(no subject)

[camwyn]

I did a good bit of cold brew coffee-making this past summer- still do it now, occasionally, more because I buy my coffee as whole beans and there are mornings when I just don't want to face the grinding AND the brewing before I've had my caffeine. Cold brew leaves you with a lot of grinds. I didn't want to just waste them, I don't have a garden to compost them in, and putting that much ground coffee down the drain isn't a great idea. So I tried a suggestion I read online of making a skin scrub from the grinds + brown sugar + coconut oil.

It definitely leaves the skin feeling smooth, and the coconut oil forms a nice soothing layer that the skin absorbs afterwards so you do feel soft, and the instructions I used said to use it two to three times a week at the very most so as not to irritate the skin with too much exfoliation. Totally understandable.

The downsides are that I still have the issue of coffee grinds down the drain, although admittedly it's in such small doses that it doesn't seem likely to be as much of an issue, and the fact that I'm still using all the grinds from a single batch of cold brew I made months ago and haven't gotten even a quarter of a way down the jar. Not an efficient alternate use for the grounds unless I open some kind of bizarre coffee-themed skin care business and sell two to three batches a week.

Also there is the slightly unnerving fact that when I get bicycle chain grease on my legs, ordinary soap doesn't take it off, Dr. Bronner's doesn't take it off, Fels Naptha doesn't take it off, and St. Ives apricot kernel scrub only reduces it a little bit, but this stuff yoinks the grease off my legs like a ranger rolling for damage in a fight against a monster of their favored enemy class.

Comments

[8hyenas]

If they are organic, coffee grounds make some of the best compost. I have vague memories of a cafe I worked at saving all their grounds to be picked up by a community garden.

[camwyn]

Yeah, I get my coffee from Jim's Organic about 95% of the time. If I can get permission from the landlord to do any kind of gardening next year I may see about setting up a proper compost bin.

[8hyenas]

If they are organic, coffee grounds make some of the best compost. I have vague memories of a cafe I worked at saving all their grounds to be picked up by a community garden.

[kickair8p]

Yep, I've been pretty happy with a coconut oil / coffee grounds scrub for my eczema (I don't use sugar in it, I'm diabetic and live in a rural area with lots of hornet-like insects). Didn't realize it handled bicycle chain grease, though.

~

[camwyn]

I was getting frustrated trying to get the grease off with any of my other skin care products, especially since undiluted Dr. Bronner's is my go-to for stubborn clean- oh, who am I kidding, I use undiluted Dr. Bronner's to get blood out of fabric, it's the best blood remover I know of that isn't hydrogen peroxide or bleach. But it wasn't getting the grease off, so I figured what the hell, try an abrasive. Facecloth, no good, St. Ives, no good, coffee scrub, wtf where did the grease go.