Kaolin clay is probably the most used clay in cosmetics. It is very gentle and suits to almost everyone’s skin. The color of kaolin clay is usually white so it does not dominate the color of the final product. As a dry-skin person I’ve been looking for a suitable, gentle but also effective cleansing mask. Many masks are drying the skin too much when absorbing moisture and grease from the skin. Kaolin does not do that.
You can prepare a gentle and effective cleanser powder using kaolin clay. Water is needed only when you will use the cleanser. No additives are needed.
Facial cleanser
You need:
- 2 dl colloidal oat flour
- 1 dl kaolin clay
- 1 teaspoonful of Maine Base mineral salt
How to do
- Mix all ingredients together and pour to container with a lid
- Use a spoonful of cleanser at once
- Take some powder on your hand and mix a little bit of water to the powder. Spread on your face.
- Let the cleanser be on your face a while.
- Rub gently and wash the cleanser away using water.
- Balance your skin’s pH using sour facial water or apple vinegar water.
- This cleanser does not remove strong make-up.
Kaolin clay suits perfectly to cleansing mask just as it is; it does not require any other components to function well. Just add some water, mix and the mask is ready.
To prepare one clay mask you need
- 2 teaspoonsfuls of kaolin clay
- 0,5 – 1 teaspoon of water or other liquid
- Mix the clay powder to the liquid and spread the emulsion on your face using a brush.
- Let the mask dry on your face and wash it away using lukewarm water. If you want to boost the effect rub gently when washing. You will get the peeling as well.
Moisturizing clay mask
You can prepare more efficient kaolin clay mask by adding other components to it. The mask needs always a liquid, the most natural is of course water. There are other options as well.
Prefer moisturizing and skin-friendly herbs
You can find several interesting herb extracts which are worth of trying and testing. Pick a moisturizing and a skin-friendly herb to your mask. For example, a chamomile extract cools down the skin and suits to most of us. Other skin-friendly herb is mallow and other mallow plants like marshmallow.
Avoid skin shrinking herbs
Many herbs do shrink the pores. All plants belonging to lamiaceae -family like mint and rosemary has this effect. Dandelion is also a shrinking plant. So do not use any extract containing any of these plants/herbs for cleansing. The skin pores should be as open as possible in order to get best possible result. That is why it is recommendable to have a quick steam bath before cleansing. Kaolin clay like all the clays do shrink the pores. This is because clay’s natural feature to absorb impurities and moisture.
Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera is one of my favorite ingredients in many products. There is a separate article in my blog about Aloe Vera. Aloe Vera is at its best in cleansing facial mask. It is very moisturizing and good for skin. Aloe Vera helps the clay to penetrate deeper into skin. It does not close pores but acts as a relaxant and cools down the skin. This is why it helps to clean skin deeper. Aloe Vera’s pH is 4,5 – 5,5. Alkaline clay will neutralize when you mix some Aloe Vera juice in it. On the other hand, sometimes it is good to have alkaline clay. Alkaline clay will disinfect the skin and helps to deal with acne skin. For normal and dry skin the Aloe Vera is the best liquid with kaolin clay.
Activated carbon
The cleaning feature of kaolin clay gets extra power from activated carbon. Activated carbon is made of burned coconut in high temperature. It has a special feature to collect metals, color pigments and other impurities. Activated carbon is not the same thing like barbecue goal or goal you can collect from the fireplace. Never use these coals in cosmetics.
Small impurities in the air like air pollution and other small particles do stick on our skin, there is no way we can avoid this. There is no lotion available to protect our skin. However, we can use activated carbon to remove these impurities from our skin. Activated carbon absorbs everything which is on our skin. It cannot absorb impurities under our skin.
Kaolin clay
When activated carbon can absorb impurities on the skin, the kaolin clay can absorb impurities deeper from the skin. These two ingredients make a perfect match for a deep cleansing mask. There is a story about kaolin clay that is a gentle clay and suits to a dry skin as well.
How to prepare an effective, cleansing and gentle facial mask
You need:
- 2 teaspoonfuls of kaolin clay
- 0,5 – 1 teaspoonful of Aloe Vera gel, use either ready-made gel or if you have a plant it is even better. Look at the blog how to prepare a leave to avoid the yellow bile liquid.
- 0,5 teaspoonful of activated carbon powder
How to prepare a mask
Measure the clay and activated carbon into a small container and mix well. You can use also a mortar.
Add the Aloe Vera gel/juice.
- Mix well and carefully using a small kitchen mixer. You can try using also a fork but the result may be not satisfactory, the ingredients do not mix well using fork only.
- Spread the mixture on steamed skin using brush and let is stay 20 – 30 minutes or as long until the clay is dry.
- Wash your face with lukewarm water. If you want peeling effect, rub gently.
- Finally flush your face using acidified water, apple vinegar does well.
- Dry well and spread few drops of sunflower oil to your skin.