Carbs.

Facebook.

Johnny Depp.

We’ve got enough things on our love-hate-relationship list to keep us rolling in the drama for a lifetime, so thank goodness we’ll be able to knock one off the list: Sun, we’re looking at you.

As much as we love lounging in your golden rays, smearing chemical sludge all over our skin gives us the nagging heebie-jeebies. And once we pop into the waves for a dip, all our ’screens are settling into our oceans and reefs like some kind of coconut-smelling, smothering blanket. No, thanks.

We’ve got Kiki Pu Chung of Hawai‘i Medicinal to thank for our sunbathing-style switch-up. This au-naturel queen knows that when you ask Mama Nature for a dose of bath and body wisdom, she delivers. With her homegrown and gathered plants, Chung handcrafts each salve, stick, balm and scrub for her Hawai‘i Medicinal brand of skin-care products, which she launched last fall with her partner. Both of them have backgrounds in natural and alternative medicine, and a passion for harnessing the healing and sustaining powers of the earth—and protecting the environment at the same time.

The new sunscreen, for example, utilizes the naupaka leaf, which was traditionally used in Hawaiian medicine as a sunblocking agent. Chung infuses the naupaka leaf into organic coconut oil, then adds in other natural oils such as red raspberry seed and carrot seed, which help give the product a smoother, more moisturizing texture than normal sunscreens. And, like the entire Hawai‘i Medicinal line, it’s totally safe, made with the highest quality organic ingredients and plants, and is reef-safe, biodegradable, ecofriendly and good for your body.

But the beach-friendly collection doesn’t stop at sunscreening. Chung also whips up a soothing after-sun balm for when the golden eye in the sky still gets the best of you (it happens). And, when you knick yourself on a sharp bit of coral? Try the Hawai‘i Medicinal salve for reef cuts, scrapes and rashes made with laukahi, a native plant that has been known to help draw out toxins, and other plants purported to help accelerate healing, aid with blood clotting, soothe rashes, lower inflammation, and promote antibacterial and antifungal properties.

All you have to worry about now? Shining on. (That goes for you, too, Sun.)

$12–$18, hawaiimedicinal.com.

Read the Article Here:

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Lei-Chic/January-2017/Hawaii-Medicinals-Eco-Fun-in-the-Sun-Products/#.WJN4PoZpbYU