Yellow clay
Yellow.
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
Yellow clay is one of the coloured clays sold as powders for colouring soap.
Lovely Greens supplier or guide, Faiola, Soap Crafting primary source
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 fills in 1 tsp per pound of oils: 8.7 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: at light trace.
- Also used: into the lye solution.
- 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.
Faiola, Soap Crafting primary source, Lovely Greens 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
- Caution: Clay left in clumps can make the bar crack or crumble: disperse it well. Lovin Soap supplier or guide
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 3.97 g (3.75–4.19 g)
- 1 tbsp ≈ 11.9 g (11.2–12.6 g)
- 1 cup ≈ 190 g (180–201 g)
Aroma-Zone supplier or guide
INCI name
CosIng has no single INCI name for it: label it by what it contains.
Guides that discuss it
Sources
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".
Aroma-Zone, superfine yellow clay (yellow illite), table of equivalents: a level 5 mL scoop 3.8 g, a 2 mL scoop 1.7 g (0.76–0.85 g/mL); "level: a spoon filled to the brim, where the excess has been removed by passing a spatula or the back of a knife over it".