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Wowee, this could be the most luxurious soap recipe I’ve ever made!
I do enjoy my coffee, but I try not to drink too much of it, so adding it to soap recipes is a really nice way to enjoy coffee in your life, without the side effects!
I don’t make any claims about the effects of coffee soap on your skin (you’d have to consult a skin expert on that) but I do know that this soap recipe is an absolute joy to make, and use, with its rich coffee lye solution and luxurious combination of oils and butters, including both cocoa butter and shea butter.
And did I mention the lather? Wow. Just WOW!!
(There is a lot of ‘wowing’ in this video, it’s quite funny).
Prepare a large, strong cup of brewed coffee, and when cooled, pour and weigh 230g into an ice cube tray and freeze. Do this the day/evening before you make the soap to ensure it is properly frozen.
Weigh the oils and butters into a small saucepan and melt slowly on the stove using low heat. You can also melt the oils in the microwave on low heat in a microwave safe container. Do not overheat the oils and butters, about 60°C / 140°F is sufficient.
While the oils and butters are melting, weigh the fragrance oil (if using) into a small glass or jar and cover until required.
Using full safety precautions (eye goggles and gloves minimum), weigh your sodium hydroxide into a small container and cover with a lid immediately. Place somewhere safe.
Make your lye solution in a medium sized jug. Gradually add the sodium hydroxide to the frozen coffee ice cubes and mix slowly and carefully until the sodium hydroxide is dissolved and the coffee is melted. This mixture should be around 20°C / 68°F once the solution is mixed, which is just perfect for adding into the warm oil mixture. Don’t worry if there are a few bits of undissolved lye in the mix, you can strain those out.
When you are ready to make the soap, pour your warmed oils into a large jug and stir in the fragrance oil (if using). Carefully pour the lye solution into the oil mixture, and whisk the soap until it thickens. You can use a stick blender to speed up this process, but it is not necessary with this recipe.
Add a small amount of spent coffee grounds (if you want to) and mix it in.
Once the soap has reached a medium trace, pour it into the mould. Decorate or texture the top if you’d like to.
Once the soap has become slightly firm, cover it and wrap in a blanket or towels to force the soap to gel. It was a cold day when I made the soap and I didn’t wrap it sufficiently (plus I kept taking a peek), so mine didn’t gel fully. (More about gelling soap and what that means here).
Once firm enough to cut (I left mine until the next day), cut into bars and cure in a dry/airy place for 4-6 weeks to fully harden.
Test the soap for correct pH (learn about that here) and enjoy!
Alternative ‘Instant’ Coffee Option
If you would like to try the instant coffee suggestion mentioned in the video, I would simply make a standard soap recipe with plain/ice water for the lye solution, then add some dissolved instant coffee into the soap after the lye solution and oils are blended together. The amount of coffee to add is up to you! I would probably try this recipe out with 1 metric tablespoon of instant coffee dissolved in 2-3 teaspoons of water (keep the water to a minimum). If you try this, let me know how it goes!
Thank you for reading and watching, I hope you find this recipe enjoyable and useful in your cold process soap making repertoire. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments below, and please share this post and video with others if you think they may be interested.
Thanks for your support. If you would like to buy me a coffee 😉 to support my work with Elly’s Everyday and help me continue to stay home and make more videos, you can do that here.
Happy soap making!
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