Kay This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase using them. This is at no extra cost to you but helps support this blog.
Everyone loves a homemade gift. This Christmas, give the gift of cocoa by making your own DIY Coffee Cocoa Lotion Bars! Below, you’ll find the steps for a quick and easy recipe with just a few ingredients. Before we jump to the recipe, let’s consider why to include coffee in skincare.
Why Include Coffee In Lotion Bars
Applying coffee to your skin offers numerous benefits.
- Antioxidants in coffee can help calm the skin but also fight free radicals that can damage the skin.
- Coffee is also a good source of chlorogenic acid and melanoidins linked to reducing inflammation. The anti-inflammatory benefits of coffee can also be utilised to make a soothing after-sun treatment that your sun-kissed skin will love.
- Coffee is also said to improve the appearance of cellulite by improving overall blood flow. If you’d like to learn how to prepare homemade body scrub bars with coffee, check out DIY Coffee Body Butter Scrub Bars.
- Consider massaging coffee body scrub to your skin if you struggle with body acne. Antibacterial and anti-inflamatory properties in chlorogenic acid may help fight acne.
- Coffee is also excellent for improving skin tone. Caffeic acid, an antioxidant found in coffee, may reduce signs of ageing.
Now that we covered the benefits of applying coffee to your DIY beauty products let’s look at how to add coffee to lotion bars.
How to Add Coffee To Lotion Bars
The easiest way to enrich your DIY lotion bars with coffee is by infusing melted cocoa butter or oil of your choice with ground coffee. It doesn’t take long, and the smell of freshly ground coffee beans wafting through the kitchen is heavenly.
When deciding what coffee to use, pick high-quality, freshly ground beans. They may be more effective than instant coffee. However, instant coffee will do if you don’t have ground coffee beans at home!
If you grind your coffee, keep a few beans on the side. You can add them to your lotion bars to create gorgeous all-natural coffee massage bars. Perfect for a DIY spa night!
What You’ll Need to Prepare Coffee Cocoa Lotion Bars
I have decided to keep this recipe simple and use only the following four ingredients.
Cocoa Butter: Prised for its moisturising effect, applying cocoa butter to the skin helps to keep it soft, smooth and moisturised. In addition, cocoa butter gives lotion bars a firm texture.
Mango butter is a natural emollient that keeps the skin soft and moisturised without leaving a greasy feeling that often occurs with other emollients, such as shea butter.
Ground coffee offers many skin benefits and gives them a natural aroma, sure to make them more appealing.
Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant that prevents butter in lotion bars from going rancid. In addition, applying vitamin E to your skin may relieve dry, itchy, and inflamed skin.
Simple DIY Coffee Cocoa Lotion Bars Recipe
Simple DIY Coffee Cocoa Lotion Bars
Difficulty: Beginner Formulator100
grams5
minutes20
minutes25
minutesSoothing, fun and easy DIY lotion bars utilising the goodness of coffee. Perfect for giving as Christmas gifts.
Ingredients
- Phase A
80.00 g unrefined cocoa butter
16.00g mango butter
3.00g ground coffee
- Phase B
1.00g vitamin E
Directions
- Bring 2-3 cm of water to a simmer over low heat in a saucepan.
- Weigh the unrefined cocoa butter, mango butter, and ground coffee in a heat-resistant glass beaker and place it into the water bath to melt the ingredients.
- Line the mould with coffee beans and pour the mixture into the mould, allowing the bars to set overnight.
- When fully melted, remove the oil mixture from the water bath and stir gently for a few minutes, allowing the compounds within the coffee to release into the oil.
- Line heat-safe glass with cheesecloth or fine muslin and strain coffee-infused oil.
- Keep stirring until the mixture cools down to avoid graininess.
- Add vitamin E once the blend has cooled down to under 40°C.
- Continue stirring until you notice the trace building up.
- Pour the mix into the mould, allowing the bars to set overnight.
- Once firm, remove them from the mould, label and store them in an airtight glass jar.
How to Video
Shelf life and storage
- DIY Coffee Cocoa Lotion Bars should last between six months to a year. Keep them away from direct sunlight in a dry, cool room or a drawer to extend their shelf life. If they change colour, smell or texture, dispose of them and prepare a new batch.
Equipment
high-precision scale
glass beakers
spatulas
thermometer
silicone mould
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="substitutes">SubstitutesPlease remember that swapping the ingredients in the formula will alter the final product. Consider how the ingredient you switch will affect the final product’s texture and smell when making changes.
Cocoa butter is one ingredient you’d find problematic to swap. Its unique firm texture and low melting point make it one of a kind. This ingredient is a must when it comes to lotion bars.
Mango butter: As for the mango butter, soft butter like shea, kokum, and cupuacu make great substitutes.
Ground coffee: If you like to keep it super simple, you could use coffee fragrance oil instead of ground coffee and skip infusing part. Coffee fragrance oil is inexpensive and has a rich, long-lasting aroma you’ll love.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="faqs">FAQsShould I use refined or unrefined cocoa butter?
If you can, pick unrefined cocoa butter. Minimally processed cocoa butter retains many skin-beneficial compounds, such as antioxidants making it a premium skincare ingredient. You can learn more about the skin benefits of cocoa butter by reading Cocoa Butter: All About Skin, Hair and Health Benefits.
How do I package lotion bars?
You can package your lotion bars in glass jars or wrap them in a pretty beeswax wrap. Add a lovely ribbon and a gift tag, and your DIY Coffee Cocoa Lotion Bars are Christmas-ready.
