Your Well-Stocked Skin Care Pantry (Part II) - Earthy Additions

This is the second installment in helping you to build your skin care ingredient pantry at home. Building on "The Basics" (See October's Part I post), this post will cover the addition of clays into your handmade skin care product arsenal.
Clays are wonderful, affordable additions to your DIY skin care products, straight from Mother Earth Herself! They come in a wide variety of textures that help to benefit specific concerns. Clays can be added to cleansers and scrubs or used as a mask for face and body (and even hair).
Here are the one's that I recommend adding for your use at home. They are easy to find, either at your local health food store or online. I purchase most of my clays from Essential Wholesale.

• Kaolin Clay - This is my favorite clay of all! If you were to pick one type of clay to use at home, this would be it. It is a mild clay, typically used for those with sensitive or dry skin, but I find it to be beneficial for all types of skin.
• French Green Clay - This is the classic clay for facial use. It has a strong action on the skin and is great for drawing out impurities and leaving a tight, clean finish while stimulating circulation and the elimination of waste. I would recommend it for normal to combination skin. It is also a very mineral-rich clay.
• Bentonite Clay - This is a very strong acting clay and is typically used on only oily, toxic, acneic skins. It has a strong drawing action to assist in pulling out impurities. It can tend to be too drying for already dry or sensitive skins.

You may want to stock only a clay suited to your skin type, or a few, as skin can change from day-to-day and season-to-season. You can always blend clays together, too, and benefit from the different actions. There are several other clays out there - these are just the biggies that I have listed. Experiment and maybe you will find a secret clay that you love most! I've used everything from Sedona mud to Marl of Kohnar, gathered from Lake Beluga in Canada (amazing stuff!).

Here are a few simple ways to use clay in your everyday skin care:

• Add a sprinkle of dry clay to your current cleanser when cleansing your skin. It will add an additional punch to its cleansing action.
• Get creative and try mixing your favorite clay with a combination of a few of the following to make a spreadable mask consistency: herbal tea infusions, blended fruit, cream, yogurt, honey, goat's milk, coconut milk, fruit juice or coffee. Apply to freshly cleansed skin and allow to sit for 10 minutes before wiping off thoroughly with a warm cloth. Finish with your favorite toner and moisturizer.
• Create a facial scrub by mixing equal parts of clay, ground oatmeal and ground almonds. Add your choice of liquid (cream, juice, water, etc.) to make it a spreadable consistency and gently smooth over face in circular motions avoiding eye area. Rinse well with lukewarm water.

Coming next in the "Your Well Stocked Skin Care Pantry" series: Smooth Operators!