French green clay
Pale pastel green to earthy green. Lovely Greens supplier or guide
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe, 1000 g of oils, with this additive at the dose it fills in, ready to change.
What it is
French green clay is sold under that name by many suppliers, and their clays differ: one sells a green illite, and bulk densities run from 0.54 to 1.15 g per mL by clay and grind.
French green clay data sheets supplier or guide
How much
- 1 tbsp per pound of soap filled in From Nature With Love supplier or guide
- 0.57–1.71 tbsp per pound of soap in melt and pour or rebatch (from a published recipe that adds it to one part of the batch: the lower figure over the whole batch, the higher within that part) Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making primary source
- 0.1–3 % of the batch in rinse-off products, the highest reported use: not a recommendation CIR primary source
The calculator fills in 1 tbsp per pound of soap: 40.2 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: at light trace.
- Mix it with about three times its volume of the recipe’s water, held back for it: a teaspoon of powder to a tablespoon of water.
Bramble Berry supplier or guide
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Worth knowing
- It speeds trace. Soap Queen supplier or guide
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 4.16 g (2.66–5.67 g)
- 1 tbsp ≈ 12.5 g (7.98–17 g)
- 1 cup ≈ 200 g (128–272 g)
French green clay data sheets supplier or guide
INCI name
CosIng has no single INCI name for it: label it by what it contains.
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Lovely Greens, natural soap colorants: cinnamon, "use up to 1 tsp ground cinnamon powder PPO. Be aware that cinnamon leaves a slightly gritty feeling"; beetroot, "Warm to dull brown", "Unfortunately, beets do not color CP/HP soap red"; black walnut hull powder, "Add powder at trace and be aware that they create a scratchy or exfoliating texture"; red sandalwood, "Add 1/4-1/2 tsp powder PPO at trace after premixing in a little oil. Can be very scratchy if you use more than this"; woad, "Add 1-2 tsp powder PPO to the lye solution"; rose hips, "Up to 1 tsp ground rosehip powder PPO"; nettle leaf, "muted green", "Premix dried and powdered nettle leaf with a little water and add at trace. Use 1-3 tsp PPO"; kelp, "Dark green", "at trace at up to 3 tsp PPO. Pre-mix in an equal amount of distilled water"; sage, "muted green that fades with time", or "1 tsp PPO dried sage at trace for dark speckles"; peppermint, "1 tsp PPO finely ground peppermint leaves at trace"; liquid chlorophyll, "stunning greens from using about 1 TBSP PPO", fading "into a greeny-yellow"; cucumber, "initially green but usually fades to a muted yellow"; chamomile, "Infuse flowers in distilled water and use the strained liquid to make the lye solution"; green tea, "Brown-green"; rhassoul clay, "Brown"; French green clay, "pale pastel green to earthy green"; "plant-based greens tend to be fugitive". PPO is per pound of oils.
Bramble Berry, clay in bath and beauty projects: clay "dispersed in distilled water ... 1:3 ratio of clay to liquid".
From Nature With Love, French green clay: "about 1 tablespoon per pound of soap".
David Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making (Creative Publishing International, 2018): rebatched soaps, "1 tablespoon (6 g) red sandalwood powder" for 1 lb (454 g) of grated soap, and "1 tablespoon (1.5 g) lightly crushed rose petals buds" for a pound (p. 34); "1 to 2 tablespoons (5 to 10 g) ground walnut shells" in one third of 28 oz (794 g) of grated soap (p. 32); "1 tablespoon (9 g) kaolin, bentonite, or French green clay" in another third and "1 teaspoon activated charcoal—a little goes a long way" in the last (p. 32); "2 tablespoons (10 g) lightly ground oatmeal" for 1 lb (454 g) of grated soap (p. 32); in melt and pour, "¼ teaspoon cosmetic glitter" in about 4 ounces (112 g) of clear base (p. 54); in cold process, "2 teaspoons activated charcoal per 1 lb (454 g) of soap oils" (p. 121), and for the three colours of a clay swirl "½ teaspoon rhassoul clay", "½ teaspoon green sea clay" and "½ teaspoon red Moroccan clay", each mixed with 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of distilled water (pp. 121–122).
Cosmetic Ingredient Review, natural clays (2023): kaolin 1–5 %, bentonite 0.22–4.7 % and illite up to 0.34 % in bath soaps and detergents; montmorillonite up to 3 % in rinse-off products.
The highest concentration reported to CIR in industry surveys: what has been used, not a recommendation.
French green clay data sheets: Praan Naturals 0.90 g/mL, Lotioncrafter 0.54, Interchimie 0.7–0.9 (NF T 73-405), Aroma-Zone superfine green illite 1.0–1.15 (level scoops). Grades differ by clay and grind.