Activated Charcoal Soap Bar for Rosacea
An activated charcoal soap bar is a trendy beauty product. Is it good for rosacea? I've spent the past two months testing out four charcoal face soaps to see how my rosacea would react. Two are actually a face wash, but I included them anyway. Here's what I found.
If you want to try them, find the activated charcoal for rosacea products I used below. Let me know how it worked for you.
The Yellow Bird - Activated Charcoal Soap Bar
Of all the soaps, this one smelled the best. It's scented with lavender and lemongrass and smells divine. It lathered as well as the other products. I found it also worked the best of the three. My skin felt clean without feeling dry. I'm pretty sure that's because they add shea butter as a moisturizing agent. The ingredients in alphabetical order are:
- Activated charcoal
- Coconut oil
- Lavender essential oils
- Lemongrass essential oils
- Palm oil
- Shea butter
- Sunflower oil
Barbary's Ultimate Organic Face Wash With Activated Charcoal
Ultimate Organic Face Wash is geared towards men. I gave it a shot anyway. I figured if it didn't work for me, my husband or son could use it. While it is a men's skincare line, I found I really loved it, though the ingredients weren't as limited as with the Yellow Bird activated charcoal soap. It contains aloe, coconut oil, olive oil, and some antioxidants. The scent of citrusy cedarwood was just as appealing to me, even if it didn't last. Ingredients are:
- Organic aloe
- Organic coconut oil
- Organic orange peel oil
- Activated charcoal
- Tapioca starch
- Cellulose gum
- Xanthan gum
- Decyl glucoside
- Rooibus leaf extract
- Organic olive oil
- Organic glycerin
- Organic sunflower oil
- DMAE
- Green tea leaf extract
- Tocopherol
- Acai fruit oil
- Aspen bark extract
- Vitamin C
- Organic orange essential oil
- Organic cedarwood essential oil
- Organic geranium essential oil
- Organic lemon essential oil
- Organic lime essential oil
- Organic juniper berry essential oil
- Organic lemongrass essential oil
- Organic tangerine essential oil
Dead Sea Spa One With Nature Salt Charcoal Soap
As I've heard positive things about Dead Sea salt on flare-ups, I gave Dead Sea Spa Salt Charcoal Soap a try. I was a little worried when I read that it exfoliates, but it wasn't abrasive at all. It did a pretty good job. It didn't have too much of a smell compared to the other products, which makes me rank it lower than Little Bird or Ultimate. If you don't want a heavily fragranced bar, this one is ideal. Ingredients are:
- Dead Sea mineral salt
- Activated charcoal
- Argan oil
- Shea butter
- Palm oil
- Essential oils for fragrance
Biore Deep Pore Charcoal Cleanser
Given how oily my skin is getting as summer heats up, I tried this product in hopes of getting rid of the oily feel my skin is gaining. It's got a great price point, but I wasn't thrilled with the results. It left my skin feeling dry outside of the T-zone areas.
I knew given that it was Biore that it was going to have all-natural ingredients. It ended up being a lesson on why I need to remember to bring reading glasses to the store. Many of these ingredients are not good for my skin. If you have rosacea that's sensitive to sulfates and quarternium, avoid this one.
- Water
- Glycerin
- Sodium laureth sulfate
- Cocamidopropyl
- Betaine
- Sorbitol
- Laureth-4 Carboxylic acid
- Ethylhexylglycerin
- Acrylates/C10-30
- Alkyl acrylate crosspolymer
- Methylparaben
- Fragrance
- Sodium hydroxide
- Menthol
- Polyquarternium-39
- Disodium EDTA
- Propylparaben
- Charcoal powder
- Mannitol
- Cellulose
- Caprylic/Capric triglyceride
- Methylisothiazolinone
- Hydroxypropyl methylcellulouse
I do want to say that weather may have impacted the past week. It's been humid and in the 90s (Fahrenheit) for days. My skin gets oilier in heat. Therefore, I'm not counting any pimples that have formed in the past few days as being related to the activated charcoal soap bar I'm using. Of all of the activated charcoal products I tried for my rosacea, Little Bird remains my favorite.