Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Finding a solution in a bottle for severe skin conditions amongst Samoan adults is the mission behind Lupe Skincare.
Not only are they a skincare company but Lupe Skincare also caters to improving their customer’s health and wellness through online services.
A true family affair, Lupe Skincare was founded by two granddaughters, Sosefina and Fanaafi who spent most of their time in Samoa with their beloved grandmother, Nuanua. The company is also named after one of the many great-granddaughters, Tagaogalupe who has become the family company’s best marketing asset.
Sosefina and Fanaafi share how their grandmother is a firm believer in traditional Samoan herbal medicine as she would bathe them in coconut oil and lather turmeric and ginger over their wounds.
Sosefina says, “Nuanua would be ecstatic to see Lupe Skincare grow into a large company producing exotic skin balms, soaps, turmeric healing sticks and more.”
In honour of the taulasea (traditional healers) in Samoa, Lupe Skincare aims to uphold this tradition nationally and internationally amongst the Samoan diasporas.
Due to the dietary change in some Samoans over the past 50 years, lifestyle or autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, psoriasis, acne, rosacea, Parkinson’s, are starting to appear in clusters among Samoan adults, especially those who are overweight.
Sosefina and Fanaafi are devoting their time and efforts to establish why these severe skin conditions occur in the first place, but primarily why they disappear when treated.
Co-director Steve Brown says, “having a better understanding of the cause of such diseases means Lupe Skincare can not only engineer better skin products, but also hopefully provide better services in the future to our clients.”
Lupe Skincare are determined to make a change within the Samoan community by personally engaging with close friends and families to join their Fitness and Wellness challenges.
“The real secret is changing our diet towards a whole-food plant-based diet, together with fasting daily,” Sosefina says.
“Fasting for 16 hours a day encourages both the burning of excess body fat, and, surprisingly for some, allows the body to also enter repair phase where some serious healing can take place in order to help address some chronic inflammatory diseases but this means observing some serious ‘social distancing’ about 1-2 metres from the fridge.”
The Lupe Skincare team’s determination to better health and wellness has inspired the rest of their family to become vegetarians. Sosefina says they are committed to consuming their prebiotics and probiotics.
“We are all training hard to stay slim and play sports. We all try to exercise daily for 30 minutes, and we have also learnt to better manage our stressful lives by communing with nature, praying, meditating, doing a little yoga and just taking deep breaths,” she says.
With Christmas around the corner, Lupe Skincare will turn one and so far, the company aims to help change the lives of their customers. With foma’i manu (animal doctor) Tupaemanaia Dr Steve Brown in the team, his wealth of knowledge in pharmacology, nutrition, pathology, and health has helped keep Lupe Skincare cruelty-free.
Tupaemanaia is also working on a new project that will assist customers on how to achieve healthy skin and to keep their bodies free of lifestyle diseases. Co-director Steve advises that just applying Lupe Skincare products to irritated skin will not solve everything. Skin must also be taken care of from the inside which can be done through observing the seven Pillars of Good Health and Wellness: Diet well, fast daily, exercise, sleep for 7-8hrs, de-stress (walks, yoga, meditation, deep breaths), avoid toxins in food, air, and water, and finally, fermenting and growing our own foods.
Sosefina reminds us that “very few customers understand the first priority at each mealtime is to feed our gut bacteria (not us) with what they need to eat. Our second priority is to not feed our gut flora with anything toxic like meat, sugar (especially fructose as it is a liver toxin) which will upset our gut flora function and our body organ functions, including the skin.
Very few of us know that our gut biome is truly responsible for about 70% of our immune functions, meaning that we will not be able to prevent inflammations throughout our bodies and we will not be able to easily repair these inflamed organs either. So, please take our advice and follow the above 7 Pillars of good health.”
One strong message from Lupe Skincare about gut health among overweight individuals is there are serious consequences when the gut flora isn’t cared for.
“If we’re overweight then by definition, we are killing our gut flora and causing dysbiosis, or dysfunction of gut flora function. The micro-organisms in our gut produce some vital metabolites that are important for our gut health. If our gut health declines, we get what is called a ‘leaky gut’ and toxins in our gut get into our bloodstream and adversely affect our numerous organs and metabolic pathways, immune system, nervous system, and hormonal system. Problems can then appear in the skin, and elsewhere,” says Sosefina.
Minor skin conditions/irritations such as blemishes, cold sores, mosquito bites, shaving rashes, cuts, chaffing and nappy rashes have been easily healed by the Lupe Skincare Turmeric Stick. It is currently the most sold product and customers are overwhelmed with the results.
Fanaafi says the secret ingredient is adding ginger as it “maximizes the skin healing benefits, just like our grandmother did when we were young.”
Lupe Skincare expands their skincare services to care for koalas. Yes! Koalas have skincare problems too, but their biggest threat is the risk of imminent extinction. The company recently launched a Save the Koala Project and even started a GoFundMe fundraiser to support the making of a feature film in Hollywood called, The Last Koala.
A collaboration with the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS) is one of Lupe Skincare’s future ambitions. This collaboration will bring a better understanding of the importance of prebiotics and probiotics in the Samoan diet. In addition, the company can understand the role of specific Samoan traditional medicines in the pathogenesis of an ever-increasing cluster of diseases within Samoans.
To find out more about Lupe Skincare, visit their website here
