Gardener's Soap

Do you love gardening (or know someone who does)?  Do you have a lot of coffee grounds to compost each week (or know someone who does)? Then take those used coffee grounds into an amazing gift for yourself (or the other gardeners in your life) and turn them into Gardener's Soap.

This soap uses recycled coffee grounds as the "scrubber" element, leaving dirty hands, elbows and knees (yes, I am a very messy gardener) clean and soft.

You will need:
500g block of clear melt-n-pour soap base
3 - 4 used and dried coffee pods
A little isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle
Soap mould (I used an old block cake tin lined with clingwrap)
A 2 litre Pyrex (or other microwave safe) bowl

Step 1.  Prepare your soap mould. I used and old block cake tin that was lined with clingfilm. You could use silicone cake or cup cake moulds, they won't need lining.

Step 2.  Cut the block of soap base into 1cm cubes. Drop them into a Pyrex bowl.

Step 3. Microwave on Medium-High for 2 minutes. Stir. Microwave another 1 minute and remove from the microwave. Stir continuously until all the soap base has melted. I suggest taking the soap base out of the microwave before it has all melted so the temperature doesn't go above 50 degrees Celsius (if it goes over 50 degrees the soap can become cloudy).

Step 4. Drop the coffee grounds into the bowl and mix. Be sure to stir everything in thoroughly, so the grounds are evenly distributed throughout the mix.

Step 5. Pour into the prepared soap mould/s. Use a spatula to scrape every last drop of soap out of the Pyrex dish.

Step 6. Spritz the top of the soap with the rubbing alcohol. This removes the little bubbles that are on the surface and leaves the top of the soap with a nice sheen.

Step 7. Let the soap set overnight. The next day turn it out onto a chopping board, remove the clingwrap and cut into blocks.