Indian Healing Clay

[mommycarlson]

I have some of this clay, it's not a pretty color but I thought maybe I could use it to make my basic lard soap either a different color than white or to maybe try a little swirl. I've been trying to find posts about clay as a colorant, there are just so many and I haven't found any with my type of clay mentioned. I plan to make the soap today, a 50 oz batch to get two silicone molds out of it, and would like to know opinions about this clay and how much to use if I want to color with it. I think it's probably gray or green-ish in color. Thank you for your help!

 

[paillo]

Likely it's simply bentonite clay and will give you a light greenish-gray depending on how much you use.

 

[mommycarlson]

Thank you! Do you have an amount to recommend for a 50 oz batch?

 

[Seawolfe]

Typical use is 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon per pound of oils. I usually use 1 TBSP. I like to hydrate it in some water first (I pull that water from the water allotment before the lye is added) and add after emulsion. Others like to blend it well into the oils before the lye is added. Sometimes I mix the clay with the essential oils instead of water.

 

[mommycarlson]

Thank you Seawolfe!

 

[Obsidian]

bentonite clay is a beast to get mixed into water, use enough water to get all the lumps out of the clay. I've used in soap before and it really didn't change the color and what color it did add, wasn't very pretty.

 

[mommycarlson]

Thanks Obsidian. I actually found the clay to be too hard to get mixed into water and changed my mind and did not use it. You're right, the color was not pretty. I ended up coloring the soap with cocoa, it took a really long time to come to thin trace so I hope it turns out.

 

[RobertBarnett]

Why not mix the clay with a little of your recipe oil. You could still have used the clay and the cocoa to color, clay does have benefits.

Robert

 

[Obsidian]

There is no way bentonite will blend with oil, its just not a good choice for soap. Kaolin is so much better, it blends easily with water or oils.

 

[KristaY]

I just finished making a batch of gardener's soap with bentonite clay and it was a bear to get it to a slurry. Normally I can mix equal parts clay and water, no problem. The bentonite took 7 times the amount of clay to water. Luckily I mixed the clay first so I knew how much water to deduct from my lye liquid. The bentonite adds a nice slip though so I just deal with it. I also think the color isn't too pleasant so I added bentonite to half and rose clay to the other half then swirled. Hopefully it'll look less blah, lol.

 

[Misschief]

I, too, have some healing clay and have used it in a shave soap (a bar). Mine mixed beautifully and smoothly in a bit of water. It's got some amazing slip; I love using it as a facial mask, too. It did turn the soap a bland gray but everyone that uses it likes it.

 

[mommycarlson]

I tried mixing the clay with some of my lye water but it was taking too much water and the clay was so lumpy that I just gave up and used cocoa instead. The soap is a lovely brown and smells like chocolate cake

 

[RobertBarnett]

Homer... Mmmmmm chocolate cake!