Clay Masks

Red clay takes its colour from iron oxide — the same iron that turns a fired pot terracotta. It belongs to the illite family, which draws more water than a kaolin and sets firmer on the skin. Mixed with water to a loose paste and taken off with a warm cloth.

Rhassoul is Moroccan stevensite, a magnesium silicate mined in the Moulouya valley east of Fès — the only known deposit of it in the world. It runs roughly 58% silica and 25% magnesium, with iron, potassium, sodium and lithium in trace. Moroccan women have washed skin and hair with it for centuries.

Pink clay is kaolin with a small amount of red iron in it. Kaolin is a two-layer clay, so it holds less water than the three-layer clays and draws more gently — which is why this is the one to reach for first.

French green clay is an illite, mined around Montmorillon. Illite comes up green, red, yellow or brown depending on the ferrous iron it carries; this one is green. It is a three-layer clay and more absorbent than kaolin.

White kaolin, with no iron to colour it. It is the least absorbent clay in this line and takes the most water to reach a workable paste. The mildest of the five.