Having clear, fresh-looking skin is the goal of everyone who cares about how they look. And with the market full of skincare products, achieving this goal should be easy, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, as many of us have learned, having clear, beautiful skin isn’t that easy.

Take the case of 22-year old Martina Salimbangon, who like every young lady her age, dreams of having beautiful, flawless skin. “I’ve been obsessed with skincare since I was about 15,” she says. “I watched hundreds of YouTube videos and tested so many products but I just found myself being overwhelmed by the amount of products I was being urged to buy. I didn’t want to break my bank account trying to clear my skin.”

Martina’s case isn’t unique. Many of us have also experienced – and many more continue to experience – what she went through. On any given day, we use soaps, body washes, lotions, creams and oils, and these don’t even include what we put on our faces. Yet, for most of us, the search for the right skincare product – the product that works for us – continues to be a seemingly endless and increasingly expensive quest. And, as a result, according to renowned dermatologist Dr. Sarah Barba-Cabodil, we tend to use more than what we need. 

“When we minimize the skincare products that we apply, we allow more oxygen to get into our skin and that helps our skin regenerate elastin and collagen,” she points out. “Essentially, we want our skin to do its job on its own every now and then. In other words, we need to give our skin time to reset.”

The secret to effortless and effective natural skincare is simple, Dr. Barba-Cabodil says. It starts with breaking bad skincare habits and learning how to simplify our routines by choosing the right product. And this is where NUA comes in.

NUA combines a centuries-old Brazilian beauty secret, cupuaçu, with an abundant Philippine natural resource, the versatile coconut oil. Cupuaçu, pronounced as “ku.ˌpu.a.ˈsu,” is a fruit rich in vitamins, fatty and amino acids, as well as antioxidants that is harvested from the heart of the Amazon rainforest. The cupuaçu fruit is a popular ingredient used in numerous South American delicacies; while the fruit’s pulp and seeds are where the skin-nourishing cupuaçu butter and oil are sourced. Because of cupuaçu’s extremely low melting point, the cupuaçu butter can easily melt into the skin. The addition of locally harvested premium-grade coconut oil into the mix allows the cupuaçu butter’s ultra-hydrating and moisture-boosting properties to get sealed in, without the heavy, greasy feel that you usually get from most skincare products.

Now, how did NUA, with its amazing secret ingredient from the Brazilian rainforest, get to the Philippines? Let’s get back to Martina for the story. “NUA started as a dream,” she says. “My father approached me about three years ago to tell me that he had just learned about a remarkable Brazilian fruit called cupuacu. He asked me if I wanted to join him in creating products made from it that we could bring to the Philippines. After researching what cupuacu was all about – and the wonders that it could do to the skin – I quickly accepted his offer.”

“NUA translates to ‘naked’,” Martina explains. “That name was chosen because our brand is ‘naked,’ free of chemicals, toxins and unwanted preservatives. It is organic and all-natural because NUA believes in enhancing one’s own beauty, rather than changing it.”

So how does it work? Simple, Cathy Salimbangon, Martina’s mom and Organique Skincare chief executive, says. Start by lathering up using NUA soap, and then apply a thin layer of NUA body oil after rinsing. The result is skin that retains moisture longer, thanks to all-natural ingredients packed with phytosterols that boost skin hydration as well as antioxidants that fight free radicals. And all these happen, she notes, without clogging up your pores or leaving that all-too-familiar greasy feel that is typical of super-moisturizing products.

“Dr. Barba-Cabodil is right,” Cathy says. “Skincare that works should be effortless and simple – but only if you have the right product. With the cupuacu fruit, that’s exactly what we found.”

And the right skincare products are precisely what NUA is bringing to you. But don’t just take our word for it. Take NUA’s “New You Challenge” and see for yourself. Use the NUA soap and body oil following Cathy’s simple directions and unveil the “New You” – the fresher looking, more beautiful you!   

NUA is now available from the following retailers—all S&R branches nationwide, BeautyMNL, and Southstar Drug branches nationwide. For more information on NUA products, visit www.nua-organics.com