Benefits of Clay Soap

Hey Sudsers! Mrs. Soap & Clay here with a new edition of FAQ Friday! Yes, I know it’s been a while. No, I haven’t run out of frequently asked questions. I have, however, found myself running out of time to sit down and type posts, and when I finally DO have time, I find myself with a broken computer. And then a broken camera. And finally a broken printer. Not that a printer is needed for a blog post, but it’s terribly upsetting all the same.

2017 has been weird. Feel bad for me.

Anyway, the Soap & Clay kidlets are spending the day with grandma and grandpa, I have whittled away at my soap to-do list, and I find myself with just enough time to get a blog post in, so here we go! Today’s post is all about the “clay” in Soap & Clay, and the benefits of clay soap.

So what’s with the “clay” in Soap & Clay?

Great question! It can be a bit confusing; I don’t seem to sell many clay based products, right? WRONG! I have a bit of a love affair with clays – the idea of, essentially, dirt being both beneficial for the skin AND cleansing is fascinating to me and I have spent boatloads of time playing with it.

Slathering it on my skin. Mixing it with water. Testing absorption rates. Drinking it. Letting it sit on a windowsill during the full moon to charge. Clay is cool. We all have hobbies. Shut up.

Anyway, this fascination with clay actually started my entire product line. Once you’ve mastered the basics of soapmaking – which oils yield a hard bar, or a super lather, or a bar best suited for laundry soap, or for shaving – you find yourself experimenting with additives. And I’m not talking about commercial filler additives; that stuff is for chumps who cheapen their products. Handcrafted soap additives are used to yield an even better bar than what you ever thought possible. In theory. And my favorite additive is, you guessed it, clay. Each and every batch of soap I make includes a clay of some sort. My most frequently used clays are Kaolin, Bentonite, Red Clay, French Green, and Activated Charcoal. Which I’m counting as a clay. Because why not.

Cool…but why?

So glad you asked! Clay is super fun and I like talking about it. The benefits of clay are numerous, and it will take many, many more posts to fully explore all of said benefits. So here’s my Top Five, bulleted list of why I use clay in my soaps. High Fidelity style. Because Nick Hornby and John Cusack are life.

• Clay detoxifies the skin. This is a well known benefit of clay; it acts like a magnet, pulling toxins, impurities, and chemicals from the skin and whisking them away to toxin-death-land. Which is great, right? Right!
• Clay balances the skin’s pH. Various healing clays, such as bentonite, produce electrical charges when mixed with water. These negative charges created bind to the positive bits of toxins, as mentioned above, but through this process releases minerals that the skin needs. This results in a balanced epidermis that yields fewer breakouts (I’m looking at you, acidic skin!) or less eczema flareups (alkaline skin woes), depending on which side of the pH spectrum you fall. For more information on the importance of balanced skin pH, click here.
• Clay oxygenates the skin and helps maintain the skin’s natural moisture. This is also part of the negative electrical charges bit. Another benefit of this process is that certain clays help the skin receive more oxygen by binding to excess hydrogen. This results in healthier skin, better blood flow, and more efficient oil production. Science is freaking awesome.
• Clay produces an exceptional lather. We’ve all been there. We’ve picked up a bar of artisan soap, took it home, and were dismayed to learn that it took some real work to work up a lather with said bar. The clays in a Soap & Clay bar produce a super bubbly, super cleansing, beautiful lather with ease.
• Clay soaps have a longer shelf and shower life. Handmade soaps are great for the skin, but can be murder on the pocketbook. Because artisan soaps do not contain the chemicals, fillers, and preservatives that result in a bar of soap that can last through the apocalypse, they tend to disappear faster than you’d like. With clay soaps, however, you actually get a longer shelf life and an extended life in the shower. So while other artisan soaps will last you a few weeks in the shower, with proper soap care a Soap & Clay bar will get you a month. Economical times two!

Activated Charcoal + Kaolin Clay = a wicked awesome soap.

So there you have it – the clay method to the soapy madness! Have an excellent weekend, Sudsers – go do something fun that gets you dirty. So you can use some soap. My soap, preferably. But soap, for sure.

Happy Sudsing!