THE BODY SHOP HIMALAYAN CHARCOAL :: REVIEW

I'm totally obsessed with The Body Shop lately. I seem to have connected pretty well with their recent products over the past few years and, after attending an event at the start of April, I'm even more drawn to what they have to offer. One of the new product ranges that I'm particularly interested in is the Himalayan Charcoal Range.

There are so many interesting things about this range that are worth sharing For starters it currently consists of two products: The Purifying Facial Soap (Yep, a bar of soap for your face!!) and the Purifying Facial Glow Mask. Both of these products are 100% Vegan and promote Cruelty-Free cosmetics. As you probably know by now, The Body Shop are huge supports of eliminating Animal Testing on a global scale, and this product is designed to not just promote that; until the end of May, 30p of each Himalayan Charcoal Facial Soap product sold will go towards the protection of Red Pandas. So so far, what's not to like?

- Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Facial Soap -

But let's start off with the Facial Soap. I picked up this bar whilst at the event after one of the team members had shown me exactly what it is. To cut a long story short, it's a bar of soap which is infused with Fair Trade Kenyan Tea Tree Oil and, you guessed it, Himalayan Charcoal. The bar is black with tiny little pieces of charcoal dotted throughout. These little gritty pieces are used for exfoliating the skin but, I have to say, in a perfectly gentle way.

The smell is so fresh! You can definitely smell the tea tree oil in there, as well as a citrusy scent - it reminds me a little bit of the Fuji Green Tea range which, you'll probably know, is my favourite scent ever made by The Body Shop. What I like about the scent of this soap, though, is that the scent will last after you get out of the shower. Admittedly, a dose of your everyday moisturizer works to mask the smell but, in those few minutes when you're stood in the bathroom, shimmying the towel around yourself, you can often still smell the soap on your face and hands.

I would definitely recommend this soap to anyone with oily skin because, as soaps go, this one remains in the drying spectrum. I have combination skin which can often lean more towards dry than oily but I have noticed that, once I've washed my face with this soap, my skin is literally squeaky clean. It really does do what it says on the tin (sidenote: that's a hypothetical tin) and purifies your skin.  Totally perfect for after a hot summer's day or a hardcore gym session, but I reckon I might have to pop this one away in the winter time to avoid dry skin.

At only £4.00 for 100g, I think it's pretty much a steal.

- Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask -

I feel like The Body Shop has really stepped up their game in the past few months when it comes to face masks. The 'Expert Facial Mask' Range comes with a wide array of different ingredient combinations and one of them is the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask. Formulated with tea tree oil and carrying even more Himalayan Charcoal pieces than the soap, it really feels like a wholesome facemask.

I first tried this on in the store and again at home where I initially realised that it has a tingling sensation and dries rapidly into a pretty tough clay. It's one of those that makes it difficult to smile. But, nevertheless, this crusty clay means that, when it comes to washing the product off, there's some great exfoliation. It probably goes without saying that it smells pretty darn good - identical to the soap.

However, I do feel as though, for the hefty price tag of £17, it's not something that I would write home about. Despite definitely noticing that I had soft skin afterwards, I still felt as though I wasn't 'Glowing' and, honestly, I actually experienced a few red blotches on my skin after using it. I just feel like there are equally as good facemasks on the market for less money. On the contrary, the website seems to show a healthy rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars; it looks like my opinion may be a rarity amongst the bunch.

Overall, the smell of this range is divine - I would love to see more products brought out with this scent. As well as this, I love that The Body Shop are working really hard to turn their products as ethical as possible. I'd love to see them work on plastic packaging next.

Which products in The Body Shop are your current faves?
TWITTER // INSTA // PINTEREST