African Black Soap

[azhang]

Anyone ever made it?

 

[cmzaha]

One minor little detail, it won't be African Black Soap if you make it here... plus the fact, every village has their own handed down recipes for true African Black soap

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

So I would be making Austrian Black Soap?

 

[Relle]

And I could do Australian Black Soap or Austrian ( some people get the two mixed up).:grin:

Links - http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=12860
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=1715
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=24094

 

[Relle]

One minor little detail, it won't be African Black Soap if you make it here... plus the fact, every village has their own handed down recipes for true African Black soap

Does that mean I can't do African Drumming (which I have for 5 yrs) here in Australia .

 

[allane]

Just like real castille soap has to be made with 100% olive oil, the same goes for ABS. However, you must determine which area ABS you want to make. I think African black soap is a misnomer. Since Africa is not one country and the recipes are numerous, we need to specify which ones we are making. I can give you at least ten recipes.

Allane

 

[Reveremike]

I was very, very interested in making ( trying ) African Black Soap. When I went to the website of where I buy my supplies I found that they do sell African Black Soap in bulk, but it stated that you are NOT to melt this soap. You are to cut it into the desired shape and use it that way.
After reading some posts on here, it makes sense that here would be a LOT of different recipes handed down from each different village. So, I'm optimistic about trying the one I found.
Can anyone recommend a good, homemade ABS that I can buy online from someone to try and see if I want to even pursue such a task?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[commoncenz]

I've been thinking of making an ABS inspired soap myself. I say "ABS inspired" because it seems that some folks get really upset if you call your soap ABS and don't go through the entire process of turning Plantain peel and/or Cocoa pods into ash, etc. To be honest, that sounds like just a little to much work to get a lye solution that you have no idea how strong it is.

In any event, while I haven't put together a recipe yet, I'm thinking of using palm oil and shea butter in combination with a product called "African Black Soap Powder" from Shea Terra. The only problem for me is that while this powder has all the ABS ingredients, I do believe that it is already soap; just in powder form. So, do you count it as an inactive ingredient in SoapCalc or consider it something like Pine Tar?

 

[Alan M.]

This was seen by a friend in Montreal at the Monkland festival

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Would this be the black soap you are speaking of? She said it just smelled like soap.

 

[not_ally]

Those are pretty soaps! Although hard to tell if they are ABS, they could just be regular soap w/dark colorant. ABS is usually more flecky in color (black and brown mixed), although I have seen some solid colors like that one, too. I don't know if that is a tip-off of that it comes from a non-African "village", though

 

[shunt2011]

Those are really pretty. You can get the black carbon from Element's Bath and Body to make ABS too. I've not done it myself though.

 

[commoncenz]

"Real" ABS isn't usually one solid color. The name is kind of misleading as the soap usually has grays, tans and browns to dark brown mixed coloring. That comes from the ashes and other ingredients (roasted coco pods, shea butter, roasted banana leaves, etc.).


At one time I thought about making this soap ... but after researching it, I just figured it would be a pain in the rear to hunt down the ingredients, make my own potash, cook the soap down ... Too much trouble when I can achieve the same reputed benefits of ABS using different ingredients in CP soap.

Also, the product I noted above is actually ABS soap shavings, so you wouldn't be "making" ABS by using it. You'd be "adding" ABS to your CP/HP soap. A lot of people do this and then add black coloring and then call their soap ABS. It isn't. It's CP/HP soap with ABS soap added as an ingredient and then colored black.

 

[not_ally]

Cenz, that is a sad post from someone whose kids call him "Potash Pat." I would fully expect you to be roasting your own coco pods/banana leaves, etc. Seriously, who does that? I have never used ABS as a component b/c it is meant to be drying and I already have dry skin, but this thread does point to the reasons why people mis-describe things so much for marketing (or just b/c they don't really know so much about their ingredients, maybe.)

 

[commoncenz]

N_A, don't get me wrong. "Some day" I might actually gather up the ingredients and make a batch. This would be purely to satisfy my curiosity. Right now I'm too busy learning how to make sodium citrate, figuring out the percentage of FO I like, testing new FOs, etc. etc to take on such an ambitious project. It's just too much when there is so much else to learn.

Now maybe if I was a seller it would make sense to make a batch. For some reason people are always asking about that particular type of soap and if I make it. The problem there would be that it's really not a soap for every skin type and I think most of the people who ask about it would try it and not want to use it again.

 

[not_ally]

N_A, don't get me wrong. "Some day" I might actually gather up the ingredients and make a batch. This would be purely to satisfy my curiosity. Right now I'm too busy learning how to make sodium citrate, figuring out the percentage of FO I like, testing new FOs, etc. etc to take on such an ambitious project. It's just too much when there is so much else to learn.

Now maybe if I was a seller it would make sense to make a batch. For some reason people are always asking about that particular type of soap and if I make it. The problem there would be that it's really not a soap for every skin type and I think most of the people who ask about it would try it and not want to use it again.

Patrick, I think you are just one of those people who are in love with soaping, so you might end up taking the long, belabored road with this at some point just for "fun". Especially b/c you are African-American, you probably do have more folks in your life who want to use ABS, although, as you note, they may have dry skin issues like me and decide not to use it.

I kind of think of ABS as being one of those soaps that people made w/what they had, and were/are good, but maybe not as well-suited to everyone, espec. b/c what we have now and here is so much more varied.

ETA: Race is such a stupid, non-descriptive term that I always have problems with it. I try to go w/the flow, but it is hard, even describing *myself*! Here in the States, I am not sure if I am sure if I am supposed to describe myself as Indian of Asian descent or Indian-American. In the UK, I might be Asian (they are more generic there) or black (at least in the old days.) I mostly think of myself as as brown and culturally Western with a good, sound, Southern Indian background (region makes more difference to us than it does to you guys).

White people are very rarely white, they are almost all some kind of combination of cream-pink-olive-brown, etc. I had a boyfriend at one point whose family were Social Register/Blue Book, Mayflower types, and he got as dark as I did w/enough time in the sun. Who knows what went on in the past there

These days I usually check the "other" box and hope it is good enough. Sorry for the de-rail

 

[commoncenz]

N_A, not to worry about the race issue. Personally, in my gene/dna pool I have African, Native American and Caucasian. Made for an interesting development when I had children with my ex-wife (Caucasian) as my oldest looks "bi-racial", his sister looks Caucasian and the youngest of the three looks "latino".

True story: When the younger son was about 5 he was acting up in a store. I stopped to chastise him and noticed a latino lady looking at me funny. Eventually she couldn't contain herself anymore and came running over to ask me what made me think I had the right to "discipline someone else's child". She then began asking my son where his family was (in Spanish, which I "somewhat" understand). My son looks at her and says "I'm sorry, I don't understand you", looks at me and says "Dad, can we go now?"

The lady's husband came up and says "see, I told you. That's his son. He looks just like him. Always butting into other people's business". He then took her by the arm and "maneuvered" her out of my way.

My son and I laugh about that to this day and for the longest time, we called him "Chico".

And since no story is complete without a pic ... Me, my daughter and younger son.

 

[not_ally]

Cenz, *what* a sweet picture. Your kids are stunning. I know what you mean about the kids not looking like they belong to you issue, my middle sister was once mistaken for her daughter's nanny, that did not go over well

ETA: adding a pics of my youngest sister's kids. It is really not the best/most flattering picture of them (esp. Livi, the little one) but it always makes me laugh b/c it makes them look as if they are street kids in Mexico selling chicklets, when in real life they are ultra-privileged children with v. well-off, helicopter yuppy parents. And it was taken in San Diego!

They are always a little urchin-ish looking though, they seem to prefer that look, despite grown-up efforts they are always barefoot and ragged. But I kind of like that. My save description of that photo is "feral children" and Livi is a bit, she is much scarier than I am when she wants to be

 

[commoncenz]

Beautiful children!!

 

[cmzaha]

Dudu Osun is a manufactured ABS in Africa that is black and looks completely different from the ABS made in the villages. Village made is not really black as not_ally stated, but is a mottled brown anywhere from light mottled brown to dark mottled brown. Dudu Osun is also hard like any cp soap, village ABS is soft and best to pinch off a pinch to use, being careful of hard leftover shell and other botanical debris left in the soap.

 

[PrairieLights]

So interesting that you are talking about black soap today. My daughter just told me (minutes ago) that she has started using "Dr Woods Pure Black Soap" on her face... so of course, off I went in search of this mystical black soap she speaks of... Found a recipe from soaping 101. I am totally going to try it!
Don't know about the PKO though... so I logged on here to see if there is a recipe hanging around that doesn't have PKO in it. (Shhhh! I do have a little bit in my soaping closet! I will use it if I have to!)
Anywho... I make her organic OO because her skin all over her body is covered in sores... long story... but now that I know she uses this on her face (which - is NOT - 'pure black soap' doctor woods, whomever you may be) I am going to accept the challenge and dry out plantain skin. Now to hope this area carries them................
Have a great day y'all! Back to searching for a recipe without PKO...:smile: