Teach Soap

First time poster, albeit v. grateful for all the good advice I have found through combing this board. It really is a treasure trove of useful information. I did a search on the following, but was not terribly successful, so hoped someone might have some insight. Basically, is there a way to filter out grit from clay before adding it to mp base? More details below.

When trying to figure out the best way to add clay to an mp formula, I came across some info from Kelly Bloom’s Soapalooza web site, saying that the grit in clay created drag (delaying lathering) and acting as a deodorant/scent dampener on fragrances. While she suggests a solution for those of us who are not afraid of lye (I am, am super clumsy, in part because of medical reasons, so stick w/mp), I was wondering if anyone has encountered and/or has a solution for these issues in m&p. Her solution depends on addressing the problem during saponification, so I assume it is too late to use it once you purchase an mp base and then add clays/s.

Relevant text from Kelly’s pdf is below, and I have attached a link at the bottom of this post in case anyone is interested in reading further:

Re clay drag: “[W]hen making soap with clay, you will often notice that the soap bars need extra time in the shower or bath to get ‘started’, that they actually have a sandpaper like feel when you first start using a clay bar. The bar has to actually absorb some water so that the exposed clay on the surface area of the bar can give its glide.”

Re clay as a “deodorizer”/scent dampener: “Not only is clay very absorbent of WATER, but it is also a powerful deodorizer. This is not good if you are adding fragrance oil or expensive essential oils, By removing that gritty part of the clay and retaining the clay minerals only, you allow your soap to not experience the muting of scent that clay can also cause.” I was kind of confused when I read this because although it makes sense intuitively, some of the comments on clay on posts here and elsewhere suggested that clay actually acts as an anchor with scents.

http://soapalooza.com/myfiles/pdf/Natur ... uction.pdf