Teach Soap

My friend found this recipe online and asked if I could make it for her. I haven't run it through a lye calc or anything yet and I will since I don't use palm or castor so I will have to come up with my own blend of oils but my question is about the additives. I don't know if they will be a skin irritant and I do know she has somewhat sensitive skin and so I don't want to make something that will hurt her. I generally don't use additives with the exception of ground walnut shells, calendula petals, or oatmeal so I haven't done much research on this. Here is the recipe.

12 oz Olive oil
10 oz coconut oil
6 oz Palm
2 oz castor
1/2 oz jojoba (optional)

4.3 oz lye
10 oz triple strength coffee (cooled)

2-3 Tablespoons coffee grounds (wet or dry)
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 ounces eo

It states that the recipe is great for getting smells off your hands in the kitchen and is named the Kitchen Coffee Spice Bar. Thoughts on using ground cinnamon, ginger and cloves? TIA.

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Haven

That's a really cleansing soap, maybe too cleansing for someone with sensitive skin.

As far as the cinnamon, clove & ginger, they're awful for people with sensitive skin. I'd leave them out & stick with the coffee grounds. But for only 30 oz of oils, I'd only use about 1 to 1 1/2 TBSP of coffee grounds.
And the EO, I can't think of an eo off hand that I'd use 2 oz of in 30 oz of oils.

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Genny

Yeah, I wouldn't use 2 oz of eo's either. I was just repeating the recipe. I don't plan on making my batch that big either. Ok, I think I will just stick with the coffee grounds. Maybe half a TBSP for a 16 oz batch? What are your thoughts on using brewed chicory? I have a whole can of Cafe DuMonde that will not get drank (drunk, drunken, drinked????) that I thought I might use for my "triple-strength coffee".

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Haven

I think any strong coffee will work. If you have some coffee oil, you can add just a smidge at trace & it holds it's strong coffee scent. Or for a cheaper alternative, you could infuse some coffee grounds in your base oils. I've done that & the coffee smell really comes through.

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Genny

I don't have coffee oil. I might try the infusion though. I was contemplating a blend of Sandalwood and Vanilla FO's. I don't use EO's a bunch and so I don't have a very good stash and all the ones I have I can't imagine using in a coffee soap. Maybe I don't have a very good imagination but I can't picture coffee and lemongrass or coffee and rosemary. But if you say an infusion will aid in a coffee smell (love the smell of coffee!! But I am a coffee addict) then maybe I will just try that and not worry about scenting the batch. I don't have a lot of supplies to play with at the moment and the nearest ace hardware is not close to me at all even though I live in the city. I am not aware of any 100% lye crystals that are sold at Home Depot or Lowe's. This is going to be the last batch of soap I can make until I get more lye. So my point there is it needs to be well thought out before I waste ingredients on it and she hates it. And trust me, she and I have been best friends since 6th grade and we graduated in '96, she will tell me if she hates it. Genny, thanks for all your help.

Here is what I am thinking (this is sort of my basic recipe), would you infuse the coffee in the olive or avocado?
Olive 50%
Coconut 30%
Avocado 20%
10% superfat

I thought about adding 5% Jojoba (since I have a ton of it) but I just don't think you get the benefits of jojoba in a bar of soap. It's better in creams and such.

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Haven

Sounds good have fun!

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

If you're looking to make a soap that gets rid of kitchen odors, why not just use you regular recipe and sub strong brewed coffee for the liquid? That's what I do and it works fine. I add coffee grounds for scrubby-ness. I agree with everyone else about not adding the spices.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

For someone with sensitive skin -- especially if it's *very* sensitive -- I'd steer clear of the palm and coconut entirely, and go with olive as the only base oil. Palm and coconut are very cleansing, which is good for removing smells, but they are also drying in large percentages of a recipe (large = more than 15-20%). She's probably better off using regular soap, then a lemon juice or vinegar rubbed in for a minute, then a really good lotion/moisturizer.

Her skin isn't super sensitive. It's like mine. She does use my other soaps that have 30% coconut and even my other soap that is 70% coconut. I superfat at least 8% with my base recipe and 20% on the coconut soap. Very dry weather here in Texas and super hard water. She hasn't had any troubles. I was mostly concerned with the ground spices. I don't think I would use a soap with them in there because I wouldn't want my hands to be hurtin'. I am going to use my base recipe except replace the water with coffee and add coffee grounds. This is the first time I have replaced water with another liquid in a soap so I am a little excited about that. I am pretty sure I have read that when coffee reacts with lye, it stinks like a toxic waste dump for a time period but then that goes away. I don't really remember and I tried searching the forum yesterday for that tidbit of info but couldn't find it. Any advice on that would be appreciated. But I do appreciate all of the advice already given.

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Haven

Yes, using coffee in place of water does stink, but it goes away pretty quickly...thank goodness!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Yep the coffee stinks, so have a window open. Lol But as Linda said, it goes away pretty fast. I use coffee for the entire liquid in my kitchen & garden soap, and I add the coffee grounds from the pot I made for the soap. Just remember to use damp/wet grounds and to use distilled water to make the coffee you are using in your soap.
Have fun!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate everyone's input.

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Haven

I keep coconut oil to 25% or less except in my gardening soaps where it's at 33%. I live in Vegas, which is as dry with as hard or harder water than Texas. Everyone loves the soap.

Do not bother with the spices -- they will probably disappear anyway, at least that is my experience. Be careful how much you use of the coffee grounds unless you are wanting an exfoliating soap, but I would seriously consider infusing the oil with them. The way I've done that is to measure my liquid oil into a pitcher, dumped in the coffee grounds, covered it and just let it sit over night the night before soapmaking day. Then weigh your pot, strain the oil into it, and add more oil as needed to come up to your required amount (there's loss of left over in the bowl).

Have fun! I've never superfatted over 7%. How does it come out? Do you ever get oil pockets or sweating? I'd love to hear.

Jill

I have only had sweating one time and it was during the fall. That was a superfat at 5%. I havent had any oil pockets either. It does stay softer for a bit longer. I also have a 2.3:1 water to lye ratio.

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Haven