The holiday season is a wonderful time for self-care. For the Hanahana Beauty founder, Abena Boamah-Acheampong, this looks like listening to an audiobook by the fireplace, going on a long, crisp walk, and slathering her skin in the new Limited Edition Holiday Shea Body Butter. Available starting today, this launch is just in time for the holidays. “We haven’t launched a new scent since 2021 and we wanted to create a unique holiday scent with our community,” Boamah-Acheampong tells ESSENCE.
“We wanted to create a holiday scent that was warm and calming but also fresh,” she says. The team also made sure that this seasonal scent complemented their existing collection, staying away from winter-friendly scents like vanilla as the collection already has two vanilla-based scents.
Instead, they opted for fresh top notes of bergamot and spearmint, with woody cyprus and floral jasmine in the middle. As the scent deepens, we are left with spicy palo santo and patchouli, with dark musk and juniper bitters at the base. “It’s fresh, and inviting but demands your attention,” says one Hanahana Beauty customer, while another described the scent as “soft and woodsy with a crisp hint of lemon.”
And speaking of customers, for Hanahana, new product innovation is always an invitation for their community to join in for what they call “testing and treats.” For the holiday launch, “once our team was able to narrow down two formulations, we invited our community to our headquarters to test,” she says. Between activations in Ghana, community walks and voting on scents, their customers are a big part of their body care launch processes.
But community engagement did not end with the limited edition holiday scent. “We launched our Wefunder Community Fundraise publicly and have already raised over $50,000 dollars through our community,” Boamah-Acheampong says. “This opportunity to launch our Community Raise not only allows our customers the opportunity to have equity in the brand but also allows us to establish a new type of relationship with our customers.” In addition to working on a new shower wash and more body care, in the new year Hanahana is “excited about how we will continue to grow and reach new people.”
The limited edition holiday scent is available until February 1 at www.hanahanabeauty.com.