, it may be a copyright infringement to post a complete recipe directly from a book like this. Just something to think about. Unless you are positive the book is no longer under copyright, I would advise against it.

 

[MarnieSoapien]

MarnieSopien, it may be a copyright infringement to post a complete recipe directly from a book like this. Just something to think about. Unless you are positive the book is no longer under copyright, I would advise against it.

Thanks for the suggestion. Copyright infringement wasn't my intention or on my radar! I'll keep that in mind in the future.

 

[Lauren C]

I made an 8 lb hot process coffee soap with strong brewed coffee for all the liquid to add my lye to. After the cook, I separated out two lbs and added 6 tbsp cocoa, 10 ml coffee essential oil and 10 ml vanilla oleoresin for scent, then did an in the pot swirl. I did use the grounds in the whole soap (1 tbsp per lb of oil) and called it a gardener's soap. The coffee grounds (as we normally grind them to make our morning coffee) made the soap too scratchy for full body or facial use. It really is great for dirty hands or bottoms of feet though! There's also 9% cocoa butter in that soap. So somehow between the two scents and the cocoa butter, my husband thinks he smells chocolate in that soap, but I think it's the power of suggestion when he sees it. It looks like fudge! And the 2 lbs I swirled in the pot actually have a slightly lighter brown color--more like milk chocolate.