Hey friend! It’s Liah here. I’m so excited to finally share KraveBeauty’s newest baby, Great Barrier Relief– the product for pressing reset on your damaged skin barrier. It’s really hard to pick a favorite child when you’re a mom of four, but Great Barrier Relief definitely holds a special place in my heart.

The Inspiration

Great Barrier Relief was inspired by my aunt’s very own formula that she’s been using for a decade. My aunt is a practitioner of holistic medicine who, on the side, creates cosmetic products using natural ingredients and medicinal herbs. One fateful day, she discovered tamanu oil and its amazing regenerative properties, and promptly began to develop a face cream with it. This was the incidental beginning of a whole new skincare adventure.

As she tested out the product, she noticed some very significant changes in her skin: the huge, stubborn sunspot on her left cheek was finally fading and her skin was firmer than ever! It was almost like… magic. Witnessing these unbelievable results, she just had to spread the magic of her formula with others. She shared it with her friends, family, and eventually me.

At this point, I had a ton of acne marks and sunspots scattered across my face that didn’t show any signs of fading. Being a skincare enthusiast, I thought I tried everything– retinol, niacinamide, vitamin C, arbutin and basically every other skin brightening ingredient that was supposed to fade my spots away, but nothing worked better than my aunt’s tamanu oil cream. That’s when I knew that I needed to share this with the rest of the world, because everyone deserves to know about this.

Inspired by her formula, I created Great Barrier Relief, which has faded a lot of my skin discoloration, strengthened my skin-barrier, and nurtured my skin to be the healthiest it’s ever been. An added bonus, Great Barrier Relief’s infused tamanu oil also promotes collagen production, making it a kickass anti-aging product that your mom will love too.

#PressReset on Instant Gratification

Another reason why Great Barrier Relief takes up such a big space in my heart? Because it’s the product that best represents KraveBeauty’s philosophy. We’re over the "next best thing," and Great Barrier Relief is all about combating the potentially negative side effects to over consumption of skincare by replenishing your skin barrier so that it can function at its best.

We are a generation that’s addicted to instant gratification, and we’re constantly reminded of that in the realm of skincare. We find satisfaction in seeing our skincare products give us immediate results, thus promoting conventional products to try and become more “effective” with harsher formulas that further inflame and sensitize our skin. And when your skin is freaking out like that? We tend to find ourselves reaching for even more products to try and “fix the problem.” Vicious cycle, huh?

You guys know that I am the number one advocate for keeping the skin barrier intact, so it only made sense for us to create this skin barrier restoring formula and help repair your skin from its foundation. A poor functioning skin barrier is the culprit of nearly every skin problem, including dehydration, dryness, inflammatory acne, rosacea, eczema, and so much more. It’s time we stop placing all of our hope on some short-term fix that in reality is damaging our skin even more, and time we start nurturing our skin for the long-term.

We hope that Great Barrier Relief can stand strong on your vanity to remind you to slow down when you’re trying to sprint with skincare. Skincare is a marathon, and your skin can do a amazing things if you let it :)