ESSENCE Senior Beauty & Style Editor Akili King believes ‘glow’ is more than skin deep. In The Ritual Report, she shares personal healing practices—from acupuncture for skin and grounding benefits to ‘dopamine dressing’—designed to inspire readers to find creative ways to soothe their nervous systems and reclaim their magic from the inside out.

As a beauty editor who sees, tests, and writes about thousands of beauty products, I’m not afraid to say that, at times, the industry can feel transactional. We get sent something, we test it, we write about it. End of story. Literally. 

Then, there are brands who stop us in our tracks and make us feel part of something bigger. That’s definitely the case when it comes to Hanahana Beauty, a brand known for their Ghana-made shea butter products, founded by Abena Boamah-Acheampong.

Be it their walking club in Chicago or a boat party to celebrate their best-selling Glow Butter, each launch brings the community together. And not just to only celebrate their products, but also to inspire joy, togetherness, and wellness. The recent launch for their Glow Butter Minis was no different. 

“Honestly, the community inspired us to launch Glow Minis! Originally, we intended for Glow Butter to be a limited edition product,” she tells me after her Brooklyn event last week. Instead, “Glow Butter quickly became a staple within the Hanahana Beauty community, repeatedly selling out and generating a waitlist of more than 700 customers,” she adds. “Glow Butter Minis bring Hanahana Beauty’s cult-favorite Glow Butter into a TSA-safe, travel-friendly format designed for moisture and glow on the go.”

The products themselves are filled with ingredients like Shea Butter, Mango Butter, Avocado Oil, lanolin, and more. And with every application, you’ll be left, as the name suggests, glowing and shimmering underneath the sun. “When we formulated Glow Butter, we wanted it to be a reflective glow, like a red carpet glow moment, but also extremely moisturizing,” Abena shares. “We didn’t want a Y2K glitter moment; we wanted something that honestly made you pop out in the sun and was safe for people with sensitive skin to use,” like me, “so we made sure to use natural mica as well as formulate the scents so that it’s not overwhelming.” 

To commemorate the moment, last week, Abena brought her Brooklyn community together for an evening of mat pilates taught by Monice Small, matcha, and cold plunges. And, if you know me, you know I love pilates and matcha. (Original, I know!) 

But, you also know that I have an aversion to the cold (to the point where I will drink a hot latte, even on a warm day most of the time). I’d like to thank my low iron for this. That said, as you can imagine, I’ve never willingly dunked my body into an ice cold bath for any reason. And there’s a lot of lengths I go to for wellness, so this says a lot. 

With that, I went into the evening already having pre-decided that I wouldn’t be participating in the cold plunge portion of the event. I came to commune, celebrate the amazing launch, drink some matcha, and go home.  

But, hearing Abena muse about how much she loved doing cold plunges, in addition to the Ice Cold Club guide discussing the benefits, I was becoming more and more curious. Especially as someone who has, lately, been frequently experiencing eczema flare ups, I feel more and more willing to try any and everything to solve the issue. Especially since Abena mentioned to me, “it might be soothing because it’s cold,” she said. “If you do it, I’ll do it with you.”

To me, that was true community, because Abena knew I wasn’t really open to doing it. But being assured by her, and also knowing that you could do it as a group, made me feel like this might be the right time to finally try this out. Especially because the ice plunges I’ve typically seen, have you in the bath solo, which seemed like it might be even more difficult. With that, I decided to do it. 

When it was finally our turn, Abena and I went in with two other ladies who were also not the most excited about plunging. But we had the moral support of one another, which helped. Surprisingly though, everyone was able to get in immediately. Not me, though! I lingered on the edge of the bath for the first minute or so, just allowing my legs to adjust to the freezing cold temperature. To me, it was painful, honestly. I felt dramatic being the only one not able to get all the way in right away. But I was struggling! 

After the first minute or so, my legs began to adjust and I was able to ease the rest of my body in for a full minute.  It weirdly began to feel good. The deep breathing also began to feel like an emotional release—especially between closing our next issue, preparing for ESSENCE Fest, traveling for work, feeling like nothing has been really working for my skin, and reflecting on grief still after losing a loved one last year—that I didn’t know I needed. I’d been under a lot of stress and the extreme temperatures, slowed breathing, and feeling held by community was bringing that all to the surface.

I got out and immediately became teary eyed. Abena gave me the biggest hug. We jumped on the trampoline to warm up and get the blood flowing. I walked home with my legs feeling super charged, and the itchiness and flaring from eczema gone down. 

And with that, I was reminded how rewarding it is to do the hard things. And this is one I’d definitely do again. 

Author: Akili King

Read the original article on Essence.