What does Luca saying ‘elephant juice’ on Love Island mean?

Gemma and Luca at the firepit on Love Island 2022

(Image credit: ITV Picture Desk)

published 15 July 2022

If you’ve been tuning into the whirlwind that is Love Island 2022, you’ll have no doubt spotted that fish-flop lover, Luca Bish keeps saying ‘elephant juice’ to Gemma Owen. So what exactly does this weird Love Island phrase mean?

During the latest recoupling, Luca left fans bemused after saying in his speech to Gem, that he was bored of saying ‘elephant juice’ to her and hoped they would move on to something else soon—to a big reaction from his fellow islanders.

The ‘something else’ referring to the L-bomb, which they both dropped on each other later on in the episode.

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So for all of us at home, totally confused by his odd declaration—here’s the exact ‘elephant juice’ meaning...

What does 'elephant juice' on Love Island mean?

Well, it turns out it’s all in the lip movements. According to some very in-the-know fans, supposedly, when you mouth ‘elephant juice’—it looks like you’re actually saying ‘I love you.’

So it’s basically a cryptic and low-key way to hint that you love someone without actually having to say those three magical words. Mystery solved!

If you silently mouth it it looks like you’re saying ‘I love you’July 14, 2022

In Luca’s case, he said it to Gemma the first night he slept in the doghouse after Danica recoupled with him—clearly as a joke—but it quickly became his favorite saying.

He has used the code word throughout season eight, probably feeling that it was too soon to actually say ‘I love you’ to her but wanted a way to tell her (and any fellow competition) exactly where his head was at.

Now that they’ve both declared their love for each other though, in a very cute terrace exchange, we’ll probably hear ‘elephant juice’ said a lot less—unless another one of our couples adopts the term.

So far, it’s one of the many new phrases, to come out of this series that has left fans understandably confused—including their ‘salon’ analogies for when couples have ‘done bits.' To be honest, we don’t even want to know what Ekin-Su meant by having a ‘blow dry’ with Davide…

Naomi is a Lifestyle News Writer with the Women's Lifestyle team, where she covers everything from entertainment to fashion and beauty, as well as TikTok trends for Woman&Home, after previously writing for My Imperfect Life and GoodTo. Interestingly though, Naomi actually has a background in design, having studied illustration at Plymouth University but lept into the media world in 2020, after always having a passion for writing and earned her Gold Standard diploma in Journalism with the NCTJ.

Before working for Future Publishing’s Lifestyle News team, she worked in the Ad production team. Here she wrote and designed adverts on all sorts of things, which then went into print magazines across all genres. Now, when she isn’t writing articles on celebs, fashion trends, or the newest shows on Netflix, you can find her drinking copious cups of coffee, drawing and probably online shopping.