How do you take your coffee? I like to take my favorite pick-me-up into the shower in a wonderfully exfoliating, rejuvenating coffee scrub soap! I just LOVE coffee soap!

So why use coffee in soap, anyway? Just a few of the benefits to using coffee in soap are:

  • Coffee is rich in antioxidants
  • Coffee can be soothing to sensitive or sunburned skin
  • Coffee grounds create a magnificent exfoliant

There are more claims to the benefits of coffee for your skin. Do a quick search and see what you find!

Check out these tips for adding coffee to your cold process soap! I’ll even add a few of my favorite coffee soap recipes for you to try.

I like to use ¼ teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of coffee grinds per pound of base oils. Just realize that the more you use, the more exfoliating your soap will be.

There are actually a few different ways you can incorporate coffee into your soap.

  • You can use brewed coffee in your lye solution. Simply replace your water with strong cold brewed coffee. You can choose not to add the grounds at all if you don’t want your soap to be exfoliating.
  • If you want coffee grounds as an exfoliant in your soap, you can simply toss some coffee into your lye solution. The hot lye solution will brew the coffee. Don’t strain and the grounds will be in your soap to exfoliate.
  • If you want to toss coffee into your lye solution but don’t want it to be exfoliating, you can use instant coffee.

  • You can also simply add coffee grounds into your base oils, or mix it into traced soap. Add 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon per pound of oils, depending on how scratchy you want it.

Some notes: Coffee + lye = stinky lye solution! Well, some say stinky…I LOVE the smell. It will go away in a few days.

Coffee grounds can be quite scratchy in soap. I like to run mine for a long time in the coffee grinder to get more of a powder. It will still be exfoliating in your soap.

If you top your soap with coffee beans, lay your soap on its side to cut so you don’t drag the coffee beans through the soap.

A few of my favorite coffee recipes, complete with the step-by-steps are Coffee & Heavy Whipping Cream Soap, Coffee Scrub Cold Process Soap, Simple Coffee Soap Recipe, and Layered Coffee & Cocoa Cold Process Soap. You can also check out this Facebook Live video where I made a Triple Butter Coffee Soap with Buttermilk Powder!

So, tell me, how will you take your coffee… soap?