I have a bit of a fascination with charcoal beauty products. On one hand, they seem to work very well. On the other hand, they tend to be very messy. When I got the chance to review the Konjac Charcoal Sponge by Oleavine, I was super excited.
Supposedly, you do not need to use any sorts of cleansers with this sponge. You just wet it and wash. When I wet the sponge, I was very surprised that no black charcoal bits came out. Of course, this makes me wonder if there is actually any charcoal in it. I used to use Lush's Dark Angel face cleanser, which has charcoal, and it was a big black mess all over my bathroom sink. This didn't even have any black water, like when you get a new Brita filter. That left me suspicious about their charcoal claims.
Even if there is no charcoal in the sponge, it is pretty nice. It is rock hard, almost like a pumice stone, when you get it but it gets super soft as soon as it gets wet. Even though I didn't use any cleansers with it, it also somehow managed to make my skin feel smooth. Though I will admit that I did not feel any sort of exfoliation, which is another claim Oleavine makes about their sponge.
In the end, I am very torn on the sponge. I am rather disappointed about the lack of charcoal in the sponge. I was hoping that this would be something like the Dark Angel cleanser but in a sponge form. In reality, what I got was a nice soft sponge that just did sponge things. Maybe I can find a way to use Dark Angel with this sponge and not make a complete mess of my bathroom. That would be pretty ideal.