I love to cook. Something about the chopping and sizzling is almost therapeutic to me. What I don’t love is the lingering garlic smell on my hands that no matter what I do (other than sacrifice a lemon for its juice – what a waste of a lemon!), just won’t go away. It’s an annoying problem, especially now that I’m a mompreneur and SAHM because I tend to have a lot of meetings in the evenings and do my work at night.  This leaves me with garlicky hands when I go on business meetings (or GNOs) or when I go work with the beautiful fabrics that I get to play with for the shop.  Not good.

And then I found a solution that seemed to float down from heaven on a cloud – it was that perfect. I came across coffee soap, and saw that it was sometimes labeled as ‘kitchen soap’ because it helps eliminate those smells from your skin.

Well, considering how how big a DIYer I am, I decided that while I may not be a soap-maker, I can certainly make a scrub with the copious amounts of coffee grounds that we go through in our house. And it couldn’t be simpler.

Ingredients:
used coffee grounds (seriously – used coffee grounds. Instead of emptying my used coffee grounds into the trash, I put them in a plastic container)
coconut oil

Method:
1. Place coffee grounds in a container.
2. Add about half the amount of coconut oil as you have coffee grounds. I started with 1/2 of espresso grounds an a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil.
3. Mix well. Add coconut oil or coffee to get the consistency you like. I like mine to be like gritty cookie dough, so heavy on the coffee and easy on the oil.
4. Store in a closed container near your kitchen sink.

That’s it. It’s that simple and it works. It gets rid of smells and exfoliates your hands too! I just put a little bit (about a quarter-size amount) in my hands and ‘wash’ them. I then follow up with soap to get the oil off. And to all my mamas out there – you know how getting diaper cream off your hands is nearly impossible? This works for that as well.

I’ve found that I can add more coffee to it and it magically still stays together.

I love that I’m using something that would normally go in the trash – getting just a little more use out of what we have. I like that I don’t waste coffee – I’ve already enjoyed my espresso, and I’m simply using up the by-product.

And the super bonus for you evil wevils out there is that it looks like Oreo truffles. Oh the pranks I could pull!