Used in skin scrubs and masks, deodorants, and other external uses.
Bentonite clay, also known as Montmorillonite, is a healing clay best known for its skin healing properties. When applied to the skin, it essentially absorbs impurities that get trapped in the skin.
Bentonite clay is composed of ash made from volcanos. Bentonite clay stems back far in history as a traditional healing method for protecting the body from disease. Because the clay is readily available and required no modern processing, it has been a popular and cost-effective way of “detoxing” the body.
Chemically, Bentonites are phyllosilicates of basic salts of Potassium, Sodium, Calcium or Aluminum. Sodium Bentonite expands when wet, absorbing as much as several times its dry mass in water. Because of its excellent colloidal properties, it is often used in drilling mud for oil and gas wells and boreholes for geotechnical and environmental investigations. The property of swelling also makes.
Sodium Bentonite useful as a sealant, since it provides a self-sealing, low permeability barrier.
Calcium bentonite is a useful adsorbent of ions in solution, as well as fats and oils, useful in health-related conditions. It is the main active ingredient of fuller's earth, probably one of the earliest industrial cleaning agents.
How to Effectively Start Using Bentonite Clay
1. For external use: If you plan on only using it externally on your skin, try this: Add a ¼ of a cup of the clay to the bath and massage the skin with it. Or just allow the clay to dissolve into the water and soak it in for as long as you like, then rinse your skin well with clean water.
2. For gargling: Gargle the clay in your mouth with some water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, similarly to using mouth wash. Then spit out the clay and rinse your mouth with clean water.
3. For use as a face mask: Wet clay and smear the clay directly onto your skin, especially anywhere where you have blemishes, red spots, irritations or scarring. Allow the clay to dry (this usually takes about 20 minutes) and then rinse it off with warm water. It’s recommended to use the clay mask once or twice per week for best results.
4. For scrapes or bug bites, apply a concentrated amount of the clay directly to the trouble area and cover with a Band-Aid or gauze, then let it sit for about 2 hours, then rinse it off.
Precautionary Steps
Some bentonite clay products may contain trace amounts of lead and may not be appropriate for consumption by children and pregnant women, so caution must be exercised when making purchases.
INCI: Bentonite
Coloring can range from light gray to off-white with little to no odor and is filled with minerals.
