Project Description

If you love coffee as much as we do, this great soap recipe is for you. The recipe is made with coffee seed oil, a dark & rich oil extracted from roasted coffee beans. Coffee seed oil has a incredible aroma. It uses only 3% of it and that is enough to give it the perfect color & coffee scent.

Simple Organic Coffee Soap Tutorial

TIME

About 1-2 hours

CRAFT

Cold Press Soap

DIFFICULITY

Beginner

YIELDS

3 Pounds of Soap

We are adding some Bella Tica Organic Coffee grounds for exfoliation and coffee butter for really nice extra moisture.

We are using used grounds because fresh grounds tend to bleed in the soap. The liquid that we are using in this recipe is: half distilled water & half brewed coffee. If you have never used coffee as the liquid in your soap before, check out our How to Make Coffee Soap post. You can use all distilled water or all coffee if you like.

Coffee Oil Butter

All these amazing coffee ingredients give the bars enough color and scent without any fragrance oil or colorant. The scent is very light so, if you want a stronger coffee scent, Espresso Fragrance Oil would be great in this recipe. Keep in mind that It will lightly discolor the soap.

Can’t Visit Us?

Buy Our Coffee Online!

The Coffee Shop

HAVE YOU MADE COLD PROCESS SOAP BEFORE? IF NOT, STOP HERE!

Please check out this FREE four part SoapQueen.tv series on Cold Process Soapmaking, especially the episode on lye safety. Also if you’d rather do some reading, Bramble Berry carries a wide range of books on the topic, including the new book, Pure Soapmaking. There are also digital downloads that can help you prepare to get started right away.

IMPORTANT SAFETY: Dress up for safe handling practices:  You will need to use goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Keep your kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards  out of the house or don’t have access to your soapmaking space. Keep your working area well-ventilated.

Full Recipe in Details

COFFEE LYE PREPARATION

You need to prep the lye solution first. For this project, you are using half coffee & half distilled water. Brew some of your Bella Tica Organic Coffee using distilled water. The strength of the coffee is up to you. The stronger it is, the darker your soap batter will be. In this recipe, you can brew enough coffee for the entire recipe (5 ounces) and use a “normal” strength, which will result in a rich, dark color.

Measure 5 ounces of coffee into the container you use to mix the lye solution. Add 5 ounces of distilled water to the coffee, which needs to cool to room temperature or below before adding the lye. The colder the mixture is when the lye is added, the colder it will be after the lye is added.

Once your liquid is room temperature or below, slowly add the sodium hydroxide lye to the coffee & gently stir until the lye flakes are fully dissolved. The solution will start to darken & smell quite unpleasant. It is normal, the scent goes away in the final bars.

INGREDIENTS

  • 10″ Silicone Loaf Mold

  • 13.9 oz. Olive Oil (42%)

  • 8.3 oz. Coconut Oil (25%)

  • 8.3 oz. Palm Oil (25%)

  • 1.7 oz. Coffee Butter (5%)

  • 1 oz. Coffee Oil (3%)

  • 5 oz. Brewed Coffee

  • 5 oz. Distilled Water

  • 4.6 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye

  • 2 Tbsp. Used Coffee Grounds

  • Whole Coffee Beans (for the top)

  • Optional: Crinkle Cutter

GUIDE / INSTRUCTIONS
  • Step One
  • Step Three
  • Step Four
  • Step Five
  • Step Six
  • Step Seven

  • Carefully & slowly add the lye to the water-coffee mixture. Gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved. Let it cool aside.

  • Completely melt & combine the coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, coffee butter, and coffee oil. Make sure to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before creating portions. Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils, and stick blend until it is at a thin trace. If you would like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add sodium lactate to the cooled lye water. Add 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils. For this recipe, add 2 teaspoons sodium lactate. Stick blend the soap until it is at a thin trace.

  • Continue to stick blend the soap until it reaches a medium trace. It is the perfect trace for suspending the coffee grounds & a nice top texture.

  • Add 2 tablespoons of used Bella Tica Coffee grounds to the soap batter & use a whisk to fully mix together.

  • Pour the soap batter into the mold. Tap the mold firmly on the counter to get rid of bubbles.

  • You can use a spoon to mound the soap in the center & create texture. You can get creative and use any other tool (chopsticks) There is really no right or wrong way to do this. Just have fun with it!

  • Place Bella Tica Coffee beans in the center of the soap down the length of the mold. Gently press the beans into the soap to help them stick better. Once you’re happy with the look, spritz the top with 99% isopropyl alcohol to prevent soda ash. Allow the soap to stay in the mold for about two or three days. You can now unmold, and cut into bars. You can use a Crinkle Cutter to achieve the textured cut shown in the images. The bars need to cure for four to six weeks before use. Enjoy!

NOTES

Click here to buy everything you need for this project at Bramble Berry!

Share this recipe