Pink Clay Soap Recipe

Try this easy pink clay soap recipe, an olive oil soap scented with rose geranium essential oil and colored with french pink clay and red clay. You will get a very gentle cleansing, conditioning and wonderfully scented soap.

Rose Geranium Essential Oil

Rose geranium essential oil is distilled from Pelargonium graveolens. It grows for essential oil production mainly in Egypt, China, Morocco, Crimea, Ukraine, Georgia, India, and South Africa. It is a type of geranium plant with leaves that smell strongly like roses. This species of geranium is native to certain parts of Africa. The plant has velvety, plush leaves and flowers that bloom pale pink or almost white.

Pelargonium species have been used medicinally by the Hottentots and Zulus of South Africa for hundreds of years. They’ve used it for dysentery, coughs, upper respiratory irritations, gastritis, tuberculosis, and other problems. 

rose-geranium

Rose geranium oil is an active ingredient in some cosmetic products, like lotions. A 2017 review of studies demonstrated that antioxidant properties in rose geranium oil may help reduce the signs of aging. It has also shown anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral properties.

Rose Geranium For Cold Process Soap

However, rose geranium essential oil is famous in cold process soap not because of its medicinal properties, that most likely won’t survive saponification. But because it is a great and relatively cheap substitute for the very expensive rose otto essential oil, the true rose essential oil.

rose otto diluted eo 10ml
Rose Otto Essential Oil may cost $150 for 5 ml

Geranium essential oil rosy scent goes better in soap than if you smell it undiluted. Mixed with patchouli essential oil makes for a delicate, exquisite rosy scent blend. I personally love it and use it often in my soaps and other skincare.

A word of caution: although rose geranium essential oil is safe for most people, it is very potent and may cause reactions to very sensitive skin. If you plan to make this soap for sensitive skin, or you have allergy to this essential oil, you can use a smaller quantity than the one on the recipe, or skip it entirely. Unscented olive oil soap still smells great :).

French Pink and Red Clays

French pink clay is one of the mildest of all the clays. Works well for normal, sensitive and mature skin types. In this recipe, pink illite clay works as a natural colorant, helps with its mild cleansing properties, and works as a “scent fixer”.

Red illite clay is also used for coloring purposes. Red clay is stronger than pink clay, being more effective at cleaning oily skins. The difference is due to the amount of red iron oxide, bigger in red clay and smaller in pink clay.

red-clay

Use Clay At Your Convenience

So, if you have oily skin, pink and red will be a very good combination for your soap. But with more sensitive skin, only pink clay is preffered. Actually, you don’t need to purchase both clays for this soap, you can use only one of them.

If you have really sensitive skin or skin with conditions, consider using white kaolin clay, or skip the clay in this soap. Afterall, is mostly used as a colorant, it will still be a worderful olive oil soap without it.

Depending on the strenght of your clays, namely the iron oxide content, this soap might have a stronger or softer pink shade. As the soap is fresh, it will look more cream/skin colored than pink, due to the olive oil color. Once the olive oil color begins to fade, the pink hue will be more prominent. In summary, the more the curing, the more pink/less creamy the soap will become.

Still, I find handmade natural soap beautiful in any way. Even if the soap doesn’t have the desired pinky-pink color.

Pink Clay Soap Recipe

With rose geranium essential oil, pink and red clay, and the mildness and conditioning properties of olive oil, this soap recipe provides a very gentle cleansing, conditioning and wonderfully scented soap to enjoy at home. A great alternative to the French Green Clay Soap Recipe if you have oily skin, but more sensitive.

Find Where to Buy Handmade Pink Clay Soap

If you’re not yet ready to try to make this recipe at home, but you still wish to enjoy natural soaps, you can find handmade soap at the following links:

How To Use This Soap

In the shower or bath, wet your hands and rub your soap in them to create a lather. Wash your hands first, then repeat the process and apply soap to your whole body using the soap directly and your hands. You may also wash your face with it. Rinse hands and body abundantly. Also wash your soap from lather before placing it in your soap dish or bag saver.

Washcloths and sponges should be avoided. Avoid washing your intimate zone and your hair, soap pH in not adequate for those parts of your body. Avoid eye contact with soap to prevent stinging. Make a patch test before using your soap. Stop using your soap if you feel any immediate adverse reaction in your skin (red skin, rashes, itching).

To take best advantage of your handmade soap (made by yourself or store-bougth), read How Do You Use Handmade Soap?

Related Posts

Ingredients and Recipes

Soap Making Techniques and Troubleshooting


Watch This Video About Safety

Cold Process Soap Making Tutorial Video

Cold Process Soap Making Lessons

The tutorials in this blog are a great – and free! – help to start with cold process soap making. Practice is the next step to harness the art of making soaps at home. However, I understand if you prefer to have some formal lessons, where you will feel more supported with the steps. Feel free to join these courses at Udemy.

How To Make Soap – Homemade Soap Making for Beginners – Shona O’Connor

635090 4503show?id=LKzmQGcauXs&bids=1060092
Botanical Skin Care Course Leaderboard1
pink-clay-soap-recipe

Pink Clay Soap Recipe

This olive oil recipe uses french pink clay and a fabulous rose geranium essential oil, for a very classical and romantic rose soap. Try this recipe and enjoy your soap!
Dificulty: Easy
Weight: 450g (15,84 oz)
Superfat: 5%
Lye Concentration: 36%
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Method: Cold Process
Cosmetic: Soap Bar
Servings: 6 soap bars
Author: Sofia Matias
Cost: $5 – $20 / 4€ – 16€

Ingredients

Lye Water

Add After Trace

Essential Oils Blend

Instructions

Get Ready!

  • Wear goggles and gloves! Look at “Safety Precautions” in the video above or in Soap Making Safety Precautions
  • Watch the video above about "Cold Process Soap Making Tutorial" or read the post Learn To Make Cold Process Soap for instructions on cold process soap making before starting. These are generic but important steps for all recipes.
    Pouring essential oils into soap batter
  • Assemble everything: ingredients, equipment, safety equipment. Prepare your workstations. Measure all the ingredients. Don’t start the recipe without having everything ready!
    soapmaking-workspace-preparation

Heat the Oils

  • Heat the olive oil to approx. 45ºC
    Heating soaping oils in a microwave

Make the Lye Water

  • Make the lye solution according to How To Make Lye Water. Add the french pink clay and the sodium lactate to the solution and stir well. Mix it until the vapors start to dissipate. The solution will take a dark pink/brick red color.
    add-salt-to-lye-water

Make the Soap Batter

  • Use as a target temperature 38ºC for the oil-solution mixture. If necessary, you can reheat the oils, but not the lye solution. Strain the lye water to catch all clay lumps and lye crystals.
    adding-lye-water-to-oils
  • Reach trace with the immersion blender.
    reaching-trace
  • Add after trace ingredients: the extract and essential oil (s). Stir with just a spoon.
    adding-after-trace-ingredients

Molding and Curing

  • Pour the dough into the rectangular molds with a pitcher and sprinkle with alcohol or witch hazel. As the clays give a very soft color, the olive oil color will be predominant when the soap is still fresh, looking more cream than pink.
    molding-soap
  • Let it set for 2 to 7 days, keeping an eye on the hardness of the soap.
    setting-rose-soap
  • Unmold and let the bars cure for 4 to 6 weeks. See How To Cure Soap. The pink color will come out with additional curing (around 2 months), when the olive oil looses its color.
    cure-soap2

Video

Tried this recipe?Send a pic to @herbalcochete!

6 thoughts on “Pink Clay Soap Recipe”

  1. What I found so amazing is the ability to make soaps at home, I always looked at this product being made in factories but acquiring this will enable you to be able to save a few bucks making your own soaps especially the ones that you like. Thanks so much for sharing your post on homemade natural rose soap recipe.

    • Hello Norman, and thanks for your comment.

      Yes, save a few bucks and save your own skin as well (literally lol, no pun intended). Save it from being constantly attacked from harsh chemicals present in most commercial skincare products! This soap also has a very mild clay to help sensitive skins with additional cleansing. Try this recipe and see it for yourself 🙂

      Best Regards,

      Sofia

  2. Hello there, thank you for sharing this wonderful information and I have been my glad that there is some really good information online for all of us at see and make the best of and this is one very good information you have here for us. Learning to do some of these things for yourself is really safe you’ll keep some money to save and that is special

  3. 5 stars
    Loved this recipe of a rose soap! So simple, with olive oil, pink clay and a rose essential oil. Thanks for sharing.

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