# Gardener's soap



## Failte Gate Farm (Sep 20, 2011)

I want to make a gardener's soap with coffee grounds using Aroma Haven's Dragon's Blood. If I'm using the wal mart recipe of 7.5 lbs of soap, how much coffee would you use? Can I use fresh coffee out of the can, or is it better to use coffee grounds? Also, for later batches, I'm thinking about making a coarser soap by grinding coffee beans a little less. Any thoughts on that?


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I use coffee grounds at a rate of 1 tbsp ppo. It is plenty scrubby. I also use slightly ground steel cut oats, as well.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I think you should just use the grounds completely ground. It will be plenty scrubby. You don't want it to take their skin off, yanno? I had a customer once want licorice (anise) soap. She had someone else make it for her in the past and they put whole anise seeds in it and rather than being scrubbier, it just made gouges in her legs in the shower. Not good. If you decide to try it, just make a small batch with it like that and try it yourself first, to see.


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## jdranch (Jan 31, 2010)

coffee grounds are really really scrubby- I love scrub and grounds almost hurt.


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## Lynn_Theesfeld (Feb 21, 2010)

In our workers bar we use the coffee grounds reground. 
Decided to do that after our first attempt at making the soap for my BIL he's a rough tough ******* mechanic, but the grounds were a little to scrubby. So we just stick them in the grinder once more.
I would do as suggested and make a small batch to start with and get feedback from there. That's what we do with a lot of our soaps.

Lynn


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## Halo-M Nubians (Oct 26, 2007)

Less is more. I'm going to say start with 1/8-1/4 cup and see how it looks when you mix it in. I never measure I'm afraid, I just like the raw soap to look heavily speckled. I buy the cheapest off brand coffee and add is straight out of the can. It is VERY scubby..I would be afraid beans not ground enough would have sharp edges. For a really heavy exfoliation for hands and feet I have ground carbon in the coffee maker..it looks like the finest powder and floats everywhere but it is even rougher than coffee grounds it also turns the soap black but I love it. Cornmeal is nice too and softer than the coffee. We do a bar every Christmas for family gifts that we call LUMBERJACK ZACK (my hubby's name) we grind up fir needles in the coffee grinder..is is peppermint and Fir needle FO...everybody loves it and beg me to make it all year =) which reminds me I need to get on that asap =)


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Ooh, that sounds yummy! We use corn meal and poppy seeds in our kitchen soap, and our "Tough Guy" has cornmeal, pumice, luffa, ground rose hips, and poppy seeds, IIRC. And I use ground vanilla bean in a bunch of things, and ground luffa in some stuff.


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## tlcnubians (Jan 21, 2011)

We use ground luffa in our gardener's bar along with Fuller's Earth which is a type of clay. We also make an exfoliating bath bar that has jojoba beads in it which is really wonderful. Caroline


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## Failte Gate Farm (Sep 20, 2011)

The soap turned out well - a bit heavy on the coffee grounds. I used almost 1 cup for a 7.5 lb batch. I've started using a bar by the sink and I really like it. It's scrubby. I don't think I'd use it in the shower, but it's great for the kitchen sink.


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## LynninTX (Oct 25, 2007)

We make a kitchen soap with 1T used coffee grounds ppo.... and it is not abrasive... scrubby, but not bothersome. We make it though with coffee & goats milk as the liquid, then the coffee grounds, and coffee FO... great kitchen soap and we have some welders who like it. 

Our garden soap is lemon & lime EO... with cornmeal...


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

You really need to get customer reaction to scubbies. Like Caroline Jajoba beads are wonderful, dead sea mud, kaolin clay, ground oats added at the end so they aren't ground to fine by your stick blender...but what I can tollerate on my working hands is not what most can....goat folks aren't our customer base. Men love my loofa foot scrubbies for their hands and ground loofa works excellent.


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## LynninTX (Oct 25, 2007)

:nod True Vicki... 

I know though I was shocked that 1 customer uses our coffee soap in the shower... but then so does my 9yo... LOL It takes off the buck odor well...

guessing though marketing it as a gardeners soap... their hands might tolerate it well. 

I think the cornmeal is too abrasive for more than hands, but several ladies use it on their feet or the backs of their arms... they swear it helps those little bumps. {{shrug}}


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