Black soap and its secrets 

A body scrub with black soap is one of the most famous rituals of the hammam. Black soap is a traditional and entirely natural cosmetics preparation. It’s one of the world’s oldest soaps, and has always been highly valued as its properties are so effective in enhancing the beauty of your body, hair and face.

An organic soap unlike any other

Black soap gets its color from the ingredients that go into it: a subtle mix of olive oil and black olives, ground and soaked in salt and potassium hydroxide. The soap takes on the form of a smooth brown plant paste.

It is not in itself a cleansing soap, like normal soap is. It is more of an exfoliating formula for a deep skin scrub. Completely natural, black soap, unlike the synthetic surfactants introduced in the 20th century, does not harm the skin.  Perhaps it was worth a try, but nowadays it is hard to ignore the fact that the demand for natural or organically-certified products is definitely on the rise. And it’s in Morocco that the finest and most ancient traditions of beauty and beauty care products still exist.

Originally from the region of Essaouira, black soap is one of Morocco’s star products, as with its high vitamin E content, it is a uniquely powerful exfoliate and an exceptional moisturizer. It nourishes, soothes and softens the skin in depth. Extra-gentle, black soap does wonders for any type of skin.

A top secret beauty treatment

Black soap is used for body scrubs, but also as a face scrub on condition that you avoid the contour of your eyes and lips. Black soap acts in depth, eliminates toxins and makes your skin silky smooth. It is one of Moroccan women’s anti-aging beauty secrets.

The trick consists of lathering your face with black soap after moisturizing your skin. Black soap does not sud much and is applied more like a beauty mask. Don’t give up: now you have to leave the soap on your face for ten minutes. After a first rinse, rub vigorously with a soft horsehair glove or a kassa, the famous grainy cloth glove used in hammams.  It’s only then that you can see the real value of black soap: the dead cells disappear, the grease vanishes and your skin takes on a dazzling new life.