My company, Bronze Goddess NG has an all natural skincare line made solely by me and with a lot of love❤️. If you follow my blog, you will find that care and research is paid into caring for the skin the natural way.
It is this love for a truly naturally beautiful skin that led me into producing customized natural skin care products for all skin types. I recently added Black Soap to my collection.
Black Soap is an African heritage, predominantly West African. It is made from unripe, green plantain skin and the process of converting fresh, green plantain skins into soap is a daunting task. But not only do we produce these soaps, I take it a step further. Naturally, all Black soaps contain Cam Wood, which scientifically is known as Baphia nitida. If you are Nigerian ‘Osun’ might ring a bell because that is what it is called in Yoruba language. Cam wood is a skin dye that treats skin diseases, ring worms, among others; and gives Black Soap its characteristic black color. Here is the process:
This is Black Soap without Cam wood. To make it richer and even more potent, we add Cam wood and sulphur.
After mixing Cam wood and sulphur with the soap, we mix and knead as though one is kneading dough. It’s not pretty but allowing the soap to sit for a couple of hours makes the texture softer and the color darker. This is where most soap makers stop.
But this is where we bring in the love😊. Black Soap naturally, dries the skin so over time, I found that people with sensitive skin or dry skin were avoiding it completely. People complained it gave them white heads – not my product thankfully! So, in order to create a power product suitable for all skin types, I brought out my bag of goodies – essential oils.
Yes, essential oils came to the rescue. Here is the ingredient list in my Black Soap:
Grape seed oil,
Avocado oil,
Orange oil extract
Rosemary oil
Rosewater
Glycerine
Lavender oil
Vitamin E
And a pinch of turmeric.
Both Grape seed oil and avocado oil are rich in antioxidants, make excellent moisturizers, contain Vitamin E and C, and help to accelerate skin renewal by promoting collagen production. Grape seed oil treats acne while both avocado oil and grape seed oil contain anti aging properties. So when you combine these with the skin brightening properties of orange oil and turmeric; and with the healing properties in the remaining ingredients, you create a perfect balance of a brightening and moisturizing soap that does not over dry the skin. Because avocado oil gives supple skin, you can expect a healthy skin as well.
This soap brightens, treats acne with a good fragrance, all thanks to Rosemary oil and lavender oil.
As part of the Black soap making process, we use silicone cake moulds in creating the shapes that we desire.
The soap is completely hand made, no preservatives, and made with love.
This soap comes in liquid form as well for people who love foaming bath washes.
We are giving away free samples to Lagos residents only. So, if you are interested, let me know. While you can walk into our natural spa for product samples, we can ship samples to you but you would have to bear the cost of shipment.
Keep me posted! Cheers!
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