Closer Look - Raw african black soap

Hi everyone, I'm going to be talking about raw African black soap today. You've probably heard about it before ... you might even have, you know, seen it or used it. But I'm gonna show you like a close-up look at it in case you haven't actually seen it "in action" or whatever you want to call it. Just to start off with, it kind of just looks like this, and it's made of things like plantain skins, palm leaves, cocoa pod powder ... coconut oil, shea butter sometimes ... and palm kernel oil. And it has pieces of ash in it to, I guess, give it a little bit more of an exfoliating effect. It usually comes in a slab and you just cut off pieces and you add water to it and foam it up ... and you spread it on your skin. And you can use it on your face, your body, your scalp ... as a shampoo ... I've heard, you know, people finding all sorts of uses for it. It's good for body acne because it'll bring the impurities up to the surface and clean it out. It serves as a good body soap, facial soap, of course, and shampoo. And for shampoo and the body soap or wash, what I heard you can do is just drop a couple pieces of the black soap in a container and add water and shake it about ... and let it sit for a few hours to a few days and it'll become sort of like a body gel/shower gel consistency. It's got naturally occurring vitamins A and E in it, there's no sodium laureth sulfate in it -- obviously it's a natural product. And there are also antibacterial and anti-fungal properties that help sort of kill or keep the bacteria at bay that might cause acne. It doesn't actually sort of stop acne once you have it, but it definitely helps clear out the bacteria to help it sort of heal a little bit. So I think, with these properties, it would be good for eczema or psoriasis because it's so soothing with the coconut oil and shea butter in it. It's also got antioxidants in it, and it's supposed to help prevent excessive oil, so I think this would be a really good skincare option for someone who has oily skin. I also read that it fades spots, so it might be good for someone who's looking for anti-aging benefits. I also read that for some people, it was a little harsh on their skin. It does have ash in it, which serves as sort of an exfoliant, so I wouldn't recommend using the soap -- like the soap piece -- directly on your skin because it might be too harsh and kind of hurt your skin. But, I mean, if you're gonna use it on your body, I don't see that that's a problem at all. Some people thought using your everyday on their skin was too much, and they used it only like a few times a week. I have dry-combo skin and I definitely haven't seen any problems with rawness or, you know, pain or anything like that. It hasn't dried my skin out, 'cause I guess it has shea butter in it. And of course, the ingredients vary a little bit, depending on your vendor. But they generally have plantain skins, palm leaves, and cocoa pod powder in them. And I think coconut oil as well. Another thing that people have been saying about it that I haven't personally experienced is that it's really messy. It does look like this, and it's a little bit crumbly, as you can see from this piece here. But in terms of actually, when I'm using it and foaming it up, it doesn't fall apart or anything. It becomes this sort of glycerin-like soap. It does -- towards the end, when it's getting pretty small, it gets really mushy and kind of difficult to use. That's my only complaint about it. But I wouldn't say that you have to use this in the shower or anything, because it's not gonna get all over the place -- or at least not this one. I think it's fairly, you know, neat. There are a lot of different kinds of African black soaps on the market. There are some that are literally black and look like your typical bar of soap. I think Shea Terra or something or Shea Organics sells that. Or Out of Africa -- that's another brand. And you can find those at Target or Vitacost or general health food stores. This obviously is not that. Those are black soap -- African black soap -- but they're not ... I don't think they're raw. Because this one is, like, really unprocessed. Those have been, I think, filtered out and, you know, "made pretty." This is very not pretty. And it actually smells like mushrooms. And it does smell like mushrooms when I'm using it on my face, but the smell does not last at all. So it's not really offensive. This is the piece of raw African black soap I'm currently using. It's dry right now, but I'm about to show you what it looks like when you foam it up. I forgot to mention that I've been using this for about 3 months now, and I've seen a pretty significant reduction in hormonal acne. Usually, I would something like Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash before that time of the month to prevent any hormonal acne, but I definitely haven't done that and I haven't seen any hormonal acne. So I think it's doing its job. As I mentioned before, I use this at morning and night, and I pay extra careful attention not to use it around my eyes or any extra sensitive skin, like sunburns because it can sting a little bit. This is the soap when it's wet. And this is just a little chunk that I have left that has turned mushy and into a glycerin soap. This is pretty hard to use, so I just let it be or try to combine all the little pieces together at the end. So that's African black soap. I hope that was interesting or useful to you, and if you have any questions, of course, let me know and I'll try my best to answer your questions. Thanks for watching -- I'll see you guys next time. Bye.