The other day I wrote that I had used white kaolin for my soap and received a question about whitening soap with kaolin from Silvia at SoapJam (please visit her at http://soapjam.wordpress.com/ to learn more about the history of white kaolin and enjoy her beautiful soaps.)
First of all, I have to say that white kaolin does not have the whitening ability of titanium dioxide. However, if you use enough of it with the right oils it will enhance the white in soap and give you the soft white color which some people associate with natural ingredients in soap.
However, first things first. When I want my soap to be white, I use oils which do not discolor or give you beige or any other colors. I can say that olive pomace oil, pumpkin seed oil, macadamia nut oil, sesame oil (the brownish variety), avocado oil, hemp seed oil have all given me different colors from beige to green and never white.
Extra virgin olive oil does not produce white either so I usually use camellia oil, sunflower oil, or rice bran oil when I go for white in my soap. Then again, I do not let the soap gel because once it goes through gel phase you get that nearly translucent very light beige, which is also nice but only if you want it in your soap.
When you use kaolin though, and if you use more than one tablespoonful per 500 g of oil, you can get good results and most of the time even if the soap does gel, it turns out white.
Here are some photos of some of the soaps I have made with and without white kaolin.
The first one is without. The soap went through gel phase beautifully and got that almost translucent look.
I used white kaolin for the next one.
And the next.
And below is what you can get when parts of the soap contain white kaolin and others do not.
Of course if you use “white” oils and do not let your soap gel, you can get white without using kaolin, too. And while it is quite easy to do so in winter, summer temperatures do not offer any choice. Like it or not soap gels, there is no way stopping it (except of course for putting it in the refrigerator, given you have enough room in there and there is no danger of somebody mistaking your soap for food.)
So this is what I have to say about kaolin in short. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I will do my best to give you the answer based on my experience so far.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the day and the reminder of this week.
Maya
Infusions 
I loved this post. I do not like to use titanium dioxide just by unnatural aspect that it gives the white soap. I will test white kaolin. Thank you! (forgive my english not very good)
Thank you for visiting! Your English is much better than my Portuguese so there is nothing to apologize for. I will be happy to have your comments whenever you feel like leaving some.
Maya
Maya, thank you so much for this informative post on the effects of kaolin in soap. I really appreciate the different photos you shared so we can compare and see the difference. All your soaps look beautiful! I particularly like the last one. It looks so serene and elegant in its simplicity – a perfect balance of yin and yang. 🙂
Silvia, you are very welcome. I hope that the above information will be helpful. I myself had many questions when I began using kaolins but had to find the answers to most of them through trial and failure 🙂 But it has been fun and though I sometimes do not the expected result, I love using kaolins in soap.
The last soap here is one of my favorites and though I don’t usually make the same soap again, I will definately repeat that one some day soon.
Maya
[…] made an excellent follow-up post on using white kaolin in soap and its effects. Please head over to Infusions to read about it in […]
Thank you for the pingback, Silvia!
Such beautiful soaps! I recently tried kaolin in my soaps but I gelled them and did not achieved such beautiful, sophisticated color.I like kaolin in soap, I think it provides additional cleaning ability to soap.
Thank you, Gordana. Gelling soaps with kaolin can give you unexpected results but even when the soap gels, I think that it is still beautiful.
Maya
Your soaps are so beautiful! They have such a delicate look to them 🙂
Thank you, Roxana. I visited your blog and enjoyed the pics of your soaps so much! I love your style and hope to be able to use colors as you do some day soon.
Maya
Thanks for sharing this with us, Maya! When you don’t let the soap gel, how long do you keep th soap in the fridge? I used to make soaps without letting the soap gel, but then I didn’t really like the texture of the soap( too sticky)…
Your soaps are gorgeous, as always, Maya!
You are very welcome, Natalia. I actually do not keep the soap in the fridge as our fridge at home accommodates all my oils and other soaping goodies in addition to my husband’s selection of Japanese sake 🙂 So as there is no room in there for soap molds, I keep the soap out of the fridge and simply do not insulate it, just cover the molds with plastic foil and that’s all. In summer it is more difficult because I have to keep the airconditioning on all the time. But summers in Tokyo are so hot and humid that even with airconditioning it is often difficult to prevent gelling…Anyway, in most cases I do not take the soap out of the mold for at least 26 hrs in winter and 16 hrs in summer.
For the sake of design, I sometimes do not allow the soap to gel but I do prefer the silky feel to the soap which has gon through gel phase 🙂
Maya
Thanks for the tips on the kaolin and showing us your lovely creations. I like all of them but the last one is striking in its simple beauty.
Thank you, J and you are very welcome. I hope the information in this post will be helpful but if it is not enough I will try to provide more based on what I have done so far.
As for the soaps here, as I wrote above, the last one above is one of my favorite soaps and I am going to make it again some day.
Maya
[…] more on kaolin clay, Maya of Infusions Blog and Gordana of Moj Sapun have written about their experiences with […]
Hi Maya, I love what you are doing with your soaps! They are so elegant and has such nice colours, too 🙂
May I know how do you manage to do the last soap that looks like yin and yang symbol? It’s totally fine if you cannot disclose it. Thank you!
Hi Silver. Thank you for visiting and the heart-warming comment. I used a plastic sheet (part of a plastic file) which I folded and inserted into a tall cylinder mold. I hope you can imagine how I did it. If not, please let me know. I will try to upload a picture to show you.
Maya
Your soaps are gorgeous. I don’t understand how you made the yin yang soap. After you inserted the sheet into the mold, how did you get it out without ruining the design?
Hi Jessica. Thank you for stopping by. You insert the plastic sheet into the mold first, pour your soap into it and after all the batter is safely in you can just pull the sheet out. Given that your batter had been week-traced, there should be a clear line between the two colors.
hello, can you please tell me how to add kaolin clay to my cold process soap, I want to use it for a white swirl in my base soap, thanks
Hi Susan,
Thank you for stopping by. You can make a water slurry and then add it to the soap batter and blend well. You should not forget to discount the water for your lye solution though as using two much water in part of your soap may result in a somewhat 3-D pattern after it is cut and dries.