Clay is a versatile ingredient for a wide variety of bath and beauty projects. It’s probably most well known for clay face masks, but can also be used in cold process soap and scrubs. It adds color and various oil absorbing properties. If you’d like to add clay to your homemade beauty projects, find out which clay is right for your skin. Then, learn how to add it to various projects below.

Clay in Cold Process Soap
Because of their ability to absorb liquid, including oil, clays are a popular additive for soap created for oily skin. If you’d like to add clay to your soap projects, keep those properties in mind; clay also absorbs moisture in soap. To compensate for the moisture clay absorbs, disperse it in distilled water (rather than oil) for cold process soap recipes. The usage rate is 1 tablespoon distilled water per teaspoon of clay. In general, a usage rate of about 1 teaspoon of clay per pound of soap is a great place to start for cold process soap recipes. Feel free to use more if you’d like, just keep in mind clays also speed up trace. The more you use, the faster your soap will become thick. Learn more about trace here. Check out the recipes below for inspiration.

The French green clay used in the Avocado + Spearmint Cold Process Soap helps give it a soft green color. 

• Lavender & Lemongrass Hot Process Soap – contains green zeolite clay
• Brine and Rose Clay Cold Process Soap – contains rose clay
• Lavender and Rose Pink Salt Bars – contain rose clay
• Natural Colorant Taiwan Swirl – contains dark red Brazilian clay
• Honey Bee Soap – contains yellow silt clay, purple Brazilian clay and dark red Brazilian clay
• Avocado + Spearmint Cold Process Soap – contains French green clay
• Waves of the Sea Cold Process Soap – contains sea clay

Clay in Melt and Pour
Clays are great for melt and pour soap as well. To help avoid clumps, disperse the clay in 99% isopropyl alcohol at a rate of 1 tablespoon alcohol to 1 teaspoon clay. They give soap great color and absorption properties. Unlike cold process soap, you don’t need to worry about it thickening the “trace” of melt and pour, but don’t use too much. Adding too much clay to melt and pour soap can make it more difficult to work with. One teaspoon of clay per pound of melt and pour soap is a great place to start. Continue adding clay to the melt and pour until you reach your desired effect.

A combination of spirulina powder and green zeolite clay create a soft green color in the Star Anise Melt & Pour Bars.

• Star Anise Melt & Pour Bars – contain green zeolite clay
• Minty Clay Melt & Pour Bars – contain green zeolite clay
• Tea Tree & Rosemary Cleansing Bar – contains green zeolite clay
• Charcoal & Rose Clay Spa Bar – contains rose clay
• Melt & Pour Clay Tutorial – contains yellow, dark red and purple Brazilian clays

Clay in Scrubs
Clays make a wonderful addition to body and face scrubs. This is especially true if the scrub is designed for oily skin, as clays pull oil from the skin. Because clays are fine grained, they usually don’t add much exfoliation to scrubs. But, they are fantastic additives for color and oil absorption. If your scrub is dry (does not contain any water or oil), simply add and mix the clay in with the other dry ingredients. If you’re mixing the clay into oil, keep in mind the clay can fall to the bottom of the oil and may need to be mixed up before use. In emulsified scrubs, dispersing the clay in a small amount of water or oil in your recipe can help avoid chunks, but is not completely necessary.

In the Sea Clay Dry Salt Scrub, a combination of sea clay, baking soda, salts and poppy seeds make a scrubby paste when mixed with water. 

• Walnut Facial Scrub for Men – contains kaolin clay
• Sea Clay Dry Salt Scrub – contains sea clay
• Rose Clay Sugar Scrub – contains rose clay

Clay in Bath Bombs
Clays can be added to bath bombs. Just keep in mind that clays are essentially dirt. If too much clay is added to the fizzy, it can leave a residue on the skin or the tub. Clays are great for giving bath bombs color, and can also help them hold their shape. In particular, kaolin clay is a popular clay choice due to the fine texture and neutral color. Kaolin clay can add structure and sturdiness to bath bombs. This help them hold their shape when unmolded, and is a popular additive for large bath bombs.

Because clays absorb, they can lead to a dry and crumbly bath bomb, so be careful to not use too much. This is especially true if you live in a very dry climate. A good place to start is about 1 tablespoon of kaolin clay per cup of bath bomb mixture. Add the clay to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly prior to adding liquid ingredients to make the mixing process easier.

Pink Brazilian clay and purple Brazilian clay give the Lavender & Clay Mondo Bath Fizzy stripes of color. 

• Mini Heart Bath Bombs – contain pink Brazilian clay
• Lavender & Clay Mondo Bath Fizzy – contains purple and pink Brazilian clays

Clay in Face Masks and Other Products
Because clay is so good at absorbing oil, it’s commonly used in products formulated for oily skin. A popular clay beauty product is clay face masks. The masks can be “dry,” meaning water is added to the powder to make a paste and applied to the skin. Clays can also be mixed with oil for a more hydrating experience, or emulsified for a lotion-like texture. If you’re designing a clay mask, find out which one is best suited for your skin here. For some clay mask recipe ideas, check out the Soap Queen TV video below.

• Shaving Soap Tutorial – contains bentonite clay
• Easy Whipped Shaving Soap Recipe – contains bentonite clay
• Rose Clay Exfoliating Mask – contains rose clay and kaolin clay
• Rose Clay Foot Mask – contains rose clay and kaolin clay
• Oatmeal Facial Scrub & Mask – contains bentonite clay

What’s your favorite way to incorporate clay into your handmade beauty projects?

The post How to Use Clay in Bath & Beauty Projects appeared first on Soap Queen.

The Central Soapers workshop is spearheaded (with lots of help from other soapers) by Kenna of Modern Soapmaking, and takes place March 22 – 23 in Overland Park, Kansas. Bramble Berry is a proud sponsor of many soap gatherings, and this year we’re sending the mold & ingredients to make this Honey Bee CP soap as a raffle prize. Scented with Wildflower Honey, it features four natural colorants including Yellow Silt Clay, Purple Brazilian Clay, Dark Red Brazilian Clay and Activated Charcoal. You can still make this lovely soap even if you can’t attend the gathering!

What You’ll Need:

8.3 oz. Coconut Oil

1.7 oz. Mango Butter

9.9 oz. Olive Oil

8.3 oz. Palm Oil

5 oz. Sweet Almond Oil

4.6 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

10.9 oz. distilled water

Yellow Silt Clay

Purple Brazilian Clay

Dark Red Brazilian Clay

Activated Charcoal

2 oz. Wildflower Honey Fragrance Oil

Comb Swirl Tool

9 Bar Birchwood Mold with Liner

Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

If you’ve never made Cold Process soap before, stop here! I highly recommend checking out our FREE four part SoapQueen.tv series on Cold Process Soapmaking, especially the episode on lye safety. And if you’d rather do some reading, Bramble Berry carries a wide range of books on the topic, including my book, Soap Crafting. You can also checkout the digital downloads for that instant gratification factor.

SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! That means goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

COLOR PREP: Disperse 1 teaspoon of each colorant into 1 tablespoon of Sunflower or Sweet Almond Oil (or any other liquid oil). Use a mini mixer to get clumps worked out smoothly. The clays tend to sink to the bottom of the container, so be sure to give them one final mix right before you add them into the batter.

ONE: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water. Gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is clear. Set aside to cool.

TWO: Combine the Coconut, Mango, Olive, Sweet Almond and Palm Oils (remember to fully melt, then mix, your entire container of Palm Oil before portioning). Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils. Stick blend until thin trace. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add Sodium Lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of Sodium Lactate per pound of oils in the recipe.

THREE: After the batter has reached a light trace, split it equally into four containers.

FOUR: Add the dispersed colorants to the containers in the following measurements:

• the entire container of dispersed Yellow Silt Clay (3 teaspoons)

• ½ teaspoon dispersed Red Brazilian Clay

• the entire container of dispersed Purple Brazilian Clay (3 teaspoons)

• ½ teaspoon dispersed Activated Charcoal

Stir in with a wire whisk or spoon.

FIVE: After you’ve fully incorporated the color, fill ⅛ of each squirt bottle with a single color. Set them aside until step eight.

SIX: Now add the fragrance oil to the cups of batter. Split the fragrance oil equally between the four cups — eyeballing is okay!

SEVEN: Pour the batter in a zigzag pattern across the mold. Layer the colors one on top of the other, in the same order, until you’ve emptied the containers.

EIGHT: Get the squirt bottles from step five. Pour thin, horizontal lines across the length of the mold until you reach the other side. Repeat this process with the other colors, methodically layering one on top of the other in the same order and pattern. Do this until you’ve emptied all the colored squirt bottles.

NINE: Finish the design by running the Comb Swirl Tool down the length of the mold.

TEN: Spray the entire top with 91 or 99% Isopropyl Alcohol to reduce soda ash. Cover and insulate for 24 hours. Unmold after 3-4 days. Allow to cure 4-6 weeks. Enjoy!

Bonus!: Check out this Instagram video for the making of this soap!

The post Honey Bee Soap Tutorial appeared first on Soap Queen.

These clays are naturally colored and do not contain any artificial dyes or pigments. The various shades are actually achieved by variations in the minerals found in the soil in the different regions of Brazil. Bramble Berry carries five different natural clays — Natural Brazilian, Purple, Yellow, Pink and Dark Red.You can buy each color individually, or buy all five at once in our Brazilian Clay Sampler.

The clays are stable in cold process soaps and make a great addition to any clay mask or cream. Clays can be a bit tricky if you haven’t used them before, and you’ll need some additional preparation before using them in your cold-process soaps. Clays are incredibly absorbent and tend to accelerate trace when added dry. They can also cause cracking if they aren’t dispersed first. To prevent this, disperse your clays in distilled water using a mini-mixer. You can use a ratio of 1 teaspoon of clay to 1 tablespoon of water per color. Make sure that the clay is completely saturated with water before mixing or you might end up with a messy cloud of clay.

If you are making melt & pour and want to add any of Bramble Berry’s clays without clumping or settling, we suggest dispersing the clay in a small amount of rubbing alcohol before adding it to your batch. We recommend a dispersion ratio of 2 teaspoons of clay to 1 tablespoon of alcohol. To learn more about natural colorants in melt & pour, check out this blog post.

Below are some fun tutorials that include our Brazilian Clays. If you get a chance to try out the different colors (Natural, Purple, Yellow, Pink, & Dark Red), we’d love for you to leave us a review on the product’s page or share a picture with us on Bramble Berry’s Facebook page. Happy soaping!

Top Left – Clockwise: Cute as a Button, Under Your Spell – Melt and Pour Clay Tutorial, Tiger Stripe “Hanger” Swirl Tutorial, In-The-Pot Swirl & Hot Process Series: Oven Process Layers

The post Sunday Night Spotlight: Brazilian Clay appeared first on Soap Queen.

We’re head over heels for these lovely clays, and they’re a perfect for those romantic and sultry colors.  We used the Paisley Tray Mold and a Syringe Injector to do the detail work with the purple, yellow, dark red Brazilian clays and heavy metal gold for some sparkly touches.

Ingredients:

Yellow Brazilian Clay

Purple Brazilian Clay

Dark Red Brazilian Clay

Heavy Metal Gold Mica

Lovespell Fragrance Oil

1 lb Shea Melt and Pour Base

1 lb Aloe Vera Melt and Pour Base

Paisley Tray Mold

Droppers

Injector Tool

Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

ONE:  Cut up and divide your aloe base into 4 mugs. We’ll work with the colors one at a time, so melt one mug and add 1/4 tsp of your first color clay and 3 ml of Lovespell fragrance. Mix well! Use the injector tool to fill in the areas you like, remembering that you’ve got 3 other colors to work with, so don’t fill in everything! You can always go back and change your mind later, so don’t worry too much.

Tip: To see your details better, put your mold on top of a white piece of paper!

Repeat with the rest of your colors until all the detail cavities are filled. Wait for them to cool, and spray liberally with alcohol.

You should have quite a bit of colored soap left over; don’t worry, we’ll use it up!

TWO: Melt 4 oz of shea soap base carefully. We don’t want it too hot, or it’ll melt all that detail work! It should not be steaming, but rather should be cool enough to have formed a thin skin (just like pudding!) on the top of the container.  Stir in the skin to melt it, and spray you detail work with alcohol. Pour the shea soap over your details. Allow to harden fully, and spray with rubbing alcohol before the next step.

THREE: Melt back down all your other colors and remnants, and the rest of your shea soap base (12 oz).  Add an additional 1/2 oz of fragrance to the melted shea soap.  Alternate pouring white with your colors before each layer has hardened fully for a swirled effect, or allow each layer to harden before pouring the next to get crisp layers. (I found I didn’t have enough soap left over to do complete layers).

If you only have a tiny amount of a color left over, like I did with my purple and gold, drizzle over a white background randomly for a lovely marbled effect. Whatever you do, you’ll have color all through your soap so it never gets boring once the design has washed off!

Tips and Tricks:

1. Have a cup of very hot water around to clean out your syringe. Clean it often with the hot water to prevent soap from clogging it up!

2. Patience, patience, patience! Don’t worry about coloring outside the lines, because you can always clean it up later with a tooth-pick or scraper tool. But don’t rush things! If your soap is too hot when you try to use it with the syringe, it will squirt out in big, hard to control puddles.

3. Have fun! This is your work of art, and it’s a great way to spend a rainy afternoon and practice your soap art skills.

The post Under Your Spell – Melt and Pour Clay Tutorial appeared first on Soap Queen.