From the first day I met Rick at a friendʻs dinner party, I knew he was a pharmacist that learned about the medicinal properties of kava and was set on creating an after sun product around it. I mostly rembered that fact because I thought it was odd that he focused on such a natural compound instead of a drug. My remembered hearing about it most from a royal kava ceremony when the King of Tonga visited the Polynesian Cultural Center. From the beginning, Rick always had various iterations of kava creations for friends who vacation in Hawaii and get sunburned.
Fast forward to the launch of MOEĀ and our first complete year of sales in retail. Our sales data showed that our tribe of customers and friends gravitate toward our sprayable misting products. About that time one of our wholesale contacts said they often hear customers looking for intense skin hydration and soothing after spending a day at the beach so they would offer our body milk mist. I thought “I know how intense a day in the Kona sun can be! Our moisturizing body milk mist isnʻt designed to relieve burn!” So it got me thinking. I asked Rick what he thought about crossing his kava product ideas with my body mist lineup and if we could find a way to do a sprayable formula—not a gel, not a lotion. This started our collaborative creation.
Kava (or ʻawa in Hawaiian) is used ceremonially in Polynesian culture and is effective at pain relief and calming.
We also wanted to incorporate Kona grown māmaki—straight from our property situated on the upper slopes of Hualalai.
Kina and I have successfully used tiger grass (also pohe kula) to reduce redness and skin irriration. Pohe kula is also known as centella asiatica or gotu kola in other cultures.
We created a tri-blend of island botanicals that soothe skin suuuuuper well after being in the sun. And of coure we have a very light scent of niu (coconut) and salt water floating in the breeze.
Kina drove the creative for the packaging. In our usual MOEĀ fashion we have images fading in and out of labels to resemble dreaminess. You can see the ocean blue in the background...the symbol of the mauna (mountain) as the Big Island is formed by five volcanic mountains... you see palm leaves reminiscent of trees that create an island oasis from the sun... you see the kava drink in the coconut shell surrounded by leaves of the kava, mamaki and centella. The spirit of Kona Cool became a complete expression!
This is our newest baby, a creation we really worked on together! Rick, Kina and I really hope you enjoy Kona Cool as much as we do. Please take us with you on your next summer adventure where there is bound to be a joyful dose of sun! For our beauty subscribers only we are offering Kava Cool through through May 30th for only $14.99 using the promo code KONACOOLBABY.