is clay calcined?

[Biglou13]

I'm a potter and want to use some locally sourced porcelain in soap, in addition to other clays i have.
Is it necessary to calcine clay (basically removing water) before adding to soaps?

 

[earlene]

I would expect so, since any clay I have purchased from soap suppliers is always in a dry powder form.

 

[Cobelloy]

Surely if you just discount the lye water a bit it wouldn't matter? I would think soap clay is supplied dry because its weighs a lot less and is therefore cheaper to post and has a much longer shelf life that way?

 

[BattleGnome]

Try it.

I always hydrate clay in a bit of water before adding it to my batter. The only issue I see is the control over how much to use. My slurry ends up the consistency of slip (is that right word) so 1tsp of clay ends up 2-3 tbsp after hydration

 

[amd]

I've used dead sea mud in soap before. I didn't adjust my water content. I was using 1 ounce mud PPO so I didn't think there was enough water to really account for, and I didn't want to end up with a soap that accelerated to quickly because of the thicker mud/clay. I would check to make sure that only a liquid and preservative (? I'm not familiar with porcelain or pottery clays, so I'm thinking of wetted facial muds as reference). I would hate to make a soap and then find out I added something that will encourage DOS.

 

[Biglou13]

I'm a potter and want to use some locally sourced porcelain in soap, in addition to other clays i have.
Is it necessary to calcine clay (basically removing water) before adding to soaps?

clay i'm taking about is dry powdered clay..... it is then basically cooked to approx 1200F to remove chemical/ crystal water, it ends up weighing 12% less after "calcining"

 

[BattleGnome]

The clay we use soapmaking are considered cosmetic clays (or at least the oes I’ve seen on supplier websites).

Since you know the terminology you may be able to find out what processes they use to refine cosmetic clays and see if the product you have falls under the guidelines