This soap recipe adds coffee ground for exfoliation and brewed coffee for color to well-balanced, moisturizing bar soap. Easy to make and beautiful.
Table of contents
❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe
- The coffee grounds provide exfoliation, while the brewed coffee gives the soap a beautiful brown color.
- It’s super moisturizing. The coconut oil and shea butter make it rich and creamy, while the olive oil and palm oil ensure that your skin stays soft and smooth.
- It’s easy to make! The brewed coffee will behave just like water.
🧂 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You’ll find the full measurements and instructions in the printable recipe at the bottom of the page.
You’ll need the following for this exfoliating cold process soap:
- cooled brewed coffee
- lye
- coconut oil
- olive oil
- castor oil
- palm oil
- shea butter
- ground coffee
- fragrance and color (optional, but espresso, vanilla, or mint would work well)
I recommend Nurture Soap for the best selection of colorants and fragrances.
🥣 Equipment
- stick blender
- digital scale
- goggles and gloves
- pyrex measuring cup
- old pot or saucepan
- soap mold
🍴Instructions
Step One: prepare lye
Using a digital scale, measure out the lye and coffee in separate containers. The coffee must be cooled to room temperature before adding the lye. Stir carefully until the lye is completely dissolved into the coffee. The liquid will shoot up in temperature and emit a burned-coffee scent. Place it aside to cool in a secure location out of the reach of kids or pets.
Step Two: Melt oils
Measure the oils individually, then mix them together in a large pot. Melt them over medium-low heat until fully melted. Set aside to cool.
Step three: Blend and pour
Once the coffee solution and oils have both cooled to about 100-115 degrees, it’s time to blend. Get out your coffee grounds, soap molds, and any fragrance or color you’ll be adding. Pour the lye water into the pot with the oils and blend with your stick blender until you reach trace. Stir in coffee grounds once you’ve reached trace. If you’re using fragrance or color, mix them in by hand. Working quickly, pour into the soap mold.
Step FouR: Cure and cut
Allow the soap to cure in the mold for 24-48 hours before removing it. Cut into bars after slicing. Before using, let it sit for at least 3 weeks and store it in a well-ventilated area.
Storage instructions
Homemade soap is happiest in a cool, dark place with plenty of air circulation. I like to put it in a cardboard box with newspaper and tuck it on a closet shelf.
It will last basically forever if stored well.
🔍 FAQs
It doesn’t matter. Just use what you have on hand. If you have a type of coffee you don’t like anymore, use that!
Yes, you can!
Nope. The finished bar has no fragrance.
No, since there is sugar in the coffee it will behave just like water when you add the lye. You’ll notice the scorched smell and (obviously) the color, but that’s it.
👩🏻🍳 Expert tips
- Make sure the coffee is cooled to room temperature before adding the lye
- If you want a coffee fragrance, be. sure to add a fragrance oil at trace
- The soap will be brown no matter what you do, but you can add a little titanium dioxide or black pigment to get darker or lighter swirls.
📘 Related Recipes
- Lemon Zest Soap is another fun recipe where you get to add food!
- And oatmeal soap has oats in the bar and on top.
- Not into working with lye? Try loofah soap for something easier.
📖 Here’s the recipe
Ingredients
- 10 ounces cooled brewed coffee
- 4.3 ounces lye
- 9 ounces coconut oil
- 9 ounces olive oil
- 2 ounces castor oi
- 8 ounces palm oil
- 2 ounces shea butter
- 2 tablespoons ground coffee
Instructions
- Make the lye and coffee solution. Measure out the lye and coffee in separate containers using a digital scale. The coffee must be cooled to room temperatue. Carefully add the lye to the coffee and stir until it is fully dissolved. The liqiud will shoot up in temperature and give off a burned coffee smell. Set aside to cool in a safe place.
- Melt the oil and butters. Measure the oils separately, then combine them in a large pot. Melt the over medium-low heat until the shea butter is fully melted. Set aside to cool.
- Stick blend to trace. Once the coffee solution and oils have both cooled to about 100-115 degrees, it's time to blend. Get out your coffee grounds, soap molds and any fragrance or color you'll be adding. Pour the lye water into the pot with the oils and blend with your stick blender until you reach trace. Add fragrance and color if using, and quickly pour into the soap mold.
- Cure and unmold. Allow the soap to cure in the mold for 24-48 hours, then carefully remove it. Slice into bars. Store in a well-ventilated place and let it cure more for at least 3 weeks before using.
Hi,
I tried this recipe today—followed it as exactly as I could—meaning I didn’t sub out anything. However, not 15 minutes after pouring into the mold, it got too hot and cracked along the length in the center. I am sort of new to soap making; I’ve made around a dozen or so batches, and most of the other recipes have advised me to cover/insulate, or even place a heating pad under the mold as it goes through the gel phase. . . I noticed you didn’t give any direction along those lines, so could that be the reason it overheated and cracked?? If you could advise how to avoid that in the future, much appreciated! Crack or no crack—im looking forward to enjoying this soap! Thank you so much!
I am new to CP soaping ….. If I don’t have palm oil, do I need to reconfigure in a soap calculator if I wanted to sub it out for an avocado or hemp seed oil – to make sure the lye amt will still saponify correctly?
yes that is exactly right 🙂 i’d recommend subbing the amount with 75% olive and 25% shea then recalculating… avocado with be quite expensive and a softer bar
I made this recipe last night at 8:00 p.m. I unmolded it this morning at 10:00 a.m. and cut it around 11:00 a.m. it is soft but I set it to cure. I grabbed an end slice and took it to the shower with me this morning. Not even 24 hours old yes I know I’m a bad girl. But let me tell you this was the most luxurious beautiful soap ever!
Love it Cathleen! I am the same…. so impatient! Happy you enjoyed it all the same. 🙂
Tried this recipe so far so good…Eagerly waiting for this soap to cure
I will have to try this! What size loaf pan did you use? How much soap does this make? TIA