Daily Dose of Detox

I discovered No Tox Life, a local Los Angeles vendor, at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market earlier this year. Being a big proponent of the benefits of activated charcoal, I was naturally drawn to try this chic DETOX Charcoal Facial Bar soap.

I can’t remember the last time I used a bar soap on my face, perhaps not since I was a child! But this isn’t just any bar soap – in fact, quite the opposite of the drying effects you might expect of bar soaps – this handmade soap is made with 90% mango butter and makes for a gentle facial cleanser.

The ingredients

The remaining ingredients include coconut oil which helps with producing a light lather, filtered water, sodium hydroxide, citric acid and activated charcoal. That’s it. Sodium hydroxide, or lye, is a completely natural, yet caustic component of soap making essential to the saponification process. But by the end of the curing process there isn’t any lye left in the end product.

Natural soap making is really an alchemical process of merging ingredients, giving birth to an entirely new thing. After the water, lye and oils are transformed into soap, none of the original ingredients are left behind! I mention all of this because looking up Sodium Hydroxide, might be cause for alarm if you don’t know that there isn’t a trace of this ingredient left behind.

The detoxifying benefits of activated charcoal are long established in beauty and natural health traditions both topically and orally. In soaps the activated charcoal helps to remove toxins, which can help reduce acne or skin irritations by drawing out impurities. It’s also helpful in more effectively removing make-up!

To get the most benefit from the activated charcoal I like to work up a good lather, avoiding the eyes, and let my face stay covered with the soap for a minute or two while I shower or brush my teeth. To effectively draw out impurities, the charcoal needs a little bit of time to do the job.

Long lasting + low lather

My first bar of soap lasted a good few months, probably close to six. So although $18 may sound steep for a bar soap, if you enjoy a simple beauty routine, this is a good investment in a long lasting soap. To extend the life of the bar, be sure to keep it on slatted soap deck.

Because this soap contains no harsh chemical foaming agents, it’s reliant on the bit of coconut oil included in the formula to produce some lather. This means that it’s a low foaming soap. To create a little bit of gentle abrasion I like to use this Konjac sponge, which also works well when rinsing off the soap.