Not sure what to do with your coffee or tea scraps? Easy, turn them into a gently exfoliating soap! Read on to discover this exfoliating soap recipe reusing coffee grounds.
If you are not a coffee drinker, you can also use tea grounds.
Interested in Soap Making?
DIY Exfoliating Coffee Soap Recipe
As always, let’s start by making sure we are all geared up safely. Put on your goggles, gloves, and wear comfortable clothes with long sleeves and pants.
Ingredients
As the soap will be exfoliating, we need to use a high quantity of olive oil to ensure the soap is very moisturising. We will also use sunflower oil to add silkiness to the lather.
The coconut oil will make the soap bubbly and the cocoa butter create a hard and creamy soap. Then we will reuse coffee or tea grounds to make it exfoliating.
How to Make Exfoliating Soap Reusing Coffee Grounds
1. For the first step we will prepare our lye solution using a stainless steel saucepan or a heat safe pyrex glass container. Remember, always add the lye to the water and never the opposite!
Please make sure you are geared up safely. Even if you wear glasses, please also wear safety googles and a mask.
2. After the solution has heated up, we need to wait for it to cool down to about 110 F-43 C. Make sure to cover it with a cloth and leave it in a safe area far from pet and children.
3. While we wait for the solution to cool down, we can prepare our oils and additives. We will weigh all the oils we need in one stainless steel saucepan and melt them on the stove at low heat.
4. Then, add one teaspoon of the used ground coffee: make sure it's dry, and add one teaspoon of essential oils.
5. Once the oils and the lye have reached similar temperature (around 43 C-110 F), and they are roughly 10 degrees apart, you can add the lye to the oils.
6. Then use a stick blender to blend the mixture until you reach a light trace. This is when the soap leaves a faint trail when dripped over the soap batter.
7. At this stage, we can also incorporate our essential oils and coffee mix. Add it to the saucepan and mix well with a spatula until well incorporated.
8. Stick blend for a few more seconds to reach a slightly thicker trace and then pour the mixture into your chosen moulds.
9. Leave the soap to harden in the mould for about 24 hours. Once hard, gently remove it from the mould and leave to cure, allowing any leftover lye to evaporate from the soap, for at least 4 weeks (better if 6!).
Your exfoliating coffee soap is now ready to use! I always love when a recipe uses leftover food waste. Let me know if you try it by tagging me on Instagram @bottegazerowaste.