Kokoso Baby – Natural Coconut Oil Skincare for Babies

Kokoso Baby is a British family-run baby skincare brand founded by husband-and-wife team Lauren and Mark Taylor. The idea began when Lauren was a new mum looking for something simple and gentle for her baby’s skin. Coconut oil became the starting point, but rather than buying an ordinary culinary coconut oil and repackaging it as baby skincare, the couple searched for a particular quality and method of production that they felt worked better on delicate skin. The result became Kokoso Baby’s signature raw virgin organic coconut oil.

The business has an interesting history. Kokoso appeared on Dragons’ Den in 2016 and accepted a £50,000 investment from Touker Suleyman in return for a 30% stake, reducing to 25% after he recovered his investment. The relationship lasted for three years before Lauren and Mark bought his shares back in 2019. Kokoso is therefore once again a fully independent, family-owned business.

Coconut remains at the heart of the brand. Kokoso says its oil comes from organically farmed coconuts grown on a family-run farm in Thailand. The coconuts are fresh-pressed within three hours of being opened, using no heat or chemicals, and the resulting virgin oil isn’t refined, bleached or deodorised. That relatively simple origin story is one of the things I find appealing about Kokoso. At its simplest, the original product really is just one ingredient rather than a long cosmetic formulation.

The range has grown considerably since then. Kokoso now makes washes, lotions, balms and specialist products alongside the original oil, so I don’t think it is accurate to describe the whole brand simply as organic coconut oil. Some formulations are much more complex and contain emulsifiers, surfactants, preservatives and fragrance ingredients. Kokoso is unusually open about these ingredients and explains why they are used, which makes it much easier to judge individual products rather than relying on the word “natural”.

Coconut-oil-led skincare: oil, balm, lotion, wash for dry/sensitive/eczema-prone baby skin.

The original and simplest Kokoso product is its Organic Coconut Oil, a single-ingredient raw virgin coconut oil intended for baby massage and moisturising dry skin. The company also makes coconut-based balm products, including its Baby-Soft Balm Stick, alongside products aimed at particular everyday baby-care needs.

The wider range includes Gentle Hair & Body Wash, Coconut Oil Baby Lotion, scalp and cradle-cap products, bottom and barrier balms, massage products and skincare for older children and families.

Not everything in the range has the same formulation or organic content. The Gentle Hair & Body Wash, for example, is described by Kokoso as containing 80% organic and 98% naturally derived ingredients. Its ingredient list includes organic aloe vera and coconut oil alongside sodium lauroyl glutamate and coco-betaine as cleansers, glycerin, benzyl alcohol, caprylyl glycol, phenylpropanol and dehydroacetic acid. A fragrance-free version is available alongside the naturally fragranced formulation.

This matters to me because I don’t want to put the original pot of pure coconut oil and a formulated body wash into the same category simply because both carry the Kokoso name. The original coconut oil is an exceptionally simple product. The washes and lotions are cosmetics that require additional ingredients to clean, emulsify, preserve and remain microbiologically safe. They should be judged on their individual formulations.

The simplicity of Kokoso’s original product is probably what I like most. There is something reassuring about turning over a baby skincare product and finding essentially one ingredient rather than twenty. The coconut oil is raw, virgin and organic, and Kokoso provides considerably more information about where it comes from and how it is processed than I normally find with a generic jar of coconut oil.

I also like the sourcing story. According to Kokoso, its coconuts come from a family-run certified-organic farm in Thailand and are processed shortly after opening rather than being made from dried copra. The company says the oil is produced without heat, chlorine, bleaching, deodorising or chemical refining. These are company claims about its supply chain, but Kokoso provides a fairly detailed description of the process rather than simply describing the finished ingredient as “premium organic coconut oil”.

Another strength is ingredient transparency. Kokoso publishes an unusually detailed ingredient guide explaining ingredients with unfamiliar names, including why preservatives such as benzyl alcohol and dehydroacetic acid are present. I much prefer this approach to brands simply declaring themselves “chemical free”. Water-containing skincare needs protection against microbial contamination, so the presence of a preservative isn’t automatically a negative. The important point is to understand what has been used and why.

The brand excludes mineral oil, paraffin, parabens, palm oil, phthalates, silicones, SLS/SLES, PEGs, colourants and artificial fragrances from its formulations. It also offers fragrance-free options, which I particularly appreciate in products intended for newborn or very sensitive skin.

Kokoso has also made some practical packaging improvements rather than simply using sustainability as a marketing slogan. Its wash bottles are made using Prevented Ocean Plastic and refill pouches are available. Kokoso says the 500ml refill uses 80% less plastic than its standard bottles. This doesn’t eliminate plastic, but reducing packaging while allowing customers to reuse the original pump bottle is a sensible improvement.

Customer experiences are another positive signal, although they need to be interpreted cautiously. Trustpilot currently shows 87% of its reviews at five stars. Parents repeatedly mention the texture of the coconut oil and positive experiences with dry or sensitive skin, cradle cap, balms and the wider range. Similar recommendations appear organically in parenting discussions, including parents who say they have continued using Kokoso shampoo and coconut oil since birth.

My main reservation is that Kokoso’s branding can make the whole range feel more organic and simple than some individual products actually are.

The original coconut oil really is extremely simple. The wider formulations aren’t. The Hair & Body Wash, for example, contains surfactants, preservatives and, in the scented version, parfum. I don’t consider that automatically bad, particularly because water-based products need appropriate preservation, but someone buying Kokoso because they want nothing except organic plant ingredients needs to read each product rather than assuming the entire range is equivalent to the original coconut oil.

Similarly, references on Kokoso’s ingredient pages to individual ingredients being ECOCERT, COSMOS or Soil Association approved shouldn’t be confused with the entire finished Kokoso range carrying those organic cosmetic certifications. An ingredient being permitted within a certification standard is not the same thing as the finished product itself being certified to that standard. I would like the distinction to be even clearer.

I’m also cautious about the language surrounding eczema. Kokoso says its products are dermatologically tested and certified suitable for newborn, sensitive and eczema-prone skin. That is useful information about testing, but “suitable for eczema-prone skin” shouldn’t be interpreted as meaning that coconut oil or a Kokoso product treats eczema. Individual experiences vary considerably.

That variation is visible when looking beyond the company’s own customer testimonials. Some parents report excellent results with Kokoso on dry or eczema-prone skin, while others report that the Balm Stick didn’t help or made their baby’s skin worse. Other parents report trying Kokoso alongside several other moisturisers without success. These anecdotes don’t establish whether Kokoso caused or resolved a skin condition, but they are an important reminder that “natural” doesn’t mean universally tolerated.

Coconut itself can also cause reactions in some people. Kokoso acknowledges this and recommends patch testing before first use. I think that’s sensible, particularly with babies whose skin is already reactive.

Finally, the independent review picture is positive but relatively small. Trustpilot shows a high proportion of five-star ratings, but there aren’t enough reviews for me to treat the score as definitive. There is also at least one recent complaint concerning a missing delivery and lack of customer-service response. I haven’t found evidence of a widespread service problem so I wouldn’t make too much of an isolated complaint, but I wouldn’t ignore it either.

Kokoso’s core coconut oil is sourced from coconuts grown using certified-organic farming methods in Thailand, according to the company.

The wider formulations contain ingredients that are individually approved or permitted under standards including ECOCERT, COSMOS and Soil Association organic/cosmetic standards. For example, Kokoso identifies several emulsifiers and preservatives in its ingredient guide as meeting these standards.

I make an important distinction here: approval of individual ingredients for use within COSMOS, ECOCERT or Soil Association-certified cosmetics does not mean the finished Kokoso product itself carries that certification.

Kokoso also states that its products are dermatologically tested and certified suitable for newborn, sensitive and eczema-prone skin, and some products are described as paediatrician approved.

The business also states that it became an accredited Earth Positive Business with Greenspark in 2022.

Kokoso Baby remains on my Approved Brands list.

What appeals to me most is that the brand began with an exceptionally simple idea: find a very high-quality organic coconut oil and use as little processing as possible before putting it on a baby’s skin. The original Organic Coconut Oil still represents Kokoso at its best for me: one recognisable ingredient, traceable sourcing and a clear explanation of how that ingredient is produced.

As the company has grown, the range has inevitably become more complicated. A body wash can’t realistically be formulated like a jar of pure coconut oil. It needs cleansers, stabilisers and preservatives, and scented products need fragrance. I don’t see those additions as an automatic reason to reject the products. In fact, I appreciate that Kokoso explains what many of the unfamiliar ingredients actually do rather than pretending they aren’t there.

There are still compromises. Not every product is organic, naturally derived doesn’t mean the same thing as organic, and individual ingredients being acceptable under COSMOS or ECOCERT standards shouldn’t be mistaken for certification of the finished range. I would also be cautious about interpreting suitability for eczema-prone skin as evidence that a product will improve eczema. The independent experiences I found range from parents who absolutely swear by Kokoso to others whose babies’ skin simply didn’t tolerate or respond to it. I have a daughter who suffers from eczema and my purse knows we tried every “eczama product” we could find, and they are all in the bin, along with my money.

What ultimately keeps Kokoso in my Approved directory is the combination of simple formulations where possible, organic sourcing at the heart of the brand, good ingredient disclosure, fragrance-free choices, thoughtful packaging improvements and a willingness to explain what is actually inside the more complex products.

I don’t think every Kokoso product needs to be treated equally simply because it comes from an approved brand. I would still read the label and choose according to the individual baby’s skin. But compared with conventional baby skincare built around long formulations and vague marketing promises, Kokoso gives me considerably more of the transparency and simplicity I’m looking for.