Ready to elevate your self-care game? This week on the Kip&Co Home Life Series, say hello to Ingrid Kesa! With her impressive background as a fashion editor and creative consultant, Ingrid has become a trusted name in the realms of female health, beauty, and lifestyle. Her passion for empowering women through thoughtful design and innovative solutions shines through in everything she does.
Co-founded by Ingrid Kesa and Rebecca Harding, LUI is transforming the shaving game. A cutting-edge razor and body care brand designed to elevate your shaving experience, regardless of your skin type or texture. With LUI, shaving is no longer an afterthought; it’s an empowering act of self-care that you’ll actually look forward to.
Read on to explore how Ingrid connects and celebrates the skin she’s in and her inspiring journey as to how LUI is redefining beauty rituals, one shave at a time!
Hi Ingrid, thank you so much for welcoming us into your home! For those who may not know you and LUI, can you share what inspired you to create a shaving line and how did you spot the gap in the market?
My business partner Bec came up with the idea for LUI over 8 years ago when she kept reaching for her boyfriend’s razor. She realised that everything else in her daily beauty routine was aesthetically pleasing and results-driven, yet women’s razor options remained limited and outdated. We were introduced through a mutual friend almost five years ago and I was immediately drawn to Bec’s vision and magnetic personality. I had a gut feeling that I needed to help her bring it to life. I immediately recognised that there was a big gap in the market for a new women’s shaving brand to come in and refresh the category. We are both huge beauty-lovers, so it was important to us that LUI was a beauty-first brand on par with our favourite skincare brands both in its visual language and consideration across every touchpoint.
Our signature Razor is accompanied by a curation of body care products that elevate the entire shaving experience into an act of self-care. Our formulations are made locally in Australia and contain the same active ingredients found in your favourite face care products. We want to shift the paradigm around body care and encourage people to start treating the skin below their neck with the same attention and devotion as they do their faces.
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Can you walk us through your current ‘skinification’ head-to-toe skincare routine?
I love to have an everything shower. I start by giving myself a lymphatic drainage massage with my Dr Barbara Sturm Dry Body Brush, working it in upward sweeps from my feet to my decolletage. I then pop on a hydrating face mask (my favourite is the Josh Rosebrook Advanced Hydration Mask) and step into the shower, allowing the steam and condensation to gently open up my pores. This also activates the face mask, allowing it to penetrate more deeply. I use the LUI Body Polish to delicately resurface my skin before shaving. It’s formulated with a mix of physical and chemical exfoliators to remove impurities and create the perfect canvas for shaving.
I then use the Christophe Robin Cleansing Purifying Scrub with Sea Salt on my hair, before double cleansing with shampoo and applying a nourishing hair mask. While the hair mask works its magic, I liberally lather LUI Shave Cream onto my skin. Unlike any shave cream you’ve ever used before, it has a luxurious texture that creates a hydrating cushion between your razor blades and skin.
I have sensitive skin and it’s the only shave cream I’ve ever used that leaves my skin nourished and calm. I then take my LUI Razor and glide it across my skin to cleanly remove unwanted hair. After I’ve rinsed everything off, I step out of the shower and pat my skin dry with my Resore Body Towel. While my skin is still partly damp, I cocoon it in the LUI Body Moisturiser. I like to be quite heavy-handed with my products and this one feels incredible on the skin; it’s very moreish. It’s subtly scented with the same notes as our Body Polish and Shave Cream: orange blossom, iris and vetiver. Heaven!
As we head into the summer season, what are your rituals for achieving hydrated, nourished, and glowing skin?
Increased heat and humidity in summer can sap the skin of moisture, so my focus would be on locking hydration into the skin. Besides upping fluid intake with filtered water, bone broth, herbal tea and green juice, I would also look for hydrating ingredients in my body care products. The LUI Body Moisturiser replenishes transepidermial water loss. Squalane and niacinamide ensure moisture stays locked in while supporting the skin’s barrier function. It’s also important to continue body exfoliation throughout summer, a few times a week.
The Body Polish sloughs away dead skin cells and removes excess oil (which can be a particular issue in summer) to reveal glowing skin. The LUI Summer Skin Set is perfect for this. It contains both of these products, along with a limited edition candle so you can create an entire body care ritual at home.
In terms of other summer rituals for hydrated, nourished and glowing skin, I would always recommend wearing SPF50+ every day and swimming in the ocean as much as possible. I love the wisdom that Traditional Chinese Medicine can impart in regards to living a life more in sync with seasonal shifts, and according to this school of thought in summer we should nourish the body through cooling foods (like watermelon, cucumber, tomato, citrus and salad greens) and engaging in some more ‘yang’ summer exercises that get the heart rate up like vinyasa yoga, swimming laps, outdoor runs, and HIIT workouts.
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How is LUI redefining beauty rituals and making an impact on women's lives through its unique approach to shaving, what distinguishes the brand from traditional beauty standards?
We’re aiming to rewrite naff stereotypes within the female shaving category and instead create a community based around body positivity and inclusivity. Rather than promoting the archaic idea that shaving is obligatory, we want our female-identifying customers to embrace their body hair and their choice whether or not to remove it. Body hair is natural and beautiful. Choosing to remove it is a personal preference. If women choose to shave, they often shave a larger surface area of the body than men. But our options in this space have remained limited and outdated. As beauty-lovers, we wanted our shaving products to reflect who we are as modern women. It’s our choice whether to remove our body hair or not. Either way, we think it’s time we change the approach.
There are multiple sources of information and trends on social media about beauty and self-care - which can become confusing and overwhelming for some of us! What advice would you give to someone looking to revamp their self-care routine?
I think it’s important to find what works for you and brings you joy. You’ll have the best chance of sticking to any routine if it fills your cup, rather than doing something that feels like a chore just because you saw someone doing it on the Instagram Explore page. Start with the basics. Reduce stress and suffering in your life wherever you can, get more rest and sleep, drink more water, spend time in nature, engage in any light physical activity or exercise for at least 20 minutes a day, eat a diet that looks like a rainbow, and remove clutter from your orbit both literally and figuratively.
It’s so simple yet what none of us want to hear because our culture is focussed on quick fixes and miracle cures rather than fundamental, sustainable lifestyle shifts. Once we have these core pillars we can then add on those ‘nice to haves’ like infra-red saunas and cold plunging and facials. But the real change starts with you.
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How does your home reflect your personal style and approach to wellness?
My home is very minimal and neutral. I am allergic to any form of clutter and feel overwhelmed when I am surrounded by too many possessions. The less I have, the happier I am. This mirrors my approach to personal style and wellness in that I have a ‘less is more’ attitude here too. I became exponentially happier when I simplified my lifestyle and chose to see the beauty in small everyday moments rather than always striving for big, lofty goals, which left me feeling unfilled and like I was on a hamster wheel constantly wanting for more but never quite getting there. Our homes are a reflection of our internal worlds, and mine is (for the most part) calm, happy and welcoming.
