Activated charcoal soap and salve

Since I started making my own soap, I've been enjoying trying new recipes, especially adapting them to use beef tallow. See my post Sustainable soap - 100% tallow! for most about why I want to use up the tallow rendered from our own beef.

I already sell 100% tallow soap (pure and simple), pink clay soap (pretty pink), lemon balm soap (green herb), neem oil soap (stinky neem) and coffee grounds soap (true grit) in my Etsy shop, and just recently I added my new black magic charcoal soap. See the links at the end of this post for the other recipes.

When I read about how this lady found that activated charcoal soap helped with adult acne, I really wanted to make some and give it a try. I have had acne on and off since high school, and it really bugs me. I found a a recipe for ctivated charcoal soap here, and then adapted it to suit tallow, with 25% coconut oil for suds. It makes a really nice face wash, although I can't say its cured my acne completely.

I ordered activated charcoal powder here (if you are going to make a few recipes with it, then buy the powder not the capsules, I couldn't be bothered opening them all to get enough out for soap!). You don't need much at a time, so a 150g jar should last for a while. (Here's a similar product on Amazon - affiliate link).

Around the same time I saw the soap recipe I also saw this recipe for a charcoal drawing salve, which is supposed to be useful for skin conditions that need "drawing" like acne, boils and skin infections. I made my basic herbal salve, and added activated charcoal, bentonite clay, lavender and frankincense essential oils. It smells lovely. It does look grey on my skin, so its best to use at night (although it does also smudge on my pillow case).

Activated Charcoal Soap

500g tallow
250g coconut oil
250g olive oil
142g caustic
2 Tbsp activated charcoal
2Tbsp bentonite clay
Eucalyptus essential oil

See this post on Lovely Greens for general instructions for making cold process soap.

Activated Charcoal Salve
100mL olive oil (can be infused with skin healing herbs such as calendula)
10g beeswax

2 tsp activated charcoal
2 tsp bentonite clay
30 drops essential oil (e.g. 15 drops lavender, 15 drops frankincense)
2 drops vitamin E

See instructions here to make salve. Add the charcoal and clay powder after melting the beeswax in the oil, otherwise its hard to see if the beeswax is dissolved as the salve turns black!

What do you think? Are you keen to try activated charcoal soap and salve?

You can get all my tallow soap recipes in my eBook Make Your Own Natural Soap, more information here.

Would you like to try making your own soap from natural ingredients, but don’t know where to start?

This eBook will take you through everything you need to know to make simple soaps from natural ingredients, including herbs, clays, charcoal, oatmeal and coffee grounds.

It also explains how to use tallow in soap. Tallow is cheap and locally available, and it makes long-lasting moisturising soaps, it is an under-utilised ingredient in home soapmaking in my opinion. This eBook includes 10 recipes specifically designed for tallow soap.

Basic Tallow Soap
Pink Clay Soap
Green Herb Soap
True Grit Soap
Black Magic Soap
Salt Spa Soap
Honey and Oatmeal Soap
Neem Oil Soap
Sustainable Shaving soap
Cleaning Soap
Formulate your own

My other soap posts:

Natural soap using beef tallow

Beef tallow soap recipes

Sustainable soap - 100% tallow!

How to rebatch a soap disaster

Why use natural soaps and salves?

Neem oil soap and salve

Shaving soap

Soap with coffee grounds

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here . You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!). I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months. I'm very excited to share this new website with you!

Neem oil for insect control

** Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post! New soap website and shop opening soon.... I also make neem soap, neem insect repellent and neem salve, all available in my Etsy shop .** A few weeks ago now I was watering the garden just after dark, torch in one hand, hose in the other, when I was attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes (mozzies). I could feel them biting me, but there wasn’t much I could do with both hands in use and I really needed to finish watering. When I came inside I found that I had several bites on each leg between the top of my gumboots and the bottom of my shorts. These proceeded to itch, swell and annoy me for several days. At this time of year, when the mozzies start biting, as I do have such a terrible reaction to the bites, I usually reach for my bottle of conventional insect repellent, typically containing DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamid...

Farm update - August 2017

Its been cold this month, and very nice to have the fire going every night. Here's a photo of my boy in his cape, great for late night woofing at things. Most of July we were either preparing for the butcher to come or putting meat away. Its always a big job, but its only once a year, and its all done now. My lovely neighbour came over to help, so it was fun to have the company and work together. Taz was a champion once again as she helped us to move cattle in the yards ready to load for the market. Gus is not at that level yet and had to stay home (he cries when he gets left behind, but he just gets in the way and scatters the cattle). We have had a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but also plenty of cold nights, so the grass is mostly dead and dry, waiting for the warmer weather to revive our summer-active pasture. Gus in his cape Taz after she helped to move cattle Food and cooking It was all about beef in July and we are v...

Eight Acres

Search This Blog