Sea clay
Green. Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making primary source
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe with this additive in it. Nobody has published what a spoonful weighs, so weigh it and enter the grams.
What it is
Sea clay is a cosmetic clay powder; Bramble Berry lists it as hydrous alumina silicate and says its colour does not bleed.
Bramble Berry supplier or guide
How much
- 1 tsp per pound of oils filled in Lovely Greens supplier or guide
- 1–3 tsp per pound of soap Wholesale Supplies Plus supplier or guide
The calculator suggests 1 tsp per pound of oils, but nobody has published what a spoonful weighs: weigh it and enter the grams.
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, Faiola, Soap Crafting primary source
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
- Caution: Clay left in clumps can make the bar crack or crumble: disperse it well. Lovin Soap supplier or guide
Spoons and drops
- No source weighs a spoonful of it: weigh it.
INCI name
CosIng has no single INCI name for it: label it by what it contains.
Guides that discuss it
Sources
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).
Bramble Berry, sea clay (INCI given as "Hydrous Alumina Silicate"): "For cold process, mix 1 teaspoon with 1 tablespoon of distilled water. Add 1 tsp. of dispersed clay at a time"; "Color Bleeds?: no".
Anne-Marie Faiola, Soap Crafting (Storey, 2013): clays, 1.5–2 teaspoons mixed with 1–1.5 tablespoons of distilled water per colour, mixed fresh just before use (Clay Spoon-Plop, p. 166); oxides dispersed in oil first; LabColors diluted in distilled water heated to 140 °F; mica "becomes shimmery, offering a sparkle not seen with other colorants", takes its colours from what it is coated with, and "Mica both reflects and refracts light, so it works best in clear products" (p. 43).
Lovely Greens, colouring soap with clay: "The general rule to make soap with clay is to use 1 tsp of clay for every 1lb (454 g/ 16 oz) of soaping oils"; after trace, "pre-mix clay with three times its volume in water".
Wholesale Supplies Plus, beet root, black walnut and chamomile powders, and green zeolite and sea clays: "Common use levels are 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon per pound of base"; for the beet root and black walnut powders, "Test your final product to insure optimal performance and no staining."
Lovin Soap, clay in cold-process soap: undispersed clay risks "causing cracks or crumbly soap".