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BEAUTY & BODY GAMUT GUIDE
In search of shades, skin care, swimsuits, sassy styles or sizzling poolside tech? look no further! Alongside Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Dior and many more luxury brands you can find MAHALO Skin Care’s, Rare Indigo Balm. This supercharged violet balm can assist in calming inflammation and addressing acne, eczema, rosacea, dermatitis, and other skin conditions to promote a more radiant and youthful complexion.
SELF CARE SUNDAY
Our guide to must-try products, expert-approved beauty rituals, and how to keep all the spa feels going throughout the week. (Because you deserve it, babe.)
TREAT YOURSELF RIGHT
Whether you’ve got a few extra minutes or the whole day to spare, try our tips and tools to feel like your best self. If you have the day an all-day at-home wellness retreat is the ultimate unwind. Sinking into the bath is key when time is on your side. Throw in some powerful aromatic salts and bath oil while the water is still running. Once you’ve had a good soak, use a scrub mitt to slough away dead skin. Hop out and cover yourself in your favorite body oil while your skin is still damp and absorbent. Then wrap up under a plush towel or robe as your body sweats from the heat and bath salts (it’s super-detoxifying). We won’t judge if you take a midday nap.
Our Picks: Vacation Glow $95 mahalo.care
How to wear the color of 2018
Pantone has just announced that ultra violet will be the color of 2018. Vogue looks at how you can incorporate such a bold shade into your beauty routine.
Rare Indigo beauty balm, Mahalo, €110 on www.moncornerb.com
8 protective face creams to combat harsh winter weather
With sub-zero temperatures here, it’s time to switch up your skincare routine for winter. Think protective layers, with eight rich-textured and nourishing creams to rescue the skin from the dryness that comes with wintry weather.
Hydrating balm, Mahalo, 50ml, €90 Hydrating balm.
5 Brands to Shop From Neiman Marcus’ New Indie Beauty Selection
Walk through any department store’s beauty department and you’ll be faced with a similar experience: luxurious Chanel, Dior, YSL, Charlotte Tilbury, and M.A.C. makeup, pricey skincare products that you don’t know if you actually need, luxe candles that you hope someone will buy you for the holidays, and women offering up fancy fragrance samples. What you most likely won’t find? A brand whose label you don’t recognize.
Until now, that is, because Neiman Marcus is diversifying its beauty selection for a limited time. On the heels of the Indie Beauty Expo, the retailer is launching a new “indie” beauty category, stocked with brands that are new, effective, and mostly feature good-for-you ingredients. So if you’re looking to revamp your beauty stash this season, let us introduce you to a few names that you’ll learn to love.
1. Mahalo Skin Care
The brand created masks, balms and elixirs based on the principles of Hawaiian Mindfulness, with the cleanest and purest of ingredients.
Buy It! Mahalo Skin Care, $70-$110; neimanmarcus.com
Style & Beauty PERKED UP
Two foodie favorites – coffee and cacao – aren’t only delicious, but they’re also powerhouse ingredients in buzzy concoctions from Hawaii’s skincare brands.
Indulge in MAHALO Skin Care’s ultra concentrated The Bean mask – a facial treatment that awakens and revives both skin and spirit. Enjoy the warm aroma of coffee, cacao and vanilla beans, as well as the sweet scent of raw Hawaiian honey. The master blend of activated ingredients boosts circulation and gently exfoliates.
Why It’s So Hard to Be an Indie Beauty Brand
Startup founders talk the challenges they faced early on…
Beauty startups face a competitive market worth $60 billion; skincare accounts for the biggest share. To launch, brands have to figure out what they want to formulate and why, and who their consumers are and how to reach them, often on very limited budgets.
Maryna Kracht launched Mahalo Skin Care in Hawaii three years ago. She knew early on that ingredients would be a huge expense. Mahalo products feature tamanu oil (which has anti-inflammatory properties and can promote cell growth), sea buckthorn oil and aloe vera. Kracht looks to appeal to customers seeking something luxurious and handcrafted. “I want people to feel that this is an artisanal product,” she says.
With a team of four employees, she develops her own formulas. She works with local suppliers in Hawaii, uses organic ingredients and produces her own hydrosols, or distillates, such as rose water.
“I did have savings, but not a lot,” Kracht says. “More than anything, I had to be extremely strategic with every single dollar.” That meant lots of time researching ingredients before spending money on developing anything.
Kracht never resorted to formulating her products for Mahalo in her kitchen, as some natural skincare brands claim to. “I am a stickler for everything being sanitized and making sure we’re up to standards. I had a separate kitchen away from the house where I created a little lab of sorts,” she says.
Kracht’s face is the first thing you see on the Mahalo website. She still handmakes her formulas and writes thank-you notes to her customers. “I encounter challenges every day,” she says. “In the very beginning, you’re wearing a hundred different hats. I did everything. It was figuring out the direction of the business.”
Since its launch, Mahalo has gone from production in a small lab in Kracht’s home to a 1,200-square-foot facility with a walk-in fridge. SkinOwl has been growing every year since it launched. “SkinOwl felt like immediate success because we filled a void,” Tevelin says. ‘It’s not easy, it weeds people out very quickly.”
Despite (or maybe because of) what it takes to launch beauty brands, Kracht says it’s startups that are shaking up the industry. “These small beauty brands, mostly women-run, are trying to go up against the Goliaths of the space, but we are doing it with a backbone of five people versus 500.”
These Hawaiian Beauty Products Are Trending This Year
Green beauty is constantly growing, with new brands popping up all the time. The most constant stream of consistently fantastic lines, however, seems to be coming straight from the beautiful islands of Hawaii. No brand looks the same — some you can find at luxury retailers, others are one-woman operations that operate direct-to-consumer, some consist of one or two products while others offer an extensive range — but they all share a few things in common: natural ingredients sourced from the rich islands, knowledge of ancient traditions and customs, and truly gorgeous fragrances. Could Hawaii replace Korea as the new beauty hotspot? While we don’t see the latter trend being usurped anytime soon, with volcanic clay powders, exotic fruit extracts, and tropical-inspired packaging, things that come from Hawaii have a similar novelty, as well as impressive efficacy, and of course, absolutely intoxicating scents. No to mention that sometimes it feels like the sunshine-infused potions that come from Hawaii bring with them the relaxing and welcoming vibes of The Aloha State; because very time I try one, I can close my eyes and feel like I’m practically there.
THE UNVEIL. No one really looks forward to taking their makeup off at the end of the day. That’s why face wipes were invented. But what if, instead of a chore, washing your face was a delicious, five-minute jaunt to Oahu? Well, that’s what it’s like to wash your face with this luxurious cleansing balm. I feel like I’m going to a spa instead of to my bathroom, and I love that you don’t need a hot towel or washcloth to wipe it off; it just rinses away with water. A miracle, hand-blended in small batches, that can transform your bathroom and your skin.
How To Treat Dry Skin When You’re Breaking Out, According To The Experts
Suffering with uncomfortable pimples or sore dry skin is not ideal, but when you’re suffering with both at once, your skincare situation can feel like a nightmare. If you’re currently living through this, you’ll need to know how to treat dry skin when you’re breaking out, because as you may have noticed already, it’s not as easy as you might think. So I spoke to a bunch of skincare experts, to discover exactly how to treat dry skin when you’re also breaking out.
Maryna Kracht, founder of Mahalo Skin Care, tells Bustle over email, “Keeping the digestive tract healthy with fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut etc), kombucha, and kefir not only provides an important balance of probiotics, healthy acid balance, and vitamin boost, it also helps with proper absorption of nutrients and elimination of toxins through proper digestive tract routes and not through your skin.” Kracht adds that eating dark green vegetables will boost the alkalinity level in the body, so it might be time you start incorporating more leafy greens into your diet. “Water, sleep and exercise are also crucial aspects to keeping your skin healthy, vibrant, and clear,” says Kracht. She explains, “Water helps with eliminating the toxins and allowing your skin to be plump and youthful. Drink alkaline water. Either water with lemon, or water with a few drops of liquid chlorophyll.”
When it comes to sleep, Kracht advises what’s best for your skin, “Proper sleep doesn’t only provide rest, it also helps with balancing the stress hormones, excess of which makes your skin look inflamed, thin, and wrinkled. Keeping the circadian rhythm in check, going to sleep around 10pm, and getting 8 hours sleep is the optimum balance for many people.” “Acneic skin often shows lack of essential fatty acids, and will respond most favorably to facial oil serums or facial balm treatments to bring balance to the skin,” explains Kracht. “Our Vitality Elixir and Rare Indigo balm have been specifically formulated to contain over 70 percent essential fatty acids to deliver the optimal nutritive balance to imbalanced and inflamed complexions,” she says.
However, there is a method to using these products. Kracht instructs to apply face oils and balms over wet or damp skin. “This is very important in keeping the skin hydrated AND moisturized,” she says. As much as you may want to, you really can’t rush the healing process. “Stick to a skincare routine for at least one month,” says Kracht, “as it takes the skin 26 days to complete it’s cycle. Give your skin love and care to allow it to take the steps to properly rebuild and recover itself.”
Don’t be disheartened, it’s totally possible to treat dry skin when you’re breaking out — just follow this expert advice and you should see improvements soon!
Well + Good Editors’ Picks – Best Natural Beauty December 2016
13 NEW, NATURAL BEAUTY PRODUCTS THAT WILL SAVE YOUR SKIN THIS WINTER
From the bone-chilling temperatures of winter to all the bonus holiday traveling, maintaining that healthy glow is exceedingly difficult this time of year. That’s why multitasking, skin-saving beauty products have been popping up on beauty shelves so that your skin doesn’t have to suffer. So which are the favorite new, natural beauty products Well+Good editors tested this month? A rejuvenating facial peel, an anti-inflammatory cleanser melt, a head-to-toe hero balm, a dreamy coconut skin dew, and other new power-players—many starring matcha. Thanks to these complexion-saving products, your skin doesn’t have to be as dull as the weather.
Keep reading for 13 editor-approved beauty launches this month you need to know about.
Mahalo The Unveil Cleanser Melt Concentrate – This makes cleaning my face actually fun—one small scoop of the green balm (from matcha) literally melts into your skin and feels like an oil cleanser. Once you add water, it turns into a creamy foam that leaves your face ultra-soft—and mascara-free. Starring anti-inflammatory fragonia (an Australian plant) and exfoliating papaya enzymes, this tropical, buttery blend is perfect for a nightly refresh of your skin, particularly if you’re too lazy to use a few products for the job.
5 Hawaiian Beauty Products to Bring Out Your Inner Moana
Disney has steadily been rounding out its princess empire with more action-packed roles for female heroines (see Elena of Avalor, Frozen’s Elsa). The latest CG-animated lead to root for: Moana, the teenage daughter of a Pacific Islands chieftain who sets out on an oceanic journey to track down lost members of her tribe. Breakout Hawaiian actress Auli’i Cravalho voices the title character and composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda (of Hamilton fame) wrote the songs for the movie, which is already getting advance praise and includes enough epic scenery to inspire landlubbers to rig the sails on a canoe and head for Polynesian climes. To stoke your inner wayfarer, here are five island beauty finds infused with healing botanicals.
With oils that are cold-pressed or extracted using an advanced C02 technique to preserve the integrity of the raw materials, Kauai-based Mahalo Skin Care is both high-tech and distinctly Hawaiian in its approach. The new Unveil Cleanser Melt Concentrate (out next month) combines anti-inflammatory matcha, purifying willow, and pore-refining sunflower oil in a balm that, when mixed with water, transforms into a milky emulsion to soften and cleanse.
5 Beauty Product Swaps That’ll Do the Body Good
It’s no surprise winter is a time to ramp up your skin care. What is surprising, however, is that you might be putting toxins on your body without even knowing it. Did you know that many commercial beauty products may actually contain hidden ingredients that do more harm than good. The list is long, but some of those ingredients include parabens, aluminum, lead, mercury, formaldehyde and more. These types of no-nos do all sorts of things like cause cell damage, environmental harm and can even lead to allergic reactions.
Perhaps that’s why green celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba are known for preferring non-toxic skin care. To help us all identify safe swaps for our winter staples, our good friends at The Detox Market shared their approved green beauty picks for the season!
Mahalo Petal Mask. This masks has 28 active ingredients that work together to help hydrate, soothe and repair skin, and it’s safe enough to use for daily use. Plus, the blend of gentle enzymes allows your skin to swallow up the flower petal essence that plumps and improves texture.
10 Best Face Oils and Serums – The Vitality Elixir facial serum
Rich and potent Vitality Elixir infuses skin renewing powerhouses like sea buckthorn, turmeric, and carrot seed into omega-rich kukui and chia super-oils making it the perfect all-in-one treatment serum and nourishing oil for all skin types. Clarifying black cumin, tamanu, and helichrysum, also in the mix, keep breakouts at bay.
The ONE Product You Really, Actually Need This Summer
I really hate when brands boast of having beauty products that are “vacations in a bottle.” No matter how coconut-tropical-fruity smelling a body lotion might smell, it can’t successfully convince me that I’m on a beach in Maui when I’m actually reading a million emails at my desk in the middle of the day, basking under the glow of the office lights.
Mahalo Vacation Glow…gets pretty darn close. Maybe it’s the name and the very cool wooden bottle—even the ingredients and the “how to use” are engraved into the container, which shows an immense level of detail that you cannot stop looking at—that has me believing, but there’s something about this body-hair elixir that’s in a word, “beachy.”
The brand describes it as “molten sunshine potion”—a phrase that my cynical self would normally roll my eyes at, but in this case, I cannot think of a more dead-on description. It smells like fresh white florals (there’s essential oils of jasmine/Hawaiian pikake), plus something you can’t quite put your finger on (it’s a mix of tuberose, ylang-ylang and geranium)—a fragrant concoction that’s definitely more than enough for someone to stop and ask you what you are wearing.
Then, there are the hard-hitters: vitamin E–rich Kukui, balancing macadamia, does-everything argan oil, skin-repairing sea buckthorn and mega-hydrator avocado. The lineup makes the most perfect oil, a sort of rich serum that works perfectly post-shower—you literally only need a drop—to smooth out hair and perfect the skin on your legs. The best part: The scent and glowing hydration sticks around, so when your midday coffee kick calls, you may actually be able to take a deep breath, close your eyes, and pretend you’re on a lounge chair looking out at the sea somewhere.
5 Masks for Better Skin ASAP
No need to travel all the way to Hawaii when Hawaii can come to you. Named after Hawaiian Volcano Goddess Pele (umm how I become a Volcano Goddess?) the mask transforms problematic skin and reveals a luminous new you. But it’s the list of magical ingredients that prove that this newbie is the real deal: “Botox-plant” Hibiscus, Turmeric, collagen-boosting Vitamin C. Mahalo!
7 Truly Organic Skincare Products That Won’t Kill the Environment – Why Labeling Matters
The global market for organic personal care products is a budding industry, and it’s one that’s intrinsically tied to the “new green revolution,” which is good news for environmental activists. Regulating organic products: Though the Food and Drug Administration regulates products labeled as organic, the department has yet to adopt a formal definition for the term. “FDA regulates cosmetics under the authority of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA),” the organization explains in a statement. “The term ‘organic’ is not defined in either of these laws or the regulations that FDA enforces under their authority.”
Instead, the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in charge of the National Organic Program (NOP), which in turn holds brands accountable for labeling standards, which it defines based on the percentage of organic ingredients that make up a given product. It’s important to note that, due to the projection that the organic personal care marketplace is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, many brands are strategizing to get on board. This can, at times, lead to heavy marketing campaigns that can obfuscate a product’s actual ingredients.
Natural or nah? Just because a product is organic, that doesn’t mean it’s innately safer than non-organic products. “An ingredient’s source does not determine its safety,” reads a statement from the FDA. “For example, many plants, whether or not they are organically grown, contain substances that may be toxic or allergenic.” And the word “natural” carries no weight at all. Brands are free to use the label at their discretion. And big brands that may not have eco-friendly practices in their DNA are looking to get involved. “‘Natural’ has a fairly sturdy antonym — artificial, or synthetic — and, at least on a scale of relative values, it’s not hard to say which of two things is ‘more natural’ than the other: cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup? Chicken or chicken nuggets? G.M.O.s or heirloom seeds?” author Michael Pollan wrote in an April article for the New York Times. “The most natural foods in the supermarket seldom bother with the word; any food product that feels compelled to tell you it’s natural in all likelihood is not.”
With all that in mind, here’s a roundup of seven ecologically-conscious skin care lines to explore, all of which hold organic ingredients as a No. 1 priority. Happy bathing.
- THE BEAN Mask
The Vitality Elixir
“I could go on for decades about Mahalo Skincare’s Vitality Elixir….I’ll keep it down to three key selling points:
1) A wooden bottle that looks like it was found washed ashore, rather than behind a beauty counter.
2) The smell, which is pungent but beachy, and
3) the formula, which is chock full of Omega-3s, Sea Buckthorn, and everything else your skin loves.
An All-Natural Aesthetician Spills Her Secrets For Gorgeous Skin
…massage a dime-size amount of oil into my face and neck using light upward strokes and a few firmer circles on the jaw, third-eye area, and temples. Right now, I’m using Mahalo’s enlivening and hydrating Vitality Elixir, an exotic blend containing chia seed oil, turmeric, and CoEnzyme Q10.
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