They make big promises, the packaging of care products with activated charcoal (activated charcoal). It would pull grease, sebum, bacteria and toxins from your skin. You could even get a younger skin from it. Sounds great, but what’s true? Is there evidence for these claims?
What kind of charcoal is in cleaning products?
Let’s start with what kind of charcoal is actually in those products. Because if you thought you were there by fishing some burnt sticks out of the fireplace and rubbing them all over your face, then we have to disappoint you. Activated charcoal has undergone a whole treatment. It involves oxygen tanks, temperatures of about 1000 degrees Celsius and a lot of steam. Also, activated carbon does not necessarily have to come from wood. Coconut husks and bamboo are also used.
After the treatment of the product, you are left with a substance that has become super porous. All these holes increase the total surface area of the cabbage. On average, 1 gram of activated carbon covers an area of 1 square kilometer† That holes make the surface bigger sounds contradictory, but imagine that you have a hand full of sand. The total surface area of all those sand grains together is much larger than a golf ball, even if the golf ball is larger. So it is with that extremely porous coal.
Activated charcoal has been used for hundreds of years
Because of all those holes, the charcoal is great at adsorption. What is that? The molecules of another substance adhere to the surface of an adsorbent substance. Simply put, there is a layer. That is different from absorption, where two substances mix. Just think of water being sucked up by a paper towel. There is no layer of water on the paper, but it becomes a wet sludge.
It is therefore no nonsense that the carbon binds to itself. In fact, the stuff has been used for hundreds of years, precisely because of this property. Activated carbon is used, for example, to purify water and for the adsorption of fragrances and dyes. In some cases it becomes also used in drug overdose† The toxins then remain attached to the activated charcoal and are not absorbed by your body. In short: it is clear that activated carbon binds (toxic) substances to itself.
But does it also work on your face?
Then the only question remains: does activated charcoal also work if you put it on your face? Short answer: no idea. So little research has been done on the effect of activated charcoal on the skin that it is impossible to say anything about it. There is anecdotal evidence that the stuff does purify your skin, but there have been no large-scale clinical studies on it. The fact that activated charcoal has a purifying effect in itself does not automatically mean that care products with activated charcoal also purify your skin. Evidence must first be provided for this.
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That said, using activated charcoal on your skin most likely won’t hurt. So if you just enjoy smearing yourself with black goo, then you should keep doing it. You only have to be careful with the nose strips that also contain a bit of glue. They can inadvertently damage your skin if you pull the strip off. And if you have real skin problems, it is better to turn to a dermatologist.
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