Cocokind, the Barrier-First Brand That Started With Coconut Oil

Priscilla Tsai was an equity research associate at JPMorgan covering food stocks when hormonal acne sent her looking for something that worked, and after prescription treatments did not help she started making food-based skincare, mostly around coconut oil. She left Wall Street and launched cocokind in 2014, bootstrapped, building a following through in-person demos at Whole Foods and by answering customers one by one in Instagram messages and comments. After several rejections it reached Target shelves in February 2019. Tsai says she wanted to show real, unfiltered images and question aspirational beauty, and her own sensitive skin pushed the brand toward barrier support. That is the thread through this whole edit, which is all cocokind. The Ceramide Barrier Serum blends five ceramides with beta glucan, the Electrolyte Water Cream is the light option, the Resurrection Polypeptide Cream leans on peptides, and the Texture Smoothing Cream is a lightweight cream aimed at texture and the look of pores. The brand measures and offsets its carbon footprint every year, which fits the plain, practical tone of everything else it does.

Cleansing is where a barrier-first brand shows its hand. The Oil to Milk Cleansing Balm melts sunscreen and turns milky with water, the AHA Jelly Cleanser adds a mild acid for smoother skin, and the Milky-Soft cleanser works on face and body. The Rosewater Facial Toner is the simplest thing here, a spritz of hydration. I like a balm at night and the milky cleanser in the morning, with the jelly two or three times a week at most, since daily acid is too much for sensitive skin. It is a small, sensible lineup, which is part of cocokind's appeal.

The Beginner Retinol Gel is 0.1 percent, a sensible first step, and the Chlorophyll Discoloration Serum and Vitamin C Glow Serum target uneven tone. The Ceramide Lip Blur Balm keeps the barrier idea going on lips. What I would skip is starting the retinol, the vitamin C and the AHA cleanser in the same week. Add one at a time, two weeks apart, and keep sunscreen daily. Start the retinol twice a week at night, over moisturizer if you are sensitive. If you have hormonal acne like Tsai did, a dermatologist can help more than any serum.

Morning: a gentle cleanser, the vitamin C serum, a moisturizer and sunscreen. Night: the balm, then a treatment and the barrier serum under a cream. Keep it to four or five steps. Give each new product two weeks before judging it. If skin stings, drop back to cleanser, serum and cream until it settles. Simple usually wins with sensitive skin. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together cocokind Ceramide Barrier Serum and the Barrier Serums and Creams Beside It and How an Equity Researcher's Kitchen Experiments Led to cocokind Electrolyte Water Cream.