NATURAL INNOVATION
OKOKO COSMÉTIQUES
When Oyéta Kokoroko’s friends started asking her to make soaps and lip balms as birthday gifts, she realized she was onto something. While studying holistic nutrition, aromatherapy and herbal medicine, she learned about creating formulations and soon started mixing up her own small batches of custom beauty products. “I fell in love with the process,” she says. In 2016, she launched Okoko Cosmétiques, which would go on to be heralded by the likes of Goop and The New York Times Style Magazine.
Acne treatments were an early focus for Kokoroko as she had long been disappointed by natural skincare products when it came to dealing with her own breakouts. “While the formulas were deemed ‘cleaner,’ they often lacked innovation,” she says, citing oversimplified products with cheap ingredients and high price tags that the average person could DIY. Looking for a solution, Kokoroko pored over academic studies for researchbacked ingredients that she could formulate into high-performing concentrations. That’s how she came to include willow bark—a plant-based precursor to blemish-fighting salicylic acid—in one of her first products, L’Élixir de Pureté, which is now one of her hottest sellers.
Ethically sourced, results-driven ingredients are behind the entire ethos of the brand. This mindful approach extends throughout the administrative parts of the company, too: Delivery boxes are reused, shipping materials are biodegradable and customer thankyou cards are printed on sugar sheets. This year, Kokoroko is also hoping to screen-print labels directly onto the brand’s glass bottles. A small change, perhaps, but Kokoroko is committed to constant improvement. “We all need to do our part,” she says.