Rich in many benefits by nature, clay is available according to desires and needs. Sometimes absorbent, healing, anti-inflammatory, cleansing, purifying… There are almost as many different clays as there are skin types. Green, white, red … All you have to do is find the version that will best suit you and meet the needs of your skin, whatever its nature.

In this article, we tell you all about red clay: what characterizes it? What are its properties? Who is it most suitable for? How to use it ? Discover without further delay this natural ingredient with multiple virtues.

Used for many years for its cosmetic properties, red clay is recognizable by its characteristic color due to its high iron oxide content. Red clay is also distinguished by its richness in minerals, potassium, silica, magnesium, zinc, copper, or phosphorus… Dried so that it preserves the full extent of its properties , red clay brings to the skin what it needs. That explains the place this ingredient has been able to take in our beauty routines. Indeed, although it remains less popular than green clay, red clay is a natural powder that is gaining in popularity.

The benefits of red clay on the face

Red clay is perfect for illuminating and toning the complexion in just a few minutes. Indeed, thanks to its richness in iron oxide and trace elements, this ingredient unlike any other has the art of cleaning the skin, purifying it and absorbing the impurities that accumulate there while awakening its radiance. Anti-fatigue, soothing and reviving, red clay promotes blood microcirculation which gives it sublimating virtues. After use, the complexion is radiant and the small rednesses appearing there are reduced: healthy glow effect guaranteed.

The benefits of red clay on hair

But the power of action of red clay is not limited to the skin. Indeed, you can also use this natural ingredient in your hair, and more precisely: on your scalp. Capable of detoxifying it, this clay exerts on the latter the same benefits as on the skin of the face by regulating the excess of sebum, by purifying it in depth, by helping it to get rid of impurities, or by bringing shine to the hair and giving it suppleness, vitality and volume.

If red clay can be suitable for all types of skin, it is nevertheless particularly recommended for people with sensitive skin. Indeed, by virtue of its richness, it activates blood circulation, reduces redness, soothes the face and gently remineralizes it … In other words: everything this type of skin needs to (re) find balance.

It is also for these same virtues that red clay is recommended for blotchy skin. But that’s not all ! As absorbent and cleansing as green, this red clay will also purify combination to oily skin. Finally, it is also perfectly suited to dull and tired complexions which it will have the art of reviving the radiance.

Regarding the care of hair and scalp, by its color, red clay is necessarily more suitable for dark, brown and red hair on which it wants to be imperceptible and always as effective.

If the most common way to use it remains the mask – in the form of a more or less thick layer and as much on the face as in the hair – the red clay can also be manipulated in many other ways.

Indeed, it is for example possible to pour it into the water of your bath in order to benefit all of your body of its many properties, to use it in the form of a balm or a poultice to soothe targeted areas and particularly prone to redness, inflammation and irritation, to mix it with a neutral day cream to obtain a moisturizing tinted treatment with a healthy glow effect, or even directly as a mattifying powder to apply to the hollows of the cheeks to benefit of its naturally pigmented color… As you will have understood: with red clay, the possibilities are endless and the effectiveness is there.

The good news is that its ultra-fine texture makes red clay particularly practical and pleasant to use, no matter how you choose to use it.

Good to know: if it can perfectly be used pure – in other words, simply mixed with mineral water -, red clay can also be associated with a hydrosol, an essential oil or even a vegetable oil (or several for that matter) , which will only increase the properties of the care provided.