The *Only* Bar Soap I'd Ever Use on My Face

Growing up, my mom really had only two beauty-related rules: Don’t mess with your eyebrows and never wash your face with bar soap.

The first, I’ve followed to this day. The second, I followed until a product I recently discovered totally changed my ways.

The soap in question? Osmia Organics Black Clay Facial Soap.

This little bar of heaven is the opposite of the drying, bad-for-your-skin bricks you think of when you picture "bar soap" (the stuff my mom was convinced would leave your skin parched and shriveled up).

Vegan and cruelty-free, this guy utilizes black Australian clay and Dead Sea mud to balance and tone the skin, while organic almond, avocado and castor bean oils condition your face, leaving it super soft. The bar itself is small and charcoal gray (very chic) and smells fresh and clean.

I have combination skin that sometimes gets irritated when I introduce new products into my routine, which, I’m pleased to report, really didn’t happen with Osmia. Instead, it left my face feeling clean but not stripped of moisture. And I’m not alone in loving it. On Osmia’s site there are almost 800—792, to be exact—glowingly positive reviews.

At $24 it’s somewhere between drugstore brands and higher-end lines, but in my humble, clear-skinned opinion, it’s well worth it (and lasts between two and three months).

Sorry, Mom. I held out for as long as I could.