Healthy Skin, Naturally

Maryna Bundyuk
Mahalo Body skincare products

Please tell us about your business.

Mahalo Body is an eco-chic skincare product line. It’s made with organic ingredients and as many local ingredients as possible. I use the highest quality and purest ingredients. Mahalo Body is Kauai-made and certified cruelty free.

I use supercritical extracts for my skincare line. It’s the purest way of making extracts. Supercritical extracts have a unique profile and concentrated spectrum of lipophilic ingredients. They are free of solvents and inorganic salts, and they need no preservatives. They are practically sterile and don’t provide a base for germ growth because of the absence of water, proteins and polysaccharides. All this allows a safe application and the maximum potency of the extracted ingredient. For example, you can take a turmeric root, put it through the process and when it comes out, it’s the same essence of the root without the fiber around it. I use ingredients such as chia seeds, turmeric, green tea and carrot seed, for example, in this process.

Why did you start this business?

Personally, I’ve had battles with skin conditions my entire adult life. I have cystic acne, which is hormonally based. Many of the products on the market, especially for adults, have high contents of salicylic acid and benzyl peroxide. When I started to look into being healthy without using any chemicals, I began a quest for natural products and started making things for myself to see what worked for my skin. I started making small batches of facial toner and body spray for friends and also started selling locally.

Why is it called Mahalo Body?

Because it’s about thankfulness and being grateful for our bodies.

What kind of message would you like to send to your customers?

I want to deliver people a reminder, especially to women, to take care of themselves. I am trying to inspire what I call a “Mahalo Moment” — a moment of gratitude to yourself. So I want the products to be the catalyst toward them falling in love with themselves every day. It’s about taking a moment to care for yourself before taking care of everybody else.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your business?

Seeing women feeling love for themselves and hearing feedback about how the products have transformed their skin.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your business?

The huge gamble that I took for this. I went through my savings and it was a leap of faith. There are times every day when I question if I’m doing the right thing. But every day the answer is yes.

What makes you get up every day and go to work?

I love formulating. So even though my main line has four products, I will always have new additions here and there. In a way, these are my babies, they’re my creative babies. So when I wake up, each new day gives a new inspiration.

Are your products for anybody’s skin?

The skin line was born from my own issues like eczema and acne, so it started as something for combination skin. But as it grew between my friends, each of them different and unique, it became something that everyone can use and even can be used by men.

What’s one example of what your products can help treat?

The face oil and the balm are great for acne-prone skin, which you might think is counterintuitive — putting oil on acne — but the kind of oils they are is better than the acid found in most products on the market.

How can people purchase your products?

People can purchase my skincare products from my website, mahalo.care.

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