The Best Kept Secret For Amazing Skin!
At the beginning of the month, my skin went haywire.
I had pimples popping out of every corner of my face, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on – my diet was still the same and it wasn’t that time of the month. So, on Friday two weeks ago, I stumbled into my mother’s room and picked up a face scrub from her shelf. I read the label and one of the major ingredients was Activated Charcoal. I had never used activated charcoal on my face, but since the face scrub promised to get rid of my pimples, and I was desperate, I decided to give it a try.
Fast forward to today.
My skin has done a complete 360 degrees. It is practically unbelievable.
I use a small amount of the scrub on my face every evening when I get back from work. The scrub also contains apricot granules for exfoliation and luckily for me, they are very small, so I can use the scrub every day without irritating my skin. My skin has become so smooth and all my pimples have disappeared.
Yes, Ladies!
THEY HAVE ALL DISAPPEARED!
It was so bad that I had to run to the beauty store where my mother bought it to buy one for myself!!
Because of my wonderful experience, I decided to do some digging into this wonder called Activated charcoal.
Here is what I found.
Activated charcoal is pure carbon that is made from wood, debris, peat or other carbon sources. There are two ways to activate charcoal – Physical (heating the carbon source to high temperatures between 600 and 900 Celsius) or Chemical Activation (introduction of an acid, base or the salt to the carbon before heating it). What results is a fine odourless and tasteless black powder. It can be used on the skin and it can also be ingested. It can be used for a variety of purposes.
- It can be used to whiten your teeth
- It can be used relieve gas and bloating
- It can be used for general body detoxification
- It can be used to purify skin and hair
For this article, we will be focusing on how it can be used to purify the skin. The reason activated charcoal works so well on the skin is that it draws bacteria, poisons, chemicals, dirt and other micro-particles to the surface of skin and then absorbs them, which helps to reduce pores, achieve a flawless complexion and fight acne.
There are two ways activated charcoal can be used on the skin.
- As a mask: Activated Charcoal can be used as a mask alone (mixed with water) or mixed with other power ingredients such as bentonite clay or honey for deep skin purification. Also, when mixed with mild paper glue (I know it sounds crazy!), it can be used to remove blackheads and whiteheads from the pores. There are many videos showing how this is done on YouTube and I have posted two below.
- As a scrub: Activated Charcoal It’s slightly gritty, which provide just the gentle exfoliating the skin needs. It can be used as a scrub alone, mixed with other natural ingredients like sugar or jojoba beads. Alternatively, you can use a ready made face scrub containing activated charcoal, just like the one I spoke about earlier.
And you want to know the best part?
Activated charcoal is an all-natural product which won’t add to your body’s chemical load. It’s also less likely to cause adverse skin and body reactions than conventional beauty care products. You can find it in your local beauty stores and pharmacies.
So, what do you ladies think?
As for me, I will be trying out the intensive mask this weekend (the one with the glue)!!
Wish me luck and let me know if you will also try it out!!
Sources: Best Health Mag.com, Natural Living Ideas.com, Body Unburdened.com, Paleohacks.com
Image: Paleohacks
