Cheehilo Handmade Soaps’ Made With Organic Ingredients

Island-inspired scents, locally sourced ingredients and a whole lot of aloha go into these handmade beauties.

September 14, 2015

Natalie Schack,

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Whether you’re inhaling the ocean air or listening to the sound of the wind in the trees, Hawai‘i’s surroundings are a treat for the senses. No one knows this better than Chihiro Ueta. The Japan ex-pat moved to Hilo in 2010 and became so enamored of the Islands’ culture and natural resources that she created a handmade soap line inspired by both.

Cheehilo Handmade Soaps are made by a cold-process method from organic ingredients, including tropical fruits and nuts, herbal powders and essential oils extracted from flowers, such as lavender and geranium. Detergent- and paraben-free, the soaps feel luxurious and gentle, their mild nature a result of Ueta’s personal struggles with harsh products that irritated her skin.

The eye-catching rose bar comes adorned with tiny rosebuds. Ueta uses noni juice from Kalapana, along with the finest hemp charcoal, in the line’s marbled noni and charcoal offering. Our favorite is the macadamia-nut soap, a lovely pink bar that gets its delicate hue from pure macadamia-nut oil, which changes from a pale yellow to a blush color during the soap-making process.

To infuse her products with a little aloha spirit, Ueta gives each soap a Hawaiian name and a small card featuring an ‘ōlelo no‘eau, or Hawaiian proverb, about the soap or its ingredients. Now that’s a fresh perspective.

Select soaps available at Clips, 822 Kāheka St., 941-6777, and cheehilo.com

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