Everyone's Talking about Hand Sanitizers

The media is abuzz with talk of washing our hands, and using hand sanitizers.

Luckily we have plenty of soaps that smell fantastically terrific, and a purse or pocket sized sand handitizer that has the fabulous scent of pikake.

Check 'em out: fresh. natural. Hawaiian.

Groovey Lei at Kailua Town Party

Kailua Town Party 2009 about to conclude. Beautiful day in Hawai`i Nei.

Butter Her Up.

Mother's Day is coming soon, and if our Mothers were still alive, we would be looking for a way to butter them up.

For me, this would be an easy thing, because as early as I can remember, my Mother was a fan of what we used to call hand cream. It was everywhere in our house, and she was forever lathering herself in hand creams -- usually by Jergens, because she read somewhere that Elizabeth Taylor said that was how she kept her skin beautiful.

Because my mother was a fan of hand cream, so am I. Far sooner than my skin needed hydration, I was hydrating like crazy. These days, hand creams are called lotions, usually hand and body lotions. And we have them in more than 18 different scents in our store Lanikai Bath and Body -- located in Kailua, on Oahu, and in outer space at www.lanikaibathandbody.com.

My business partner, Brook, whose Mother is also gone, loves our body butters. I am pretty sure when our mothers were alive there was no such thing as body butter -- there was hand cream and there was Nivea... the gooey greasy version of hand cream that could be a butter.

When my mother grew older and bored of sitting around during the cold Connecticut winters, she would lather up and stick her hands out -- so her dog Rion (named Orion after the consellation) could lick it off. As it turns out, Rion loved hand cream too.

Our body butters are light and lovely, creamy and smelling terrific. If my Mother were alive today, I would send her body butters ... in Hawaiian scents that she loved so much when she came to visit me in Hawaii: plumeria, first and foremost, anything with coconut (we have mango coconut, coconut lime verbena and pineapple coconut) and tahitian gardenia. Gardenia was my Mother's favorite flower.

Brook's mother, who was lucky enough to live in Hawaii, also loved gardenia. She would take fresh flowers and tuck them into her bra ... wafting her way in and out of everybody's day -- beautiful Hawaii.

So this Mother's Day, if our mothers were alive, we would butter them up. If you are lucky enough to still have your mother, we suggest you do the same.

The Nose Knows.

The sense of smell, we all know, is the most powerful of the five senses. People recall smells with a 65% accuracy after a year, while the visual recall of photos sinks to about 50% after only three months. According to www.senseofsmell.org "Our odor memories frequently have strong emotional qualities and are associated with the good or bad experiences in which they occurred. Olfaction is handled by the same part of the brain (the limbic system) that handles memories and emotions.

We can immediately recognize and respond to smells from childhood such as the smell of clean sheets, cookies baking in the oven, the smell of new books or a musty room in Grandma’s house." One of the most famous moments in literature records Proust's immediate recollection of his childhood with the smell of petit madelines at the bakery.

At Lanikai Bath and Body, we know how important the sense of smell is -- and we know that it shouldn't be overwhelming. We've carefully developed our scents with an expert in horticulture, resulting in products that are light and remarkably true to original flowers and fruits. Even so, they are long lasting and as pleasing as our lotions are light.

Our Mango Coconut recalls a lazy day at the beach. Our Plumeria is the stuff of dreams of stepping off the plane in Hawaii.

We love the scents of our beautiful islands ~ we've translated them in special lotions, butters, salts, scrubs, shampoos and gels so you can enjoy them every day. BTW, the wonderful scents of Lanikai Bath and Body come with only good memories!

Thousands of Years Old ...

some stuff is just worth repeating. Like this peace from Hafiz

We Put the Lime in the Coconut

And your skin drinks it all up! Our wonderful Naupaka, made of coconut lime verbena, is loved by women and men alike. We developed it that way on purpose -- and it has turned out to be true.

If you know a couple who would appreciate a little bit of Lanikai in their bathroom,
send them a Naupaka set. Or, better yet, get some for yourself!

Fresh. Natural. Very Hawaiian.

Aromatherapy for Earth Day

Pure, all natural, essentail oils, organic --- perfect for Earth Day.

Our four x four aromatherapy products offer relaxation or energy and a range in
between.

Earth. Air. Fire. Ocean.

Try them All! BTW, Earth Day is April 22nd. Wednesday this year!

Looks Like Dessert, but It's Even Better

If you haven't tried wonderful MeBath, we strongly recommend that you do. We have the bombilicious big bath bombs, and the small ones, too.

In your favorite scents.

It takes three days of careful adding layers upon layers to be at their handmade best!

MeBaths in a basket -- formerly packaged in a clear ziplocky-kind-of-bag. each of the large MeBaths now has it's own elaborate protective and beautiful box. Just one makes a great present --- for a friend, or for yourself!

I Love Lanikai

I lived the first half of my life in Hawaii in Kahala. In 1990, my husband and my business partner persuaded me that Kailua was a better bet. As it turns out, they were completely right.

When I say I Love Lanikai, I am not just referring to the loop of housing and surrounding environs at the far end of Kailua Beach. I am referring to the whole “thing” of Kailua and Lanikai – and I can do that, because the original post office name for this town was Lanikai.

Living here is truly incredible. I know that a lot of people on the Honolulu side of the Pali think you have to pack a lunch to come to Kailua. Yet our traffic is (so far) nothing compared to traffic elsewhere on the islands. If you work in town, you have the amazing every day experience of coming out of the tunnels (pick a tunnel, any tunnel) to the sweeping views and the incredible peace of the Windward side. It is cooler here, like Hawaii is supposed to be. It is greener here, like Hawaii is supposed to be.

It’s healthy to live on the Windward side. The beaches are long and wide, and a roundtrip walk starting at Kalapawai Market (take along one of their lattes) puts close to five miles under your belt. Kite boarders and windsurfers provide a circus of color and accomplishment, and swimming is a nearby, always welcome choice. If you like your ocean VERY calm, you can swim at Lanikai Beach. It’s smaller than Kailua Beach, but no less beautiful. The sand that makes up Lanikai Beach is particularly soft and gentle – like the water that slides into shore.

People ride bikes here. They walk here. They run here. I know they do that on the other side too – but ours is a small town and exercisers seem like they are having fun. Easy does it.

In case you haven’t been to Kailua lately, it is becoming a walking town. For real. Not a strip mall, not an indoor mall surrounded by a sea of parking, but a small, walking town.

Old time Kailuans and Lanikai residents were resistant to the change, but you can see that they are warming up to their new town, little by little.

Even in the heat of the summer, people are walking all over the place. This in a State where residents surveyed about parking say they don’t want to walk more than a block.

We are growing. We have our share of national retailers -- Starbucks, a Jamba Juice and even a Pier One and a California Pizza Kitchen ASAP. But we also have lots of wonderful local retailers. Places that are worth walking to.

It is becoming a town worth exploring.

I have lived and worked in Kailua for 17 years now. Two years ago, my longtime business partner and I decided to open a retail shop. We wanted to be part of the growth of our town. We wanted to practice what we preach. We named our shop Lanikai Bath and Body. Inside, there are cool blues and greens, a bamboo floor and a stone path. We wanted it to feel like Lanikai. Because we love living here. We love Lanikai.

I Love Kailua

The annual I Love Kailua and its component I Love Hula will be celebrated once again in Kailua town on Sunday April 26. Started by and still "sponsored" by the Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle, the proceeds from the event go to plantings and upkeep in Kailua/Lanikai.

"I Love Kailua" buttons are on sale at many retailers -- including Lanikai Bath and Body -- for $3 apiece -- they are necessary to get into the events that day.

The event gets bigger and bigger every year -- so who knows what is in store for us
in 2009? Kailua will be alive with people, art, food, music --- it's worth the drive over the mountain.

We hope you will come and stop by Lanikai Bath and Body to say hi!

Lanikai Girls Are Beautiful

One of the best things about living in Hawaii is the rich diversity and mixture of race in our people. Handsome men, Beautiful women. Usually golden of color with thick, dark brown or black hair. Their ancestry can be just about anything, but often includes japanese, chinese and filipino...samoan, tahitian, hawaiian...even a smattering of caucasian.

We see the graceful beauties at the beach and named our Lanikai Girl line after them. Warm and wonderful, we have shampoo, conditioner, lotion, wash and lip balm in pearberry scent and in warm vanilla sugar. Soft and sensual like the sand at Lanikai Beach -- softer than even Kailua Beach, just around the corner.

Los Garcias = Good Place to Eat in Kailua

Despite all the roadwork that was going on around it, we made the effort to get to Los Garcias for lunch on Friday.

Hadn't been there in a long time, and we want to recommend it to locals who haven't been there in a while, and to visitors to Kailua. Great Mexican food, super owners and staff.

We particularly like the guacamole ... and the food is fresh and natural --- just like the products at Lanikai Bath and Body!

Sent Bonnie a "Slider"

We decided to send Bonnie Hunt four scents of Hawaii:

2.2 0z Pikake, Plumeria, Mango Coconut, Tahitian Gardenia

Noted on our card that even though she doesn't favor perfumes, she needed to know
the scents of Hawaii --- so wonderful --- since she had never been here.

Fresh. Natural. Wonderful. Hawaii.

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Another Dog Day in Kailua

Oreo -- previously featured in the mudbath catch-me-if-you-can story, has a new boyfriend : a six month old lab named Buck

After 10 hours of rough housing in the back yard, it was time to take a nap (talking about being dead tired!) before going inside for a bath with some POI DOG SHAMPOO.

Lanikai's First Baby!

Late last summer, we showed Mandi Kopet at her shower and promised pics of Lanikai's
first baby when we were graced with her presence.

At last, here she is: Freyja, joining Mom Mandi, Dad Ezra and Brother Loke

She's a little beauty, just like her Mom.

And -- she's fresh, natural and made in Hawaii!