Coco & Eve’s story began in the tropical oasis of Bali. Brand founders Emily Hamilton, an Australian businesswoman, and her husband Alex Ostrowski found themselves often escaping to the island paradise, which ignited their idea to harness the rich ingredients that Indonesia offers to create a beauty brand that is vegan, cruelty-free and packed with nutrients. From searching for balance in Ubud to indulging in luxurious massages, Hamilton found endless inspiration and rejuvenation in Bali.
As she hiked up a volcano one morning, an idea took root: what if she could bottle that Bali magic with beauty products that combined luscious ingredients with serious science? Through her market research, Hamilton noticed how many brands use harmful chemicals and sought out to set a new, clean beauty standard. Coco & Eve’s brand purpose is to deliver products that are packed with beneficial ingredients that are kind to your hair, body, skin and the environment.
With this brand mission in mind, the team spent years testing, developing and perfecting product formulas. One ingredient in particular stood out: the coconut! Known for its deeply hydrating benefits, coconut nourishes and moisturizes the hair, leaving it smooth and silky. It also has repairing properties which helps restructure dry and damaged hair and prevent breakage. Indonesia is notably the world’s largest coconut producer, so it was only right to use coconut as the star ingredient within Coco & Eve products.
With this development, Coco & Eve launched its first product in 2018, the multi-award winning “Like a Virgin” hair masque, which quickly rose to fame with a cult-like following and went on to win 12 beauty awards from notable titles. The brand quickly gained momentum over social media, as the founders believed in harnessing the power of influencer marketing from the start; this garnered worldwide exposure for the brand and secured reach across the United States, U.K. and Europe. Being an e-commerce first brand, Coco & Eve are constantly engaging with its ever-growing community, which the brand feels is one of the driving factors for their success. Coco & Eve believes in listening to its customers and building a two-way communication stream between them and the brand.
Favorite Products & Brand Milestones
In just four years, the “Like A Virgin” range has grown from one to six products, including the hydrating shampoo and conditioner set; the nourishing silky hair masque and elixir; the deep clean scalp scrub and deep conditioning bundle. Some milestones along the way include the brand’s much-anticipated shampoo and conditioner launch. Under development for three years, the shampoo and conditioner formulas were perfected to hydrate the hair without weighing it down, foaming and cleansing the hair without the use of silicon or sulfates.
Another milestone was the launch of the deep clean scalp scrub, which continues volcanic ash and coconut shell to exfoliate flakes and dead skin while increasing cellular turnover in the scalp, which has been shown to reduces dandruff with continued use. The miracle hair elixir has also been a top-selling product, with its benefits including heat protection, UV protection and instant shine.
Coco & Eve customers also love the “Sunny Honey” range, which includes the bronzing foam, which is the world’s first product of its kind utilizing cellushape technology, that continues antioxidants to smooth skin, fight cellulite and blur pigmentation. The bronzing foam was quickly followed by the brand’s bronzing face drops, which offer a glow with 100% natural DHA while boosting the skin with hydration through nourishing ingredients such as dragonfruit and hyaluronic acid.
The Future of Coco & Eve
Coco & Eve is a quickly-expanding brand in the global indie beauty segment, growing 240% in the last 24 months, said the brand. It has also recently expanded across online retail channels, including Amazon, and in 2022 will be placed in 577 physical retail stores opening across Australia, Canada and Europe. Not only is retail expansion a driving goal for the brand, but product innovation is key as well. This year alone, Coco & Eve will launch 10 new products across its product categories — which include hair, skin and tanning — as well as one new beauty franchise.
The beauty market has seen a growing trend in consumer awareness regarding efficacy levels of ingredients. Today’s beauty consumers are savvy and discerning — they deeply care about the products they’re using on their skin, body and hair. With more consumer attention placed on ingredients, Coco & Eve has strived to further improve the efficacy of their formulas.
Focusing on Innovation
Coco & Eve says that the acceleration of new scientific territories that the beauty market has experienced through the past three to four years has had a significant impact on the brand’s innovation strategies.
“On one hand we aim to design the safest and cleanest formulas and on the other hand our ingredient platform has expanded to include more technical ingredients with strong proven efficacy endorsed by dermatologists,” said Nassim Belhaq, innovation director, Coco & Eve. “Our challenge is to design the best product delivering the right amount of efficacy and conveying to the best the brand DNA through a unique sensory experience. Territories such as microbiome addressed with prebiotics or postbiotics, biomimetic technologies, new generation of antioxidants, peptides and ceramides will infuse our upcoming unique launches.”
The “skinification” of the hair segment has also fueled the brand’s innovation strategies. Coco & Eve says that it is continually looking for the most innovative hair technologies to be formulated in cutting-edge treatments for customers that are easy to use and always bring a sense of the Balinese vibe.
“We are designing a unique beauty signature at the crossroads of safety, sustainability, ultimate sensory and proven efficacy,” added Belhaq.
With so many new developments on the horizon, Coco & Eve is a notable brand to watch in the indie beauty space.
