Following moves into deodorant and oil puller in the last year, coconut-based, natural beauty brand Kopari is continuing its extension into personal care.
On Monday, the nearly 4-year-old company branched into sexual wellness, with the launch of Love Melt, a lubricant based on its hero coconut oil and other clean ingredients. It will be sold online-only, on KopariBeauty.com, Sephora.com and Ulta.com. Backed by private equity firm L Catterton and a slew of celebrity investors, like Karlie Kloss, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, Kopari’s net revenue for 2018 was between $10 and $20 million, according to the company. Kopari would not disclose exact figures. Personal care has become its fastest-growing category, with deodorant a top-selling product, said Jeremy Lowenstein, Kopari chief marketing officer. Its aluminum-free deodorant was ranked in Amazon Best Sellers for over a year.
“Our vision from the beginning was to create a lifestyle brand that spans cross-category,” said Gigi Goldman, Kopari co-founder. “Our product pipeline mirrors the natural uses and benefits of coconut. Coconut oil is an incredible lubricant because it is antibacterial and antimicrobial, so it has health benefits while simultaneously providing that natural lubrication people seek.”
Fellow Kopari co-founder Kiana Cabell said, “Coconut oil is the best choice for intimacy, because it naturally glides, doesn’t dry out and melts on touch, making it uniquely sexy. You won’t be afraid to get it all over.”
The sexual wellness wave has gained traction in the last year among fellow clean brands like Nécessaire and Fur, and also thanks to beauty retailers, like Ulta, pulling the category out of the back aisles of drug and grocery stores and dedicating shelf space to it. Interestingly, while Kopari is also a clean brand, it is packaging its Love Melt product in single-use packets much like a condom for easy use. “We found that it would be better for travel, as well as offer a cleaner and more comfortable experience,” said Lowenstein.
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Prior to Monday’s launch, Kopari began testing the lubricant with existing customers via free samples upon purchase on KopariBeauty.com earlier in June. Customers also received a heart-shaped door hanger, reading “Make Love with Kopari.” Eighty-three percent of consumers who placed an order on Kopari’s e-commerce site opted in to receiving free Love Melt product, and the brand reported over 100 ratings and reviews from its sampling program. It will not be immediately available through Kopari’s subscription offering, but Lowenstein expects that to change after a trial period.
Because products for vaginal dryness have faced strict regulations from Google, Facebook and Instagram, much like CBD beauty and personal-care products, Lowenstein said Kopari has gone the grassroots route in its marketing efforts. “Sexual wellness is just like CBD around paid advertising and media. It’s a challenge, even though people’s willingness to talk about it and want these products more publicly is changing,” he said.
Aside from its DTC sampling campaign, Kopari is working with 15-plus paid influencers, including Nicolette Mason, as well as Karl Krause and Daan Colijn, the duo behind the travel website Couple of Men, for social content. Kopari’s “Make Love” campaign is its first featuring both heterosexual and same-sex couples in an effort to drive the conversation around inclusion.
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“When it comes to sexual wellness and advertising, everything is censored, so you need to be creative, progressive and strategic in your approach to bringing awareness to consumers,” Goldman said. “Word-of-mouth conversations are the most compelling to influence product, because the messages are direct and authentic.”
