I recently started making a facial bar with activated charcoal because customers with acne were requesting it. One of my very best customers bought a bar last month and has been using it since. She did not have acne before but since using the activated charcoal bar has several spots of tiny pimples on her face. The base oils / butters and essential oils are the same as my other bars that she uses and loves. Activated charcoal is the only difference. Do you think the charcoal is drawing out impurities or maybe is too harsh for her face?
Activated Charcoal causing acne?
- Thread starter Becky1024
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What percentage of CO are you using? The bottom line is your bar may be to harsh and overacting her oil glands. To much AC or CO. I sold many AC facial bars made with low CO but enough AC to make them very dark gray. I also had a lot of customers that liked light salt bars with 20% neem oil and AC.
Off hand I don’t have the % CO handy, but it is low and is the same percent as my other bars that she loves.
Here is my personal experience, but has not been scientifically tested -
I use an activated charcoal mask regularly. My skin and particularly pores look much better than before I started using it. I did find that I sometimes got tiny pimples and these were different than the type of acne I got previously, prior to changing my diet and facial routine. So I made sure to thoroughly wipe my face with toner drenched cotton ball(s) after the mask treatments. Haven't had the issue since. My theory is that some of the tiny charcoal particle was sometimes lodging in a pore. Using the cotton ball helped me see if there was any additional black residue coming off, even though I thought I had rinsed my face thoroughly. I use another fresh toner drenched cotton ball until the last one shows no black residue. Typically this is twice at the most.
So maybe ask if she is following her face washing with a toner. You can tell her my experience and see if it is helpful for her. I still stand by what the activated charcoal mask does for my skin. So, if she sees improvements like I have, it's worth the extra swabs of toner on cotton balls.
Maple_Street_Bath
Well-Known Member
From my experience, I break out when using AC soaps. Like your customer I don't have problems when using the same recipe in a soap without AC. I discovered that if I follow up with a heavy moisturizer, I don't break out. My suspicion is that the AC is too drying for my skin (I tend to be dry to begin with and have only an occasional pimple).
If this were my customer, I would advise her that if her skin is good to begin with she doesn't need the AC soap, but she could try following up with a moisturizer (or heavier moisturizer if she already uses one) if she wants to continue trying the AC soap. If she doesn't want to continue with it, I would just offer her a replacement bar without AC to keep the good relationship.
If this were my customer, I would advise her that if her skin is good to begin with she doesn't need the AC soap, but she could try following up with a moisturizer (or heavier moisturizer if she already uses one) if she wants to continue trying the AC soap. If she doesn't want to continue with it, I would just offer her a replacement bar without AC to keep the good relationship.
It is certainly possible she just cannot use AC soap, so she needs to stick to what works for her, that is the nice thing about handmade soaps. I have had customers that could not use any lye soaps no matter how they were made, we are all different.
I have found AC to be drying on my skin, I don't recall if I used it on my face, but I use all my soaps on my face so stands to reason I did.
Thank you. I plan to give her credit for another bar so she can pick what she wants.
