Did you know activated charcoal is made of coconut husks and sand wood particles?

Activated charcoal differs from grill coal since it has a larger surface area and is absorbent. These properties result from activated coal being produced in high pressured heat. Activated charcoal is also known as carbon.

Activated carbon is usually incorporated in soaps, cleansers, and masks.

Today, we will discuss the benefits and value of activated charcoal masks.

Benefits of activated charcoal on the skin

• Tightens pores
• Draws out impurities
• Improves complexion
• Fight acne
• Relieves itching

How to use

• Wash your face with a gentle face cleanser
• Dry with a clean towel.
• Apply the mask with fingers or a soft brush.
• Leave on face for 15 minutes to 45 minutes.
• Wipe off with warm water and a towel.
• Moisturise with your favorite moisturizer.

Tips

1. Do a batch test before applying it to your face
2. Clean your sink immediately to avoid stains
3. Use your face mask at most once a week to avoid skin dryness and redness
4. Apply evenly on the face
5. If you DIY, make sure to use good quality activated carbon.

DIY

Carbon clay gel masks contain potent ingredients that improve your face texture and complexion. In addition, it tackles acne and other blemishes.

Caution

• Do not use grill charcoal on your face.
• Buy activated carbon from trusted sources.
• Do not apply a carbon face mask every day.
• Always moisturize after rinsing off the mask.

Healthy hair gives you the confidence to go out with your natural hair.

Say goodbye to painful and expensive hairstyles, relaxers and heat. Today, we will talk about how to keep your hair healthy, glowing, and happy. Trust me.

Black girl hair is curly, cottony, mostly 4a, b, c. The curls get tighter as we go up 4a- 4c. Some people have more than one hair texture on their heads.

4c hair has the tightest curl pattern. These tight curl patterns are why many people see 4c hair as tough. I have 4c hair; I face these challenges too.

4c hair struggles🙄

1. It dries out quickly because it struggles to retain moisture.
2. Shrinkage
3. Tangles
4. Mattings
5. Fragile, making it prone breakage.

Because of these issues, many people think black girl hair is untameable, coarse and doesn’t grow. 

Black girl hair grows; it is very versatile and easy to groom. You do not have to use heat or apply relaxers to your hair.

You must appreciate your curls because it is glorious and beautiful.

Tips for your hair

• Help your hair retain moisture by using good moisturisers and a great sealant. A good moisturiser has water in it as the major ingredient. In addition, you can try using shea butter to seal in moisture.
• Shampoo regularly; however, black girl hair doesn’t require daily shampooing; once every other week is okay.
• Do not use shampoos with sulfate and parabens. Sulfates and parabens remove natural oils in the scalp.
• Wash your hair in sections.
• Detangle your hair with a wide tooth comb or use your fingers. Apply water and conditioner before detangling.
• Do a weekly deep condition with a good oil or butter
• Detangle in sections.
• Braid or twist your hair before bed time to prevent it from detangling.
• Do not over style your hair, give space between hairstyles to prevent breakage.
• You can leave your hair in twists, twist outs, Bantu knots, puffs, afro, and buns.

The last tip for your hair is to love your hair. It is beautiful and worth loving.

Oil cleansing is rubbing pure oils on your face in attempt to dissolve clogged pores, makeup and dirt. It is a gentle way to cleanse the face.

Oil cleansing is better than the traditional face washing since it does not strip off face moisture, good bacteria and its natural oil balance. When the face natural oil balance is altered, it results in more oil production leading to more blockage.

The principle of oil cleansing is ‘ like dissolves like’. This means that oil dissolve oil. Oil cleansing is a more effective way of tackling black heads, white heads and other oil blockage. Since most makeup are oil based, oil cleansing is effective on removing makeup as well.

Effects of oil cleansing

• Gently removes makeup
• Soothe sensitive skin
• Tame breakouts
• Protect natural lipid layer
• Lifts excess sebum ( oily substance produced by skin glands)
• Clean out clogged pores like blackheads and whiteheads
• Remove dead skin and pollutants
• Balance skin oils and lock in hydration

People with oily skin benefit from oil cleansing too. ‘Like dissolves Like’, so oil cleansing will help remove excess oils on skin.

How to oil cleanse

1. Apply your oil cleanser on dry skin, massage it in for 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Use a warm damp cloth to gently wipe off oil.

It is best to do your oil cleansing at night. So in the morning you can wash your face with a mild face gel like MABS face gel.

You can use olive oil, castor oil, jojoba oil, grape seed oil and avocado oil for oil cleansing. It is important to note that the oils you use should not be food grade and have no fragrance added. Its best to use oil that are formulated for skin. Food grade oils will break you out. Food grade oils will break you out.

With oil cleansing, a little goes a long way. Just a few drops of oil or a tablespoon of oil will do. Oil cleansing should be done at most once a day. It might take a week or two before you start seeing results.

 

Shea butter is a natural oil extracted from the Karite tree nut. The karite tree is said to be the tree of life since it has great health benefits literally from its roots to its leaves. The oil is solid in room temperature.

Shea butter’s goodness comes from its constituents.

• Linoleic, palmitic, stearic and oleic fatty acids in shea butter balance oils on the skin and hair.
• Vitamins A, E and F are antioxidant vitamins in shea butter that can promote healthy skin cell growth.
• The triglyceride part of shea butter nourishes and conditions the skin and hair.
• Cetyl esters, the waxy part of shea butter seals in moisture and conditions skin and hair.

Unrefined grade A shea butter is best because left untampered, all the shea goodness is present.

Shea butter contains high concentration of fatty acids and vitamins. This makes it antiinflammatory, healing and anti aging. Because of this properties, shea can help treat eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis. It can also help reduce appearance of stretch marks and scarring. 

Shea butter has benefits on hair too, this includes, preventing hair breakage, treating dandruff and ensuring length retention. 

However, shea butter is comedogenic. It can clog pores and lead to acne if you have oily skin. Pure shea butter can lead to breakouts so it is not advised to use much raw shea butter on the face. Also, to get the most out of shea butter, it is best to use it at night.

Acne is a common skin condition where the hair follicles are clogged with oil and dead skin cells. It causes black heads, white heads and pimples to appear on face, chest, forehead and shoulders.

Causes

• Excess oil production
• Bacteria
• Hormones
• Dead skin cells
• Dirt
• Makeup
• Sweat

Here are 15 bad habits that cause acne and breakouts.

1. Stress
2. Sleeping with makeup on
3. Over cleansing
4. Dirty pillowcase
5. Some foods
6. Popping pimples
7. Makeup on pimples
8. Forgetting to wash face after exercise
9. Using dirty makeup brushes
10. Dirty towels and wash cloths
11. Dirty cell phone
12. Hair products too close to face
13. Following every DIY on YouTube
14. Touching face all the time
15. Some medication

Stress

When we stress and worry, our body naturally produce certain hormones and steroids. These results in our skin producing excess oil that will clog our pores. The presence of bacteria on the face, makes matters worse. The bacteria, Propioni bacterium acnes, is responsible for most acne and breakout cases.

Try stress less, sleep more and have happy hours. MABS provide relaxing Swedish massages and facials at home service.

Sleeping with makeup on

Let’s do the maths. Makeup + Dirt + sweat = big pimple. This trio invite P. Acnes into pores to cause a breakout.

Do not sleep with makeup on, you can try MABS makeup remover and MABS rose toner to remove makeup from your face or try MABS face wash.

Over cleansing

When I wash and wash and wash my face, this leads to my skin drying out.

Most commercial face wash are made with harsh chemicals that can dry out the face. When the skin dries out, the body tries to compensate by producing more oil. These oil will clog pores and cause breakouts. Washing your face twice a day is enough. You can use the MABS facial cleanser.

I have seen people vigorously exfoliating their face with face scrubs every day. This is a bad idea, not only are you tearing your skin and causing scarring, you will also cause more breakouts. If you must do physical exfoliation, once a week is enough. You can use MABS honey scrub.

Dirty pillowcase

We need to wash our pillow case twice a week. Dirty pillow case can introduce dirt and dead cells to our face and cause us a breakout.

If you use hair products like gels, oils and hair masks, it is best you change pillow cases every night to avoid these products getting on the face. MABS provides a range of natural hair products from shampoos to leave on sprays to condition your hair.

Wash towels regularly, to avoid introducing bacteria to the face.

Some foods

Sweet foods and dairy products are known to cause more pimples on the face. You can try stay away from this foods if you suffer from sever acne.

Popping pimples

I love popping pimples as much as the next girl however, it is not really a good idea😣…We risk introducing bacteria to the face or causing skin tear, and/or more oil to be produced.

Makeup on pimples

Applying makeup on pimples is like covering a wild fire with a blanket. It causes bigger pimples to form. Applying makeup on pimples will further clog the pores.

Also, using dirty makeup brushes introduce bacteria to the face and circulate it. It is best to wash makeup tools regularly and not apply makeup all the time.

Dirty cellphone

We are constantly touching our cellphones, it goes every where we go. It is important to clean cellphones to avoid introducing bacteria onto the face. Also, it is best we stop the habit of touching our face. No popping pimples, no touching of face and definitely no touching of other people’s faces.

Medication

There are some medications that can cause acnes, this medications usually work to spike up hormones that cause oil production to increase.

References

• LABeautyologist Youtube
• Health line