Beauty’s dirty secret: Is charcoal the secret to perfect skin?

You'll find it in face masks, cleansers and even toothpaste

Activated charcoal is rapidly becoming the must have beauty ingredient of the moment (Getty/iStock)

At this time of year, everyone’s talking about detoxing but there are other ways to clean up your act besides laying off the booze. Enter, charcoal.

Until recently, it’s something you probably associated with the annual summer barbeque or being on Santa’s naughty list but now, it’s started to infiltrate the beauty world too.

This isn’t ordinary charcoal, though; the stuff you’ll find in face masks, toothbrushes and juices is activated. Essentially, this means it has been treated with oxygen to make it more receptive to drawing out impurities.

In simple terms, it works like a sponge to soak up all the grime, oil and dirt from our skin.

However, activated charcoal isn’t anything new. Long before its incorporation into beauty products, the substance was widely used in the medical world. Because of its ability to absorb toxins, it’s been used in hospitals for years to treat alcohol poisoning and drug overdoses.

These days though, it’s rapidly becoming the must have beauty ingredient of the moment but, is it really the secret to perfect skin?

The super-popular ingredient is known to help make pores smaller and cleaner, to take care of oily skin and even treat acne. Its purgative qualities help pull the dirt out of your pores, making them less visible and removing excess oil.

Could it be time to toss your chemical-ridden cleansers in the bin?

But if it’s not for your skin, some beauty buffs are turning to activated charcoal to cleanse their hair and even whiten their teeth.

Putting black coal in your mouth might feel a little squeamish but it’s proven to actually be pretty effective. The absorbent properties mean it binds easily to substances that stain like coffee, tea, wine and plaque, so that they separate more easily.

For a product that’s said to absorb thousands of times its own mass in dirt and grime, it’s no wonder activated charcoal is creating such a buzz.

Could the secret to radiant beauty really be lurking at the bottom of your barby? It seems so.