Editorial essays from a licensed aesthetician in Waiʻanae, Oʻahu — the science, the tradition, and the honest comparisons behind every product we make.
How magnesium chloride is absorbed through the skin, real dosing per pump, and how Pō Mahina compares to Ancient Minerals and Life-flo.
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The fatty-acid profile that makes kukui a legitimate face oil, and how Ka Lā 'Alohi compares to argan, jojoba, and squalane serums.
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What "non-toxic" should actually mean, cork/rubber/PVC compatibility, and how Lokahi compares to Manduka Mat Wash and alcohol wipes.
Read the guide →The 'ALOHI Journal exists because clean-beauty marketing has become louder than the science underneath it. We're a small, licensed-aesthetician-founded studio in Waiʻanae, Oʻahu, and every product we make — the Pō Mahina Magnesium Recovery Spray, the Ka Lā 'Alohi kukui-nut face oil, the Lōkahi non-toxic yoga mat cleaner — starts as a question our clients keep asking us. These essays are our long-form answers.
Expect three things here. First, real chemistry: how transdermal magnesium chloride is actually absorbed through the skin, what a therapeutic dose per pump looks like, why kukui-nut oil has a fatty-acid profile closer to human sebum than jojoba or squalane, and what the surfactant chemistry of a mat cleaner has to do with whether it eats your cork or rubber over time. Second, honest comparisons: we name competitors — Ancient Minerals, Life-flo, Manduka Mat Wash, Lululemon Mat Spray, argan, jojoba, squalane — and tell you where 'ALOHI wins and where it doesn't. Third, tradition: kukui, coconut, and pikake have been part of Hawaiian beauty and healing for centuries before "clean beauty" was a marketing category, and we treat those roots with the seriousness they deserve.
Every essay is written or reviewed by Veronica Gella, a licensed aesthetician with over a decade of hands-on skin experience across facials, laser hair removal, SkinPen microneedling, Genius RF, and LaseMD Ultra. Nothing here is ghost-written and nothing is copy-pasted from a supplement blog. If a claim is contested in the literature, we say so. If a product isn't right for someone (magnesium and open eczema, for example, or kukui oil and severely oily-acneic skin), we say that too.
New guides land as we finish them — usually one every four to six weeks. If you'd like them in your inbox, the newsletter form on the homepage is the fastest way. Otherwise, bookmark this page and come back whenever the next question comes up. Mahalo for reading.