Kava Kava

A natural history

Kava is a member of the pepper family native to the South Pacific, where its root has been prepared into a calming ceremonial drink for well over a thousand years. Across the islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, the kava bowl is a cherished symbol of welcome, peace, and community, shared in ceremony and in daily hospitality alike.

That deep cultural heritage, a root associated with calm and gathering, carries gracefully into skin care, where kava is valued as a soothing botanical. It is a quiet emblem of unwinding, of the gentle pause at the end of a long day, brought from the Pacific shore to the ritual of caring for one's skin.

What it does for your skin

Kava is a soothing root extract carrying antioxidant compounds called kavalactones. In a laboratory skin cell study, certain kava constituents showed an antioxidant effect, easing markers of stress in the cells.^[1] A further study isolated kava's kavalactones and flavonoids and confirmed their free radical scavenging activity.^[2] In a formula, kava acts as a soothing, antioxidant botanical that helps stressed or tired looking skin feel calm and comforted. That soothing, antioxidant effect is documented in laboratory skin-cell studies of its kavalactones.

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