Sao Lonsdale, founder of CoBa’s daughter, with her husband at Villa Medici in Rome, Italy.
On a summer day in Ho Chi Minh City, Harper’s Bazaar sat down with Sao Lonsdale for a conversation on her life, her background, the inspirations and the challenges behind CoBa’s Daughter in the making and the ambition to bring Vietnamese beauty to the world.
HARPER’S BAZAAR: Can you tell us about your background and why did you start this brand?
I was born and raised in Hanoi, Vietnam, right at the site that is now the archaeological remains of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long. However, my late teenage years and the beginning of my professional career took place in California, USA. The Californian lifestyle allowed me to immerse myself in the rich culture resulting from a blend of numerous races and ethnicities. There was a thriving array of creations in food and artisanal products, with charming small shopping districts from Sausalito to Santa Barbara to Manhattan Beach. There were also the large luxury malls, as well as waves of creativity from new trends in social media and e-commerce. There were also products designed to cater exclusively to the ultra-wealthy, the new money emerging from successful tech company exits. All of these combined to showcase different aspects of California’s luxurious lifestyle.
I later moved to Austin, Texas, known as the music capital of the world, where I got to experience the soulful pace of life. Austin is also the home of many great brands like Whole Foods, Yeti, Supergoop!..
I wanted to bring all that I had absorbed back to my birthplace so I founded Lixibox nearly 10 years ago, aiming to offer affordable luxury to the urban population of Vietnam and then started CoBa’s Daughter.
At their Austin, Texas residence on the hill side of Rob Roy on the Lake neighborhood
HARPER’S BAZAAR: What inspired you to start your own brands?
SAO LONSDALE: It didn’t come from just one inspiration. But it all started when I first experienced Diptyque Do Son. I love the tuberose scent so much, and the name brought back all the memories of my childhood summer vacation spot in Đồ Sơn with my maternal grandparents, where Yves Coueslant, one of the founders of Diptyque, also spent time as a child.
Along the way of building Lixibox, I started learning about production, supply chain, and creation of beauty products. I was obsessed with the highest quality products, simple yet beautiful packaging, and a meaningful story behind them. I also found many fellow Vietnamese entrepreneurs who created their own brands, which brought me so much inspiration.
After 10 years working in the industry, with the encouragement of my team and my husband, I decided to pay tribute to my birthplace and write the story for my daughter by creating CoBa’s Daughter, a premium personal care brand made in Vietnam.
HARPER’S BAZAAR: What are the challenges you have to face to create this brand?
SAO LONSDALE: My first brand creation was a Japanese skincare regimen that we launched in New York. It was featured in Forbes, Refinery29, Byrdie, and Coveteur. However, it did not achieve commercial success due to the highly competitive market. Nevertheless, I learned a great deal about transforming a good brand into a popular one. With the birth of my first child and my full-time commitment to Lixibox in Vietnam, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to prioritize my focus. Five years later, I launched CoBa’s Daughter, this time targeting the Vietnamese market, with the support of many childhood friends, fellow entrepreneurs, and other female founders from various industries.
HARPER’S BAZAAR: What’s the process to start your own brands?
SAO LONSDALE: We established CoBa’s Daughter at the table of our office in District 2, dedicating time to source the highest quality, clean ingredients for our simple, functional daily products. We considered customers with various skin types and household sizes. Our brand grew gradually as we conducted research and developed our first two products: a body exfoliator and an aloe soothing gel. We sought feedback from our existing champion customers, friends, and family around the globe, particularly those with experience using the finest products worldwide.
We’re so thankful that our hard work paid off with positive customer reviews, referrals, and word-of-mouth endorsements from friends.
We created packaging, branding, and the website from scratch and learned a lot along the way. It was, and still is, hard work, but most importantly, the experience is so much fun and rewarding. We’re looking to host pop-ups in several cities and involve our community in the next product development decisions and other projects along the way. Our beloved champion customers are always the heart and soul of our products.
HARPER’S BAZAAR: What set CoBa’s Daughter apart from other brands?
SAO LONSDALE: In addition to focusing on the highest quality natural ingredients for the day-to-day products that are made in Vietnam, we focus on the aesthetic and function of the products to bring simplicity, clean, calm, and relaxing experience via packaging design, encouraging the community to desire the luxury moments within the simple routines of their daily life – even amidst the hustle and bustle of the world’s busiest cities.
We also focused on building a CoBa’s Daughter community, where Co Ba was the Vietnamese female figure who was a savvy shopper with peerless beauty. She shopped for the family. She created her own products. She kept her household in check and turned heads wherever she went. The daughter generation is where CoBa’s figure becomes a well-rounded, and cultural international citizen in the modern world with a deep root of Vietnamese heritage.
Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam
