Once considered a “rising star”, charcoal continues to be a reliable hero ingredient in bar soap and liquid skincare products due to its approachability, gender-neutral hue, and strong association with detox and wellbeing claims.

rising star: a trend that experiences sudden growth over a few months

Charcoal usually appears as charcoal powder in skincare products, which is natural and highly porous, making it well suited for removing dirt and oil from skin and hair. Charcoal can be sourced from a variety of different origin materials, such as bamboo and coconut shells, which can enhance a product’s ingredient story. It’s a simple ingredient that is well suited for any shopper looking for a product that will help improve skin clarity and remove unwanted toxins, sweat, and pollutants, as well as the aforementioned dirt and oil.

Charcoal: It’s Here to Stay

When asked about prominent trends in the skincare space over the last few years, charcoal has been an obvious answer for the Twincraft team. Even as other ingredients come into the spotlight, such as CBD or sea buckthorn oil, charcoal has the longevity to stay on this list of trend-focused ingredients for us to feature for years to come.

Nielsen discusses this popular active ingredient in The Future of Beauty (2018) report, tracking the distribution of beauty and personal care items with charcoal – sales of which have nearly quadrupled from 2015 – 2018.¹

Google Trends depicts a similar pattern in overall interest for “charcoal” as a search term in the Beauty & Fitness space.²

Interest Over Time* in Search Term "Charcoal" in the Beauty & Fitness Space (2014 - 2018)

*Interest Over Time: Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.

It shows charcoal rising in popularity from late 2015 – 2017, achieving peak interest with online searchers in early March of 2017. This aligns with the swift rise of popular K-Beauty inspired peel-off charcoal masks from brands such as Boscia.

At that specific point of time, charcoal was seen as a “rising star” as an ingredient trend, which means that it experienced sudden growth within a few months, but many rising stars do not stick around long enough to become lasting trends.

In the time since that initial peak in interest, charcoal has become a mainstay of many skincare product lines, especially for those focused on the men’s market. The interest in charcoal remains consistent and stronger than it was before its peak, and is a very popular ingredient in bar soaps and cleansers manufactured at Twincraft today.³

Charcoal in Bar Soap

Powdered charcoal is a very easy addition any bar soap project, and it is especially well suited for men’s grooming bars. It helps to remove dirt and oil from the face and the body, and even just a small amount of the material gives the bar a gorgeous grey-black hue.

Charcoal in Skincare

Charcoal is an easy addition to masks with clarifying claims, such as our Creamy Clay Mask concepts. We also have our own natural versions of the popular peel-off mask that helped charcoal launch to the status that it has today, as well as hydrating masks that feature encapsulated charcoal beads that burst upon contact in our Charcoal Burst Mask, and its cleansing counterpart, our Charcoal Burst Cleanser.

Charcoal is also featured ingredient in one of our favorite facial cleansers in our product concept library: our Detox Creamy Face Wash.

Detox Creamy Face Wash

The Detox Creamy Face Wash in the Twincraft liquids library is a flexible cleanser, based off of a soap and surfactant blend. This hybrid approach to cleansing ensures that it’s gentle and hydrating, never stripping. The base of this cleanser is versatile and can be formulated with additional earth-based natural ingredient stories, such as different silts, clays, and muds. To use, apply the cleanser to damp skin, avoiding the delicate eye area. Massage into the skin, and rinse well. Follow with moisturizer and additional skincare steps.

Source: ¹Nielsen: The Future of Beauty (2018) https://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/de/images/WP-CH/Nielsen_2018_the-future-of-beauty-report.pdf | <2> Google Trends: Explore “Charcoal” ttps://trends.google.com/trends/explore?cat=44&date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=charcoal | ³WGSN: Beauty Inovations: Male Grooming Winter 2018

Update: This product concept is no longer an active part of the Twincraft Skincare Product Concept Library. While we do not currently stock samples or have sell sheets available for it, it can still serve as a starting point for your brand’s future product development with us. Please contact our Sales Team to learn more about our current capabilities and featured product innovations.