Liha Coconut Oil
There is coconut oil. And there is LIHA Beauty Idan Coconut Oil, which takes the whole coconut beauty thing to another level altogether.
It is just the ticket for dry bodies, right now. The central heating may not have been on for long, but it’s already taking its toll: the other day, we happened to glance at our forearms and they resembled nothing so much as old parchment. Possibly, the Dead Sea Scrolls. But a slather of this and it was an entirely different story.
It’s headily infused with natural tuberose, via a traditional perfumery process of enfleurage – which means the flowers are layered onto the hardened fat, to relinquish their exotic white floral scent. It’s then decanted into these wonderfully simple, apothecary-style bottles – and honestly, has us dreaming of desert islands as we smooth it into those papery limbs.
LIHA, it turns out, was founded by a couple of friends based in Cheltenham and Hackney, Liha Okunniwa & Abi Oyepitan. They first met at university 18 years ago and a few years back began playing around with beauty ingredients, inspired by their shared West African Yarouba roots, but with a decidedly urban British outlook.
One particular product went down so well with friends, they were literally begged to launch it. And so LIHA was born: sustainable, natural, simple – and highly effective. (Which is why they have a slew of very prestigious outlets, including Net-a-Porter and Content Beauty.)
Products are hand-made in small batches in Cheltenham and Hackney. They offer workshops which teach you how to create natural beauty products for yourself – and there’s even an online demo for how to make a luscious shea butter whip, in your own kitchen; watch it here.
And while LIHA’s products aren’t cheap, they do small sizes of all the products so you can experience them before swinging for the bigger size – see below for the Discovery Set.
But back to today’s Beauty Bible ‘love’, for a mo. Because there’s just one thing: at the moment (unlike in summer), you will need to submerge your bottle in hot water for a couple of minutes, to liquify it.
But we think it’s a small price to pay for truly luscious limbs.
From £16 for 30ml – buy here
Discovery Set/£25 – buy here
