If you guys remember, this was one of the items I got from Eden's Paradise last July (you can check the other products here). It's been 3 months now and I still have a "ball" of this soap in our bathroom and I'm still using it twice a day. Sadly I was only able to document the 1st. month of using this but hopefully you guys can see the difference. =]







Had to make the images smaller ^^, it's a bit overwhelming to look at all of them at once so you can click on each set one at a time..it helps too, in seeing the small changes.

You can see on the first 3 weeks of usage, it lightened up some of my acne marks and small bumps, but after that - boom! breakout. I can't do anything about the monthly breakouts though, because it's mostly caused by hormones.

Honestly, I was a bit worried using this at first because of the reviews that I've read (works great at first but after awhile because it removes oil well, your skin might get too dry and in return, you get too oily again). Not to mention, it looked scary! Haha. Black with specks of brown in an unknown shape. Still, I wanted to try it out for myself to see if it works for me.

As written above, the ingredients of this soap are: Shea Butter, Cocoa Pods Ash, Plantain Ash, Aloe Vera, Palm Oil, (Honey & Propolis)

• Shea Butter works as a moisturizer for the skin. It has fatty acids, Vitamin A and E and is usually used for dry skin, one of the facts why I was hesitant to use it at first. But as dry skin needs moisturizer, so do oily skin. It also has anti-inflammatory properties and helps in protecting skin from UV rays.

• Cocoa Pods Ash and Plantain Ash gives the soap its distinct color and softness. It has Vitamin A, E and Iron - helps in healing

• Aloe Vera, which is very common ingredient used for skin and hair products, helps in moisturizing, and in fighting skin aging. It also helps in treating acne and sunburns because of it's anti-inflammatory properties. 

• Palm Oil helps in removing dirt and in restoring our skin's natural oils. It has strong antioxidant (toctrienols - Vit. E family) which help prevent aging and damage to skin. 

At first, I tried cutting small portions on of the bar soap. It's softer than most natural soap (to think that natural soap melts too quickly!) ,which could be hard to handle, so I had to roll it into a ball. Although softer, it takes a while for it to melt. It lathers well, a little rub and a little water will do the trick. Don't forget to leave it where water doesn't get to it easily.

Once you get the bubbles, lightly clean your wet face with it and wash it away. Don't let the bubbles sit in too much, I think this is where the others had a problem. Because the soap caters to oily face - it removes oil. Really well. So too much stripping of natural oil will cause our skin to think that our skin is too dry, thus, the skin will release more oil to try to balance out our skin moisture. This is where moisturizer come into play.

I added a sunblock moisturizer to my daily routine and I'm still looking for a night moisturizer, but since my acne topical treatment is moisturizing enough, I'm not in a hurry to find one.

So far, the people around me sees some improvements to my skin (monthly breakouts not included) so I'm still using it. This is also the reason why I haven't posted much about facial wash because I didn't want to mess up what's working for me now. The ball of soap that I still have at the moment would last for another month and I'm thinking of ordering one once I've used it up.

If you think this is one soap you'd like to try, you can order online here.

I'll try to post a current picture in a few days to give you guys an update =]

If you know any good moisturizer that I could use during the night, do let me know!

*I'm also currently using the Caterpillar Lipbalm and Blue Salve (on and off). I'll do reviews on them as well.

Product from: Eden's Paradise (sponsored - thank you! =])
Product name: Raw African Black Soap
Re-purchase?: Yep!