What's the Deal with Charcoal? — I'll Be Ready in Five Minutes

What's the latest beauty product to disappear from my bathroom? So glad you asked! Toothpaste. Hear me out... In my never ending quest to rid my life of chemicals, I swapped out that nasty chemical-filled tube for something more natural - CHARCOAL! I was immediately hooked and let my charcoal obsession spread to my facewash and supplement lineup.

WHY, THO?

When heated to a certain temperature, charcoal becomes "activated" and has all these little holes in it that make it super absorbent + a great detoxifier. You know all those little black spots in your Britta that you're not supposed to worry about? Charcoal! Besides cleaning your water, it does a lot of other fun stuff too...

TOOTHPASTE

As a toothpaste, it absorbs stains from teeth! I had a noticeable difference in teeth whiteness in a matter of DAYS. I always used to buy whatever whitening toothpaste was readily available, but can't say that I've ever really noticed a change. THIS, however, was significant.

I bought two different kinds to test out. Lush's Charcoal "tabs" and Twin Lotus's charcoal toothpaste. The paste is like normal toothpaste - but black + with no chemicals. The tabs are actual powdery tabs. You pop one in your mouth, crunch it a little bit, then brush like normal after wetting your toothbrush. I actually like the tabs better. They are super travel friendly, and I really like the taste - it tastes peppery, whereas the paste tastes kinda like minty medicine. Both make your teeth INSANELY white and give your mouth like a DEEP clean.

SUPPLEMENT

When you ingest activated charcoal, it will travel through your bod absorbing toxins along the way. It will pick up things like pesticides, chemicals from processed food + chemicals from pollution in the air, etc. It also traps gases - aka de-bloats! Win win!

FUN FACT: It allegedly helps with HANGOVERS... When taken with your first drink, it absorbs some ingredients in alcoholic drinks that people don't tolerate well and lead to hangovers. Like sulfites in wine, for example. There's a lot of conflicting opinions on charcoal + hangovers, but I put it to the test in Miami and only have positive things to report. I brought a big stash and gave everyone a pill to take before we had our first drink. Then I doled them out again right before we all went to sleep, just for good measure. When we woke up, no one was dead! No extreme hangovers in sight and I promise you, enough alcohol was consumed that we did NOT deserve to feel as good as we did ;)

FACEWASH

Since I was already so sold on charcoal for my teeth + bod, my natural next question was, "Can I put it on my face?!". There are so many options for a charcoal facemask that I got a bit overwhelmed trying to choose one if I'm being honest... but I DID come across a badass looking facewash... Beauty Counter's charcoal cleansing bar is a cleansing dream. It makes your skin feel so clean and smooth without drying it out at all. My normal facewash is super gentle and calming, I use this badass bar when I want to feel SUPER CLEAN. Like when you're a little hormonal and afraid of what's about to pop up on your face... Or the morning after a super fun night where you forgot to wash your face (the horror!!). I double cleanse first with the gentle creamy cleanser, and then with the bar.