Teach Soap

Okay, after the mechanics' soap I talk about in another thread, I'll be attempting a requested facial soap.

The person who asked me is a young woman who is looking for something for blemish control. She's asked for something with red clay, or maybe Moroccan red clay. (I don't know if there is any appreciable difference.) And I do have the clay in hand. (Well, technically, it's back in my soap room. Hard to type otherwise. )

Anyway, I was thinking about adding a touch of tea tree oil, maybe just a quarter to half ounce per pound, to kind of amp up the blemish fighting abilities. But that brought up a couple of other questions.

I've used tea tree before, and the stuff smells, well, potent, for lack of a better word. So I was thinking about some kind of masking fragrance, if such a thing is possible. But I'm concerned that a fragrance isn't a good thing in a facial soap.

So, I'm torn between three options:

Is the tea tree and clay a good combo, and if so, any suggestions on a fragrance?

Is the tea tree overkill with the clay, and I should just leave it off, it which case the notion of fragrance becomes a moot point?

Or, shall I go with the tea tree but no fragrance and hope she doesn't throw it at me? (I don't really think she would - her dad owns the garage that works on my car and I don't think he'd be amused if that happened. )

Also, at what point should I add the clay? To the batter, or can I put it in with the oils before the lye solution?

Also, is goats' milk a good idea for the liquid?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Anita

With it being a wash off product it probably wouldn't do any good anyway so I would leave it out. You could add some neem oil which is good for acne as well but its some stinky stuff. It would however do more good to get the properties from it than the tea tree.

The neem oil is great in soap. I use it in a bar for my daughter and it helps clear up her eczema. The stuff STINKS while using it but the smell cures out of the finished soap. I would leave the tea tree out of the soap as well. I use it in my body butter and my face mask and it is great.

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Haven

I'd forget the clay and use neem oil at 20%. Add some patchouli and lavender for a lovely facial bar.

My neem oil bar is sitting on the curing rack as I type. I did use some tree tea oil in it.... came out smelling like rubber tires! Now maybe her dad would like this! Actually the scent is starting to balance out. I used a bastille recipe so cure time is 5-6 months. And I used a low level of neem oil (6%)- mostly due to cost and local availability.
As for my usual facial bar I usually do NO scents and NO coloring. My base is still the bastille soap. It has a little bit of a clean scent.
I once did do a tree tea and lavender mix and that was fantastic.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I don't see why you can't add clay. I mix it with water then add it to my traced soap mixture . However be careful with it because it absorbs water. Don't add a lot. If you go to Soap Queen you'll see that Ann-Marie uses clay. Go to Soap Queen and you'll see recipes for that as well as teachsoap.com. Good luck.