When it comes to making soap with milk, you can use any kind of milk! Goat milk, camel milk, almond milk, hemp milk, buttermilk…any! For this soap I chose to use heavy whipping cream as my “milk”! I personally drink my coffee with heavy whipping cream because of the high content of fat so had plenty in the fridge.

If you’re new to making milk soap, I highly recommend checking out my eBook, Goat Milk Soapmaking! Even though goat milk is in the title, you can use any milk…even vegan milks.

heavy cream and coffee cold process soap

This recipe uses the Milk in Oil method of making milk soap. I go over that in detail in Goat Milk Soapmaking.

Let’s get started!

Using Coffee in Soap

There are a few different ways that you can use coffee in soap.

  1. You can use brewed coffee in your lye solution. Simply replace your water with strong cold brewed coffee.
  2. If you want coffee grounds as an exfoliant in your soap, you can simply toss some coffee into your lye solution and it will brew. Don’t strain and the grounds will be in your soap to exfoliate.
  3. You can also simply add coffee grounds to traced soap. Add 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon per pound of oils, depending on how scratchy you want it.
  4. If you want to toss coffee into your lye solution but don’t want it to be exfoliating, you can use instant coffee. I happened to have a Starbucks Via package in my kitchen, so that is what I used for this soap.

Coffee and Heavy Whipping Cream Soap Recipe

Base Oils
•Coconut Oil – 288 grams (32%)
•Olive Oil – 324 grams (36%)
•Avocado Oil – 108 grams (12%)
•Rice Bran Oil – 108 grams (12%)
•Shea Butter – 72 grams (8%)

Lye Solution
•Lye – 126 grams
•Water – 150 grams

Scent
•Patchouli Essential Oil – 10 grams
•Orange Essential Oil – 20 grams

Colorants & Additives
•Instant Coffee – 1 teaspoon
•Heavy Whipping Cream – 102 grams

Step 1: Create a lye solution. Weigh the water and lye into two separate containers. Slowly pour the sodium hydroxide into the water while stirring. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside to cool. Add 1 teaspoon of instant coffee and stir to dissolve. (NOTE: Coffee + lye = stinky lye solution! Well, some say stinky…I LOVE the smell. It will go away in a few days.)

Adding instant coffee to lye solution for coffee soap

Step 2: Prepare the base oils. First, weigh any solid oils and butters into a container and melt. You can melt using the microwave or low heat on a burner. Next, weigh each liquid oil (if any) into the melted oils.

Step 3: Prepare your molds if needed. I used a 10″ Silicone Loaf mold from Bramble Berry.

Step 4: Check the temperatures. You should now have a container containing liquid base oils and a container containing lye solution. Take the temperatures using an infra-red temperature gun. Be sure to stir each mixture before taking the temp. You want your temperatures to be between 80-100 degrees F.

Step 5: Weigh your essential oils into a glass or stainless steel container and add to your prepared base oils.

Step 6: Add your heavy whipping cream to prepared oils. It will bead up and stay separated. This is normal.

adding heavy whipping cream to coffee soap

Step 7: Pour your lye solution into prepared base oils/cream mixture and mix until trace. Since we aren’t adding any colorants or dividing to swirl, you can go ahead and mix to a thick trace. We’re going to add some texture to the top of this soap.

Step 8: Pour (or glop) your soap into your mold!

pour coffee soap into mold

Step 9: You can leave your soap as-is or you can texture the top. I wanted to create a high-peaked top. I allowed the soap to thicken a bit more and used a spatula to sweep the soap up into a peaky top. Simply scoop the soap from each side of the mold towards the center. Give the center a bit of swirl as well with your spatula.

creating a high peak on cold process soap
texture on cold process soap

I topped mine with coffee beans.

Coffee beans on cold process soap for decoration

Step 10: Allow your soap to saponify and harden for 24 hours. Unmold and cut! If you topped with coffee beans, lay your soap on it’s side to cut so you don’t drag the coffee beans through the soap.

Since I used instant coffee, which fully dissolves, this soap will not be exfoliating. If you want a coffee scrub soap, be sure to add coffee grounds.

coffee and heavy whipping cream cold process soap

Step 11: Cure for a minimum of 4-6 weeks.

coffee and heavy cream soap

For more milk soap recipes, be sure to check out Goat Milk Soapmaking!

Happy Soaping!

Amanda Aaron