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“I found this in the apartment. Black soap. She used to wash her face eight hundred times a day with black soap.” –Annie Hall (1977)[i] Originating from the depths of West Africa, African black soap is as beautifully black as its name implies, created from the ash of locally harvested plants. It is particularly popular in Ghana, where it is traditionally made by women who use secret family recipes passed down from generation to generation. The process entails sun-drying and carefully roasting the leaves and bark to achieve an optimal color, texture, and fragrance; once this step is finished, water...

Mango, King of Fruit. It’s a title well-deserved and acknowledged throughout the world, especially given that the mango tree has been revered by Hindu and Buddhist cultures for centuries. In India, the mango is a symbol of love, with some believing that the tree itself is a magical wish-granting plant. It is believed that Buddhist monks introduced the mango to eastern Asia around the 5th century, with Buddha claiming to find tranquility in a mango grove.[i] Persian traders introduced it in turn throughout the Middle East and Africa, where kings and nobles cultivated mango groves as sources of pride and...

It’s every choco lover’s fantasy: chocolate is so mind-blowingly delicious and delightful in every which way—so how awesome would it be to fling yourself in a fountain of chocolate and just splash around indulgently in that? Admit it, you’ve thought about it. Okay, the swimming around in a chocolate fountain part might not be exactly practical or even as delightful as originally imagined (Would it be sticky? And supposing it would be melted chocolate, how much heat are we talking about? And, seriously, there must be a limit to how much you can drink or lick off of your skin)....

Butter might occasionally get a bad rap from nutritionist experts when it comes to its consumption, although many researchers are currently maintaining that—while it’s not a super-food by any means—moderate intakes of high-fat and high-calorie butter won’t necessarily contribute to health issues. Organic Shea butter on your body, though? That is inarguably the exact opposite. It has long been heralded as a “skin super-food” that is becoming one of the most versatile and natural beauty products that can be used safely on a daily basis.   Shea butter is an ivory-white, triglyceride, edible fat extracted from the seeds of the...

We typically associate pumpkins with autumn—Jack-o-lanterns on Halloween, pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks, scrumptious pumpkin pies for dessert after Thanksgiving dinner. You probably need at least a bit of fairy dust and a blessing from your godmother to transform a pumpkin into a carriage until midnight, but there are other year-round advantages offered by this plant that you can enjoy for a variety of reasons. The cold-pressed oil from pumpkin seeds, brimming with a spectrum of nutrients, has won a place for itself on the kitchen shelf and in the bathroom basket of cosmetics.   A to E: Vitamins for...