Everyone Is Obsessed with Charcoal Beauty Products, and Here's Why

Sorry to be blunt (and kind of gross), but right now there is a whole bunch of junk clogging, congesting, and otherwise messing with your skin. How do I know? It’s just a fact of modern life.

The pollution on your commute… The less-than-healthy lunch of two donuts and a pumpkin spice latte that you ate yesterday… That chemical-scented soap you suds up with at work... They all contribute.

There might be no real way to avoid a lot of the toxins that surround us, but there is a pretty simple fix to get rid of them once they're there: activated charcoal. 

The powdery black stuff might be majorly trending right now, but it isn’t exactly cutting edge. It's been a natural detoxifier for millenia. We’re talking as far back as the ancient Egyptians, who harnessed its anti-bacterial, anti-fungal properties and made it one of the first beauty go-tos on record.

It works just as effectively today, which is precisely why it’s showing up everywhere at the moment—from in a super-luxe detoxifying bath soak courtesy of Gwyneth’s Goop brand to super-bargain cleansers you can find on the shelves of Target. Ahead, 10 charcoal-infused products—shampoos, deodorants, almost any category you could name—that promise to detoxify your skin head to toe.