Clay. In French it’s argile. Clay can be used for many things, including building materials, but we will be looking at clay as a form of therapeutic treatment.

French clays are the most widely used and green clay tops the list of the most popular. All the colours are so beautiful – just look at the pink clay in the pic above. There is also white clay, yellow clay and red clay and I’ve always kept the entire range. When I see them all together it’s soothing to the soul – it’s beautiful enriching colour palette from mother earth. Each colour has a different chemical composition with green being the most powerful in absorption. This is one of the reasons green clay is most popular in beauty treatments like face masks, body masks and baths.

The clays are used to extract and absorb extra “stuff” floating around in your lymph, connective tissue, skin, and extra-cellular spaces where interstitial fluid resides. Some of the clay’s minerals are also absorbed by your skin too. Anyway you look at it, when you’ve had a clay face or body mask you do feel great!

It’s interesting how quickly you feel cold when the clay is smoothed on your skin. The earth is surrounding you with her deep, cool energy. If you’ve ever had a body mask with clay you can get very cold. It’s important that your therapist keeps you wrapped up in towels and blankets so your core temperature doesn’t drop too rapidly.

In general, topical application of clay on the skin will be rejuvenating, clarifying, cooling, help cell renewal, lessen the appearance of spider veins and varicose veins and make you feel like you’ve had a mini holiday.

Of course everyone will recommend different clays for different issues and I probably use green clay the least. I tend to use white clay as it’s more gentle, or mix some white clay with another colour. Here are my tips with my favourite clay at the top – White Clay

White Clay

* gentle face masks and gentle body masks

* in baths

* in body scrubs

* as an absorptive soft powder on a cut or graze

* for eczema and psoriasis – especially for kids

* for rashes or skin disorders on dogs I either just sprinkle it on dry or mix into a smooth paste

Pink Clay

* this is my favourite face clay – face mask when the skin is red or for sufferers of rosacea

* face masks for eczema or psoriasis on the face

* anytime you need a good facial cleanse, and to reduce puffiness

Green Clay

* acne on the face or body either with a mask or just a little dotted on a spot

* face or body mask for oily skin

* body mask when you are doing a detox to help with the processing of toxins out of your system

* cellulite (it does help but I haven’t found anything yet to get rid of it completely – ugh!)

Yellow Clay

* face and body masks and to add to body scrubs particularly when the skin is dull and needs energy – it really brightens the skin

Red Clay

* I tend not to use this clay as much as the others but this one is great for spider veins, red skin, broken capillaries

And of course adding essential oils to your clay treatment turns it into something else all together.

I’ve got more to say on clay so stay tuned for recipes and Australian clay in The Wonderful World of Clay – Part 2.