Charcoal Face Wash and Shampoo

These are not your briquettes from the Memorial Day BBQ. In Japan, you frequently find charcoal based face wash and hair care products at ryokans, traditional Japanese inns where you soak in mineral hot springs, eat 9 course omakase meals (included in room fare), listen to seaside waves, and sleep on the ground atop tatami mats. They’re heavenly Japanese spa-cations. (John Lennon and Yoko Ono were big fans and stayed at a famous one in Kyoto, where they did not emerge for four days.)

As travel amenities, many of these ryokans feature their own skin and haircare lines in their rooms (like Cowshed in the Soho House.) Many of them are black, because they include specially processed activated bamboo charcoal, reputed to absorb impurities and remove toxins. As a result, you leave your multiple day ryokan stay with clear skin and shiny, bouncy, weightless, super-clean hair. Hoping to recreate this post-ryokan glow, beauty companies in Japan also sell charcoal based cosmetic products outside of ryokans.

Get it here.