Provisional scaffold. This page was created automatically on 2026-09-10 so that an ingested source could route to it. Aliases, category, and the contamination profile have not yet been populated. Content below is minimal until a synthesis pass consolidates the literature for this ingredient.
Reason: Nkosi and Thembane measured red and white mineral clays sold for direct topical use at Durban Berea Market.
Triggering source: Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of clays from Durban (South Africa) for applications in cosmetics
Literature scope
Reported measurements from source notes are below. No typical or upper-tail value is calculated here, and no certification limit is stated. The contamination profile in the page frontmatter is unchanged.
Verified source scope
Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of clays from Durban (South Africa) for applications in cosmetics measures two red/white market clays sold for topical use in Durban, South Africa. Results describe prepared dry material; analytical sensitivity, dermal availability and wider market prevalence are unresolved. The ingredient contamination profile remains pending synthesis.
Reported measurements
The 2024 Durban note reports one red clay and one white clay, oven-dried at 40 C for about 48 hours, ground, and passed through a 50 µm sieve, in ppm by X-ray fluorescence. The note gives no moisture correction back to the market material. Red clay was titanium 119 ppm, vanadium 240 ppm, chromium 130 ppm, manganese 850 ppm, iron 1730 ppm, nickel 340 ppm, zinc 60 ppm, yttrium 24 ppm, zirconium 136 ppm, and lead 27 ppm. White clay was titanium 159 ppm, vanadium 570 ppm, chromium 560 ppm, iron 153 ppm, zinc 29 ppm, yttrium 6 ppm, zirconium 156 ppm, and lead 16 ppm. White-clay manganese and white-clay nickel are not measured as a numeric concentration (the table prints a dash, the note calls them not detected, and it prints no detection limit). Arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and selenium are not measured as a numeric concentration (the note describes them as absent and prints no number and no analytical limit). Thorium and uranium are not measured as a numeric concentration (the note describes them as absent at detectable levels and prints no number). The abstract and the table each give one result per clay and element, without a metal-specific standard deviation. Chromium in the table is total chromium. Hexavalent chromium is not measured. Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of clays from Durban (South Africa) for applications in cosmetics
Topical cosmetic clay and the gut record
The clays on this page were sold for direct skin use. Gut, stool, drinking-water, and occupational metal studies use a different route. Putting those papers under a clay heading would claim a dermal or clay microbiome result they do not contain. A cosmetic supplier’s metal specification for a clay lot stays a chemistry result until a study samples skin or gut microbiota in people using that clay.
What remains uncertain
The human, animal, and in vitro gut papers in the source set do not dose cosmetic clay, do not report a dermal metal dose, and do not sample the skin microbiota. Product culture of the clay, if a brand runs it, is a hygiene test and is not in the sources used here. That source set does not support a longer account.
References
Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. See Sources for this page’s source inventory. Each title links to a source record with bibliographic details, reported findings, and document provenance.
- Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of clays from Durban (South Africa) for applications in cosmeticsPeer-reviewed
Sources
Sources catalogued for this page. The last column says how each source is used here.
| # | Citation | Year | Type | Used on this page for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nkosi et al. 2024. Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of clays from Durban (South Africa) for applications in cosmetics, Analytical Science Advances | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | ZA Pb, Cr, Ni, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Zn occurrence in One red and one white clay sample bought at Durban Berea Market, reported as harvested from uMzinyathi, KwaZulu-Natal,… (n=2) |
Update history
No substantive edit history is available in this build. The full commit record is available in git.