CocoRoo, An Iowa-Based Natural Skincare Brand Inspired By Australia, Is Hitting CVS Shelves

CocoRoo, an Australia-inspired natural skincare brand developed in the Heartland, is traveling across America to roughly 100 CVS Pharmacy doors.

Four products priced from $15.95 to $19.95 – Total ReJavanation Coffee Scrub, Naturally Naked Coconut Oil Moisturizer, Lost In Lavender Coconut Oil Moisturizer and Mint Condition Coconut Oil Moisturizer – will arrive on Aug. 15 at the drugstore chain, marking CocoRoo’s national retail debut. The brand’s waterless, edible formulas contain extra virgin organic cold-pressed coconut oil and cold-pressed macadamia nut oil.

“We have the first coffee scrub in a squeeze tube to use fresh organic coffee beans. I wanted to use high-quality ingredients and no fillers. I’m frustrated with added water in skincare. It just makes it bulky. It doesn’t really have a purpose,” says Jill Howarth, founder of CocoRoo parent company NuTreatments. “That’s why it was important to me that we didn’t add extra chemicals or water.”

Howarth’s journey to CocoRoo started more than 8,600 miles from where she currently lives in Clarion, Iowa, in the Australian city Gold Coast, where she settled with her husband James after meeting him while studying abroad. Coping with scorched skin from the heat in Australia, Howarth, then pregnant and staying away from potentially hazardous compounds, turned to natural ingredients for hydration, but wasn’t a fan of the formats they came in.

“I didn’t like dipping my hands in coconut oil jars, and coffee scrubs were in cute little bags that looked really nice, but, in the shower, they’re kind of a disaster. I thought there must be a better way to package them.”

“I didn’t like dipping my hands in coconut oil jars, and coffee scrubs were in cute little bags that looked really nice, but, in the shower, they’re kind of a disaster,” she details. “I thought there must be a better way to package them.” Tubes were a sanitary, functional solution – and, upon departing Australia for her home state of Iowa in 2016, she set out to put her favorite natural ingredients in them.

Tubes seem straightforward, but it wasn’t straightforward taking CocoRoo from idea to action. Pinning down a manufacturer was an exasperating endeavor. The brand is on its second factory. Discussing its initial manufacturer, Howarth says, “The formulas are quite simple. I didn’t know how you could mess them up. They didn’t use organic material. It was a huge learning process to find a manufacturer. A lot of the bigger ones won’t work with a small brand. They want you to be pumping out 50,000 [units] a month, and it was all my money, so I had to be thrifty.”

Howarth and her husband invested $180,000 to complete CocoRoo, which launched in December 2016. The brand’s name is a twist on jillaroo or jackaroo, Australian terms for cowgirl or cowboy. To help cover the cost, the brand secured a $40,000 loan from the Wright County Economic Development Partnership in Wright County, Iowa. The organization extensively vetted CocoRoo before determining it was worthy of a loan, a grueling exercise Howarth praises for lifting brand awareness locally. “The town we live in is 2,500 people, and word of mouth spreads quickly,” she says. Last year, CocoRoo generated $50,000 in sales. This year, it’s projected to generate $150,000 to $200,000 in sales.

“One of the biggest challenges is budget and competing with brands that have millions of dollars for marketing, but I think smaller indie brands support each other. I compare it to microbrews. Microbrews aren’t up against each other. They’re up against Coors or Budweiser.”

In addition to manufacturing, distribution has been a learning process. Early on, Howarth didn’t think stores would consider CocoRoo until it was on the market at least two years and planned to sell only online at the outset. However, within a few weeks of the brand’s premiere, it landed retailers in Iowa and Illinois. CVS was a dream retailer from the beginning. Chris Gowin, the designer who guided CocoRoo’s packaging, worked on CVS products previously and understood what the chain gravitated to, down to the dimensions of tubes. The brand’s 8-oz. tubes are eight inches high.

“I wanted a larger tube because I feel it’s too easy online to be deceptive. You show a product, and people don’t know exactly how big it is going to be. You can see how many ounces it is, but it’s not always easy to register how big that really is,” reasons Howarth. “I want people to be pleasantly surprised when they receive our products and say, ‘Oh wow, this is a big tube! I’m not paying $15 for a tiny little tube I’m going to use in two days.’”

Going forward, CocoRoo’s store base and product portfolio is bound to grow. Howarth mentions multiplying its scrub offerings. A green tea version of the Total ReJavanation Coffee Scrub, CocoRoo’s bestselling product, is a possibility to draw consumers not inclined to like coffee. For distribution expansion, Howarth is open to atypical beauty distribution channels. Coffee shops, for example, have been good fits for CocoRoo’s coffee scrub.

“One of the biggest challenges is budget and competing with brands that have millions of dollars for marketing, but I think smaller indie brands support each other. I compare it to microbrews. Microbrews aren’t up against each other. They’re up against Coors or Budweiser,” says Howarth. “I feel like everyone sticks together.”