African Black Soap by Nubian Heritage: My new Favorite Luxury!

Free samples are one of the perks about working in a health food store. This is how I found my new favorite tea, and now my new favorite body wash, African Black Soap by Nubian Heritage. True story: I scored this particular flavor because my coworker opened all the bottles and said, 'meh, this one smells like you-' meaning it smells like earth, sandalwood, cacao, and shea butter. Surely she meant it in the nicest way possible... Anyway, it's always quite a treat to use something kinda fancy like this body wash, cause my daily routine is pretty simple: Dr. Bronner's soaps, herbal shampoo, and coconut oil for my skin. But now it includes this yummy, vanilla-colored body wash. It feels so soft and pretty and makes my skin so nice!

But, hey! WTF is black soap? According to the label on my bottle, it is a mix of palm ash, plantain peel extract, tamarind extract, mixed with coconut, palm, oats, and other oils. It is the color of vanilla extract, and little bits of stuff make it look like vanilla bean. It is famous for helping with acne, eczema, and other skin problems. There are a few less-than-perfect ingredients in here like sugar beets (often GMO), and some of their products contain silk or milk- which I'm not sure are ever necessary. But overall their ingredient list is great. You can also buy raw chunks of Ghanian black soap on Amazon (check the link- the photo is super cool). This article from Treehugger has some more information about it too.

Nubian Heritage has an extensive line of body care, hair care, and such. Find them on Facebook, since the Nubian Heritage website was down at the time of writing. You can buy their goodies at Amazon, Vitamin Shoppe, CVS, Whole Foods and elsewhere (sheesh... any independent retailers out there sell this stuff?).