OKAY Pure Naturals – African Black Soap

“Bakesale”

I honestly can’t tell if this OKAY company is on the up’n’up—I’m not “consumer reports” here, I don’t have the investigative firepower you can only get with cold hard cash or unhealthy levels of suspicion. I like to believe it’s all good, but if you’ve got a soft drink called “Okay,” it’s filled with high fucktose corn, and if you buy a car from a lot called Okay Used Cars, better have AAA on speed-dial. I’ve used “fake” “African Black Soap” that seemed to be some version of black soap, but had nothing to do with the real thing, though it might have been fine, and fun—and left so much black dye in the tub it looked like your goth little sister had just washed her hair. But then some friends brought me some of the real thing, from Ghana—unpackaged, just wrapped in plastic wrap like a brownie from a bake sale—and it in fact resembled food more than soap—either some out-there cheese, or maybe date-nut bread. Real African Black Soap, from West Africa, is made from some kind of pod ash, oil, maybe shea butter, without lye—so it’s very good for your skin. It’s also kind of soft and crumbly and not very uniform, so it might freak out people used to factory everything. This soap has no added fragrance, but it does have an interesting, pleasant smell. It’s not quite as intense as the one I got from friends, but nearly is. The label says it’s from Ghana, and the ingredients are: coconut oil, raw shea butter, cocoa pod ash, water, and palm kernel oil. So that’s impressive. I’ve been liking this soap, a lot—if you can find some cheap, like I did, like at TJ Maxx or so forth—I’d say, hell yes, buy it.

Soap Review No. 162