Teach Soap

I've been recently approached by folks for two different soaps that I've never made before. One wanted a mud soap (I'm guessing she's talking about dead sea mud? or are there other kinds?), and the other person wanted a clay soap. (And now that I think about it, I can't remember if she specifically wanted red clay or not.)

Both of these were to be facial soaps.

Any special techniques? When do you add the mud/clay? Seems that I saw some advice from somebody (Irena, maybe?) about mixing the mud/clay with a bit of water, and then incorporating that, rather than just glopping the stuff into the soap batter and hoping for the best.

How does it affect trace time?

Any particular secrets I should know about how to do this? Or even more importantly, what not to do?

Thanks for the help.

Anita

For red clay, do you mean Red Kaolin or Moraccan Red? Moraccan red clay can be very drying because it cleans pores & tightens skin, so shouldn't be used too many times a week by anyone who has sensitive skin. Whereas Red Kaolin is very mild so it would be good for sensitive skin.
Dead Sea Mud can be drying if used too often as well. Although, honestly, since it's all most likely going to be washed down the drain right away, I don't know that the clays or mud would be on the skin long enough to be beneficial.

But when using clay, I mix it with a little bit of water to hydrate it first & then mix it in at a small amount of my batter at light trace, then mix that in to the rest of the batch. Mud I used twice in soap, but I couldn't find a scent that masked the mud smell. The smell was kind of like that smell after it rains when you can smell all the mud and worms.

Since I add the clays & mud at trace, it didn't effect trace.

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Genny

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Haven

I think From Nature With Love has dead sea mud. They're a really good supplier.

If they're wanting it for oil absorption properties, I think a mask would be much more beneficial. Just thought I'd mention it

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Genny