Dudu-Osun – Black Soap

“Fruit Basket”

This is a fantastic bar soap, good on your skin, and I love the fragrance. I'm not sure how it compares with the other black soaps I've used, but it's right up there—it's high on my list, period. The full name is: Tropical Naturals Dudu-Osun Black Soap. It's from Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria—the full mailing address is on the box, as is their phone number, if you want to give them a ring. It's says it's made “the traditional way by hand”—and here are some of the ingredients: “Pure Honey, Lime and Lemon Juice, Shea Butter, Osun (camwood—you knew that), Cocoa pod ash, Palm bunch ash.” And “no artificial colour”—which you want to hear, because the black color is intense, as are the gray suds it makes. The bar is a rough, weird texture—like you almost feel like you'll come across larger particles, but you don't—and you can almost see colors in the soap's shiny blackness, like jewels in deep space. What I like best is this soap's fragrance... and I have no idea what to compare it to. It's pretty heady, earthy, somewhat floral, and especially, fruity—I'd say “intoxicating,” but that might be too strong a word. No, okay. It's intoxicating.

Soap Review No. 115