Making handmade soap is easier than you may think! Whether you want to treat yourself and your skin with a delicate scented soap or you want to surprise your friends and family with handmade Christmas gifts this year, these Coffee Oatmeal soaps will be a fun project to do, even if you’re not crafty at all!
Perfect Christmas gift for friends and family
Every year that I go back to Italy for Christmas, I like to bring handmade gifts to friends and family. One time I brought my pumpkin jam, while last year I decided to get crafty.
After browsing thousands of photos on Pinterest, I narrowed it down to 2 options: candles or soaps. I’ve made candles before but I’ve never made soaps. So I had to choose between doing something I knew how to do and something completely new to me. Of course I chose the second option! Learning something new is one of the things I would hardly say no to. There’s something incredibly attractive in the uncovering the mystery of a new skill.
One of the things I love doing sometimes is wondering inside a craft supply store looking for ideas and inspiration (that’s how my craft corner is slowly taking over the whole room). I was in the soaps section to buy my supplies and I could only choose between clear and white glycerine soap base. I went for the clear one and as a first test I did these Orange Zest Lemon Soap bars. Now I knew how it worked and I was confident in the process. It was time to start creating my own unique soaps!
I bought more supplies on Amazon where I could have more choices and I was good to go! See the end of this post for the supplies I’ve got. In the end I made 3 different types of soaps to give as gifts last Christmas: Peppermint, Lemon Poppy seeds and Coffee.
Coffee and Oatmeal Scrub Soap
The soap bases I bought on Amazon were mostly based on goat milk because I liked the idea of a creamy soap instead of pure glycerine. The base I used for this soap, instead, was based on Shea butter and oatmeal. See below the recipe the links to buy these soap bases.
Shea butter is a skin superfood that comes from the seeds of the fruit of the Shea (Karite) tree and that is naturally rich in vitamins A, E and F. It offers UV protection (it is SPF ~6) and provides the skin with essential fatty acids and the nutrients necessary for collagen production. Read more about Shea Butter here.
In the soap base I bought, the ground oats were already mixed with the Shea butter soap. But you can also buy a plain soap base and add 1-2 tbsp of ground oats yourself!
I know it may sound weird to have a soap smell like coffee because you immediately link it to the beverage, but you may not know that coffee is ideal for removing odours. Have you ever noticed in some perfumes shops they have little jars of coffee beans? Those are not for decoration. A sniff of coffee will remove all the perfumes from your nose, giving you a clean slate to try more.
So you should keep one of this soaps in your kitchen to remove all that persistent garlic and onion smell from your hands and also moisturize your skin, which is always good.
Moreover, the coffee grounds in the soap bar will scrub off all the dead skin from your hands, leaving you with clean and soft hands.
How to make these easy Melt & Pour Soap Bars
Coffee and Oatmeal Scrub Soap
Ingredients
- 1 lb Shea butter & Oatmeal Soap Base
- 2 tbsp fresh ground Coffee
- 1/4 tsp Vitamin E Oil
- a pinch Vanilla Powder
- Coffee Beans whole
Instructions
- Chop the soap base in large cubes and melt it in a pan with low heat. It will take about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and keep mixing with a spatula otherwise it will start to cool and dry on the surface.
- Add the ground coffee, vanilla powder and vitamin E oil. Mix well.
- Drop a few coffee beans in the silicon molds, then slowly pour the melted soap on top.
- Carefully tap the molds on the table to remove air bubbles, then add some more coffee beans on the surface as well.
- Let cool and solidify at room temperature for about 1 hour.
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