I have to say that Charcoal seems to be the new 'Black' in town with all the facial products out there having charcoal as the main ingredient.

I am currently using a certain popular brand which has a scrub but my major problem was that I like the roughness but I just think its a tad too harsh and way too 'hot' in terms of the alcohol they seem to contain which stings my face, whatever they say about the 'cooling' effect.

Most of the charcoal scrubs I have tried seems to look like an amalgamation of coarse sand and mud (the cheap man's mud mask?) and unfortunately makes one's skin feel ravaged, as if someone's drawn a really low grade of sandpaper across one's face.

I don't really buy into the whole 'fish tank' mentality of charcoal sucking up the inpurity and dirt (Come on, you are washing it all off with water, aren't you?) so what I really cared for with a good scrub is that my skin doesn't scream 'murder' when I am done with washing it and it actually get rid of the surface oil (at least till the next wash) without making my skin tight.

I was pretty skeptic with Mentholatum Charcoal men wash beacause it was actually another 'me too' facial product out there.

I was pleasantly surprised that the texture was not as grainy as the other wash and my confidence in it was really bolstered by the fact that my skin didn't feel as if someone smeared chili sauce all over it, unlike the other brands I have used over the past few months.

But mostly importantly, it does what it says based on my personal touch test, and that's the oily feeling on my face was no longer there and that after half a day it still retained its clean feeling. (Of course this doesn't work if you're going for a jog and swim afterwards, seriously)

So it passes my test as a good wash (I am still wondering about those charcoal bits) in that it doesn't sting my face and it washes off the oil and I don't get that raw scratchy sensation I used to get with other harsh scrubs.