Coffee and Shea Butter Soap

Last updated: October 2026

How to make coffee and shea butter soap

Wear gloves and eye protection, then stir the sodium hydroxide into the distilled water (never the reverse) and let it cool. Melt the shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil, and when both are around 100–120°F (38–49°C), pour the lye solution into the oils and blend to trace. Stir in the dried coffee grounds and coffee essential oil, pour into a mould, let it set for 24–48 hours, then cut the bars and cure them for 4–6 weeks before use. This recipe is built on Baraka's unrefined shea butter, made by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana. More in Directions

Some mornings call for more than just coffee in your cup — this soap brings the same energizing character into your shower routine. Combining finely ground coffee with shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil, this traditional cold-process soap follows the fundamentals covered in this simple shea butter soap guide, with coffee grounds folded in for gentle texture. Compared to commercial exfoliating bars, which use a range of scrubbing materials, this soap gets its texture from real coffee grounds, and keeps all of its natural glycerin, so it feels gentle on skin.

It rewards a little patience — the batter comes together quickly, but the real transformation happens during the weeks of cure that follow. This project suits anyone who has made cold-process soap at least once before.

If this is your first cold-process batch, start with Baraka's guide How to Make Shea Butter Soap, which walks through the basic method this recipe builds on. For more shea-based formulations, from balms to body butters, see the Definitive Guide to DIY with Shea Butter.

In This Recipe:

• What is coffee and shea butter soap good for?
• What This Recipe Is For
• Why Make This Yourself
• Why These Ingredients Work Together
• Ingredient by Ingredient
• Coffee and shea butter soap recipe: ingredients, lye and method
• Before You Begin: Soap-Making Safety
• Ingredients
• Directions
• Troubleshooting
• Storage and Shelf Life
• Scaling and Substitutions
• Customisation Ideas
• Essential Oils
• Application Tips
• What We Know and How We Know It
• FAQ
• The Impact of Your Purchase
• Shop the Baraka Ingredients in This Recipe
• Try These Next
• About These Ingredients
• Disclaimer
• About the Author

What is coffee and shea butter soap good for?

It is an everyday cleansing bar for hands, face or body, with a rich, gentle lather and a roasted, energizing coffee scent. The coffee grounds add a gentle texture as you lather, and the shea butter gives a creamy, conditioning bar. Once fully cured, it also makes a good hand-made gift. Baraka's unrefined shea butter, the conditioning base of this bar, is made by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana. More in What This Recipe Is For

What This Recipe Is For

Five everyday uses. This bar is made for daily washing, with a little scrub built in.

• Everyday cleansing with a rich, gentle lather
• A refreshing, energizing scent to start the morning
• Gentle texture from real coffee grounds during use
• Replacing synthetic detergent bars with a traditional, hand-made alternative
• Giving as a hand-made gift once fully cured

Why Make This Yourself

Intermediate, about 4 lb (1,814 g), 8–10 bars. There's something satisfying about watching a liquid oil-and-lye mixture transform into a textured, coffee-flecked bar over the course of a few weeks. Store-bought exfoliating soaps use a range of scrubbing materials; this one uses real coffee grounds and keeps its natural glycerin content intact. It's ideal for anyone who enjoys hands-on projects and wants full control over what goes into their soap.

Skill Level: Intermediate — the process is forgiving in terms of scent and mould choice, but precision matters for the lye and water measurements. This recipe yields about 4 lb (1,814 g) of soap by weight, which typically cuts into 8–10 bars. Prep and make time is about 45 minutes, plus 24–48 hours in the mould and 4–6 weeks of cure.

A handmade cold-process bar and a typical commercial bar differ mainly in composition: in cold-process soap the glycerin formed during saponification stays in the bar, and you choose every oil and additive yourself. If you want a bar that is ready the same day, a commercial soap is the practical choice; if you enjoy the process and want to know exactly what is in your soap, this recipe rewards the wait.

Why These Ingredients Work Together

Conditioning, lather and scrub in one bar. This bar balances conditioning oils with cleansing and lathering ones, finished with texture from coffee.

Shea Butter contributes deep conditioning and a smooth, creamy bar texture. Coconut Oil is the primary cleansing and lathering oil, producing big, bubbly suds. Olive Oil softens the bar's feel and supports mildness, while Castor Oil boosts and stabilizes the lather that coconut oil starts.

Dried Coffee Grounds and Coffee Essential Oil finish the bar with gentle texture and an energizing, roasted aroma. The two hard ingredients, shea butter and coconut oil, make up two thirds of the oils, which is what lets the bar set firm enough to cut while the olive and castor oils keep it mild and lathering.

Ingredient by Ingredient

Six ingredients, each with a job. Here is what each one does in this bar.

• Shea Butter: Deeply conditioning, it helps keep the finished bar from feeling drying even with cleansing oils in the mix. Baraka's shea butter is unrefined, strained and filtered only, and traditionally used on dry skin, lips, hands, feet and hair; it is the ingredient this bar is built on, so it is the one worth choosing with care.
• Traditional Coconut Oil: Drives the rich, bubbly lather this soap is known for. Lightweight and versatile, it softens skin and supports gentle cleansing, adds slip and glide to balms, soaps and body products, and in soapmaking contributes hardness and abundant lather.
• Olive Oil: A gentle, mild oil that supports the bar's overall skin-comfort feel.
• Castor Oil: Stabilizes and enhances lather, helping bubbles last longer in use.
• Dried Coffee Grounds: Gentle Exfoliation: Coffee grounds provide gentle texture, leaving skin feeling smooth after use. Use grounds that have already been brewed and then dried, because fresh grounds can bleed brown streaks into the bar.
• Coffee Essential Oil: Gives the bar its roasted, energizing coffee aroma.

Coffee and shea butter soap recipe: ingredients, lye and method

Melt 1 lb (454 g) shea butter, 1 lb (454 g) coconut oil, 8 oz (227 g) olive oil and 8 oz (227 g) castor oil. Pour in a cooled lye solution (6.7 oz (191 g) sodium hydroxide dissolved in 13.5 oz (382 g) distilled water) when both are around 100–120°F (38–49°C), and blend to trace. Stir in 1/4 cup (60 ml) dried coffee grounds and 1 tbsp (15 ml) coffee essential oil, pour into a mould, let it set for 24–48 hours, cut, and cure the bars for 4–6 weeks. Wear gloves and eye protection when handling lye, and if you change any oil, re-run the amounts through a soap calculator first. More in Directions

Before You Begin: Soap-Making Safety

• Wear protective gloves and eye protection whenever you handle lye.
• Work in a well-ventilated area — open a window or work near an extractor fan.
• Always add lye to water, never water to lye.
• Keep lye, raw soap batter, and curing soap well out of reach of children and pets.
• This is an adults-only project from start to finish.

Ingredients

Makes about 4 lb (1,814 g), 8–10 bars. Weigh every oil, the lye and the water on a digital scale.

• Shea Butter — 1 lb (454 g)
• Traditional Coconut Oil — 1 lb (454 g)
• Olive oil — 8 oz (227 g)
• Castor oil — 8 oz (227 g)
• Sodium hydroxide (lye) — 6.7 oz (191 g)
• Distilled water — 13.5 oz (382 g)
• Used coffee grounds, dried and finely ground — 1/4 cup (60 ml)
• Coffee essential oil — 1 tbsp (15 ml)

How the lye is calculated

The lye comes from the oils by weight, using each oil's sodium hydroxide value, then about 5% is taken off as superfat so a little oil stays unsaponified in the bar. The water is twice the lye.

Oil	Weight	Lye per unit of oil	Lye needed
Shea butter	1 lb (454 g)	0.128	2.0 oz (58 g)
Traditional coconut oil	1 lb (454 g)	0.183	2.9 oz (83 g)
Olive oil	8 oz (227 g)	0.135	1.1 oz (31 g)
Castor oil	8 oz (227 g)	0.128	1.0 oz (29 g)
Total before superfat	3 lb (1,362 g)		7.1 oz (201 g)
After 5% superfat			6.7 oz (191 g)
Water (twice the lye)			13.5 oz (382 g)

Note: these lye and water amounts are calculated for this exact oil combination and weights. Check them in a lye calculator before you make the batch. If you change any oil or its amount, always re-run the recipe through a soap calculator before making it — see the calculator links in Customisation Ideas. For each oil's sodium hydroxide value and how superfat works, see Baraka's saponification value chart and soap-making guide.

Directions

1. Put on gloves and eye protection before handling lye.
2. In a heat-resistant container, slowly add the sodium hydroxide to the distilled water (never the reverse), stirring until fully dissolved. The mixture will heat up — set it aside in a ventilated area to cool.
3. Melt the shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil together gently until fully liquid.
4. Once the lye solution and the oils are both around 100–120°F (38–49°C), slowly pour the lye solution into the oils, stirring continuously.
5. Use a stick blender in short bursts, alternating with hand stirring, until the mixture reaches trace — it will thicken and leave a visible trail when you drizzle it across the surface.
6. Add the dried coffee grounds and coffee essential oil, stirring until evenly distributed.
7. Pour the mixture into a soap mould, tap gently to release air bubbles, and cover.
8. Let the soap set in the mould for 24–48 hours before unmoulding.
9. Cut into bars once firm enough to handle, then set the bars on their sides in a well-ventilated space to cure for 4–6 weeks before use.

Troubleshooting

Most problems show up in the first 48 hours. Here are the ones that come up most with this bar, with the usual cause and the fix.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Batter thickens too fast to pour	Soaping at the hot end of the range, or the essential oil speeding up trace	Work nearer 100°F (38°C), blend in short bursts, and stir the coffee and essential oil in by hand at light trace
Coffee grounds sink to the bottom or clump	Grounds added while the batter is still thin, or tipped in all at once	Wait for a light-to-medium trace, mix the grounds into a cup of batter first, then stir that back in
Brown streaks or a muddy colour	Fresh, unbrewed grounds releasing colour into the bar	Use grounds that have already been brewed, then spread them out to dry completely
Dark specks or fuzzy spots during cure	Grounds that were still damp when added	Dry the grounds fully before use; discard any bar that shows mould
White powdery film on top	Soda ash, a harmless reaction between fresh soap and air	Cover the mould for the first day; once cured, plane or wash the film off
Bar still soft after 48 hours	A cool room, or the soft olive and castor oils slowing the set	Leave it in the mould another day or two somewhere warm before cutting
Hard white lumps or pockets inside a bar	Lye that did not fully dissolve or mix in	Do not use those bars; next time stir the lye solution until clear and blend to a full, even trace

Storage and Shelf Life

Cure 4–6 weeks, then keep 12–18 months. Keep fully cured bars in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight — a drawer or shelf with airflow works well. Cure time is 4–6 weeks; do not use the soap before curing is complete, as it needs this time to fully harden and mellow. Once cured, bars typically keep well for 12–18 months.

Between uses, store on a well-draining soap dish to extend the life of each bar. The liquid oils in the bar can slowly oxidise in warmth and light, which shows as small orange spots, so a cool, dark place keeps bars at their best. Unused shea butter keeps 2+ years when stored properly, away from heat and direct sun.

Scaling and Substitutions

Halve it by weight, and recalculate any swap. A half batch makes about 2 lb (907 g), or 4–5 bars. The lye below is worked out from the half-batch oils with the same values and 5% superfat, not simply halved by eye.

• Shea butter — 8 oz (227 g)
• Traditional coconut oil — 8 oz (227 g)
• Olive oil — 4 oz (113 g)
• Castor oil — 4 oz (113 g)
• Sodium hydroxide (lye) — 3.4 oz (95 g)
• Distilled water — 6.7 oz (190 g)
• Dried coffee grounds — 2 tbsp (30 ml)
• Coffee essential oil — 1/2 tbsp (7.5 ml)

For other batch sizes, multiply every oil by the same factor and run the new weights through a soap calculator before you start. Any change of oil changes the lye.

Sunflower oil can replace the olive oil at the same weight: its saponification value (how much lye is needed to turn it into soap) is close enough that the lye stays at 6.7 oz (191 g) and the water at 13.5 oz (382 g) for the full batch. Swapping any other oil, or changing the shea butter or coconut oil amounts, means recalculating the lye first. If you have no coffee essential oil, leave it out; the bar works unscented.

Customisation Ideas

• Adjust the grind using finer grounds for a smoother feel, or coarser grounds for more texture.
• Add texture with a tablespoon of ground oats alongside the coffee for extra gentle exfoliation.
• Adjust the mould to individual bar moulds instead of a loaf mould for a different shape.
• Always recalculate lye and water amounts with a soap calculator (see links below) before changing any oil or its weight.
• Add natural colour with a pinch of cocoa powder for a deeper, richer tone.
• Deepen the colour by stirring a teaspoon of instant coffee into a little of the batter before adding it back; instant coffee dissolves, so it colours the bar without adding scrub.

Popular soap calculators (external links, always re-run before adjusting oils): SoapCalc.net, HSCG Lye Calculator, LyeCalc.com.

Essential Oils

1 tbsp (15 ml) in total for this batch. The recipe uses 1 tbsp (15 ml) of coffee essential oil for 3 lb (1,362 g) of oils, well inside the limit of 1 tbsp (15 ml) of essential oil in total per 16 oz (454 g) of oils, which for this batch would allow up to 3 tbsp (45 ml) across every essential oil combined.

Sweet orange or peppermint can stand in for the coffee essential oil at the same amount, or alongside it as long as the total stays within that limit. The bar also works unscented: the coffee grounds give it its look and texture whether or not you add a scent.

Application Tips

Lather, rinse, let it dry. Use like any bar soap for hands, face, or body — lather with warm water and rinse well. A soap dish with drainage will help the bar last longer between uses.

The coffee grounds add a gentle texture as you lather, so no need to scrub aggressively. Store the bar dry between uses for the longest life.

What We Know and How We Know It

The formulation, the lye calculation, the working temperatures, the cure time, the shelf life of the finished bars and the troubleshooting all come from common practice in the home soap-making community, with the lye worked out from the sodium hydroxide values in Baraka's recipe standard. The use of used, dried coffee grounds for texture and instant coffee for colour is also common soap-making practice. The traditional uses of shea butter come from traditional use, not from clinical research. The facts about Baraka's shea butter come from Baraka's own product documentation.

FAQ

What's a good DIY soap recipe with coffee?

A shea butter-based cold-process soap with dried coffee grounds and coffee essential oil works well, adding gentle texture and an energizing scent to a traditional soap base. The best coffee soaps balance hard oils that let the bar set, such as shea butter and coconut oil, with softer oils such as olive and castor for mildness and lather. Keep the grounds to a modest amount, about 1/4 cup (60 ml) for this 3 lb (1,362 g) batch of oils, so the bar scrubs gently rather than scratches, and always calculate the lye from your own oils.

Can I use coffee grounds in soap?

Yes — finely ground coffee is commonly used in cold-process soap to add gentle texture and a warm, roasted look to the finished bar. Use grounds left over from brewing, spread out and dried completely, because fresh grounds can bleed colour and damp grounds can spot during cure. Stir them in at a light-to-medium trace so they stay suspended instead of sinking. The grounds themselves add little scent once the soap has cured, which is why this recipe adds coffee essential oil for aroma, while instant coffee dissolves, so it colours a bar without adding any scrub.

How long does homemade soap need to cure?

Cold-process soap like this typically needs 4–6 weeks to cure fully. Curing lets excess water evaporate and allows the bar to harden, so don't use it before this time is up. The reaction between the lye and the oils is largely finished within the first day or two in the mould, but a freshly cut bar is still soft and wears away quickly. Over the following weeks it loses water and firms up; stand the bars on their sides with space between them in a dry, airy room, and turn them once a week so every face dries evenly.

The Impact of Your Purchase

When you make skincare with Baraka ingredients, you are buying from women's cooperatives that earn fair wages and keep traditional processing methods alive. Baraka's 2025 Social and Environmental Impact Report records income opportunities for more than 3,000 women in northern Ghana, over $100,000 invested in women's enterprise infrastructure, and equipment and fuel recovery that have cut the carbon impact of shea processing by up to 90%. At the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region, Baraka's shea butter is made by hand, and the waste left over from making it is dried into fuel blocks that fire the next batch. Baraka also offsets 100% of the carbon cost of shipping to customers. You get full transparency about what touches your skin and your family's skin, and about where it came from.

To see how the shea butter in this bar is made by hand, read Baraka's guide How is Handcrafted Shea Butter Made?, and for the full figures see Baraka's Social and Environmental Impact Report.

Meet one of the women behind these ingredients in this short film: Shea Butter Producer Zenabo Imoro.

Shop the Baraka Ingredients in This Recipe

Natural, ethically sourced ingredients, used throughout Baraka's DIY guides and recipes.

Shea Butter — Shop Shea Butter — Unrefined shea butter, strained and filtered only, made by hand by women's producer groups at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Ghana, gives this bar its creamy, conditioning feel and is a versatile base for balms, creams, and body butters.

Traditional Coconut Oil — Shop Traditional Coconut Oil — Absorbs quickly, and in soapmaking contributes hardness and abundant lather, which is why it is the main lathering oil in this bar.

Browse more: Butters, Oils and the DIY Starter collection.

Try These Next

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like:

• Shea Butter and Turmeric Soap — another shea-based cold-process bar where a kitchen ingredient sets the colour.
• Shea Butter and Goats Milk Soap — a creamier bar for when you want richness rather than scrub.
• Honey and Shea Butter Soap — a warm, mellow bar that pairs naturally with coffee's roasted character.
• Creamy Cow Milk and Shea Butter Soap — a smooth, gentle bar if you would rather skip the texture.
• Shea Butter and Aloe Vera Soap — a lighter, fresher shea soap to make alongside this one.
• Oatmeal and Shea Butter Soap — another gently textured shea soap, this one mild and oaty rather than energizing.
• Citrus Shea Butter Soap — a brighter, more zesty scent profile if coffee's warmth isn't what you're after.
• Charcoal and Shea Butter Soap — another deeper-toned soap with a different kind of clarifying character.
• Rose and Shea Butter Soap — a floral alternative scent direction using the same shea-based soap fundamentals.
• Peppermint and Shea Butter Soap — a fresh, minty variation for a different kind of invigorating scent.

About These Ingredients

This recipe is expanded from our comprehensive Definitive Guide to DIY with Shea Butter, which explores additional formulations, ingredient options, and variations. Visit the full guide for more approaches to shea-based DIY skincare.

Disclaimer

The information in this article is for general education. It reflects traditional use, reported experience and, where noted, published research. It has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or Health Canada. Baraka products are cosmetics and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or medical condition. Always patch test a new ingredient, keep products away from the eyes and out of reach of children, and speak to a qualified healthcare provider about any skin or health condition. If you add essential oils, use no more than the amount given, and leave them out for young children, during pregnancy and on sensitive skin. Individual results vary.

About the Author

Wayne Dunn is the founder of Baraka Impact and a former Professor of Practice in Sustainability at McGill University. He holds an M.Sc. in Management from Stanford and has spent over 15 years working directly with the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region to source traditionally made shea butter and natural oils. He shares DIY skincare recipes and ingredient guides designed to be made at home with real ingredients — and sourced with full transparency about where they come from.