Not all skin wants to glow on command. For those with sensitive, reactive, or acne-prone skin, the beauty aisle often feels more like a battleground than a place of promise. It’s not just about breakouts — it’s about confidence, comfort, and feeling seen in an industry obsessed with perfection. Most brands offer quick fixes. Few take the time to truly understand the skin — especially the kind that fights back.
This is the space Jacine Greenwood stepped into — not as a trend-chaser, but as someone who had lived the frustration firsthand. What started as a desperate need to heal her own skin grew into something far bigger: Roccoco Botanicals, a brand that treats skin like the complex, living ecosystem it is — with empathy, intelligence, and zero compromise.
Jacine isn’t just the Founder and CEO; she’s the heart behind a global skincare movement. Her mission? To offer what she couldn’t find — science-backed formulas that work with the skin, not against it. Roccoco isn’t just changing routines; it’s changing lives for people who’ve long been overlooked by an industry focused on perfection instead of healing.
Let’s learn how one woman’s skin struggle sparked a brand that’s healing skin without harm around the world!
A Personal Journey to Healing Sensitive Skin
Jacine’s entry into the beauty industry was not planned or market-driven — it was born out of necessity. She battled cystic acne, the kind that’s inflamed, painful, and impossible to hide. “I didn’t set out to build a global skincare brand. I set out to fix my own skin,” she explains. For years, she was told she’d grow out of it, but the stubborn acne persisted. Every product she tried either failed or made things worse. “It felt like I was being punished for having sensitive, reactive skin.”
Frustrated by empty promises and harsh ingredients, Jacine stopped trusting labels and began asking bigger questions. She immersed herself in cosmetic chemistry and skin physiology not as a hobby, but as a lifeline. Her goal wasn’t to cover up acne but to understand the root causes beneath the inflammation. She recalls, “I wanted to understand the root causes, not just treat symptoms.”
With no products that truly worked for her, Jacine started creating her own formulations, beginning in her kitchen and eventually moving to a professional lab. Her guiding principle became clear early on: skincare shouldn’t hurt to work. The skin barrier should be respected, not stripped. “Inflammation wasn’t the enemy; it was a signal.” This belief laid the foundation for Roccoco Botanicals.
What began as a complete personal mission has evolved into a movement — a brand trusted worldwide because it honors skin, not fights it. “I didn’t grow out of acne. I outgrew the industry,” she reflects, underscoring her resolve to change skincare for those with skin like hers.
The Mission to Transform How We Care for Skin
Central to Roccoco Botanicals is a mission that everyone deserves to love the skin they’re in. Jacine emphasizes that the brand wasn’t created to chase beauty trends but to fill a glaring gap for people who suffer quietly. “I was tired of watching people suffer in silence, spending thousands on treatments, hiding behind makeup, being told their skin was ‘just difficult.’ I knew what that felt like. I was that person.”
The company challenges industry norms that label chronic skin conditions as unfixable. Instead of silencing inflammation or stripping the barrier, Roccoco listens to the skin’s signals and supports its natural ecosystem. She shares, “We do this by respecting the skin barrier, listening to inflammation instead of silencing it, and formulating with ingredients that work with the skin, not against it.”
Beyond formulas, the brand’s deeper purpose is to make people feel seen and restore confidence without compromise. “Those with ‘problem’ skin have been overlooked, dismissed, or told to lower their expectations. Roccoco exists to give them their confidence back.” The brand’s promise is transformation without pain, purging, or pushing skin beyond its limits.
Jacine’s words capture this beautifully: “To heal. To educate. To empower. And to never accept ‘this is just how your skin is’ as an answer.”
What Sets Roccoco Botanicals Apart
The uniqueness of Roccoco Botanicals’ formulations lies in their profound respect for the skin’s biology. She points out a common industry mistake: treating skin issues as surface problems. “Most brands are still chasing symptoms. They throw actives at inflammation, disrupt the barrier, and hope for quick results.”
In contrast, Roccoco looks at the skin as a whole ecosystem — including immune responses, microbiome balance, lymphatics, nervous system, and even emotional triggers. “We design products to support that entire ecosystem, not override it.”
For example, where others see acne merely as clogged pores, Roccoco examines cytokines, biofilms, and immune dysregulation. Their formulas have included botanical anti-inflammatories and microbiome-safe ingredients for over a decade, long before these became buzzwords. Jacine explains, “Clients who have tried everything else, prescription topicals, drugstore brands, luxury skincare — they come to us because nothing else has worked. And they stay because, for the first time, their skin feels understood.”
This approach stems from her refusal to build a trendy brand. She insists, “I built it to solve real problems, the real ones, and we do that by honoring the skin, not fighting it.”
Growing a Global Brand Without Losing Heart
Building a global skincare brand is a feat in itself, but Jacine’s true challenge has been scaling while staying true to Roccoco’s founding values. For her, it’s never been just about products but about people — about restoring confidence and rewriting what’s possible for skin that’s been failed by every other solution.
She shares, “I’ve had to make some tough decisions, ones that weren’t always the fastest or most commercially appealing. But I’ve always come back to one question: Does this serve the skin? If the answer isn’t a clear yes, we don’t move forward.”
This principle has led her to say no to tempting shortcuts: ingredients that might boost shelf appeal but harm barrier function, retailers who wanted formula changes to meet margins, or opportunities misaligned with the brand’s standards. “I’m not here to dilute the brand for the sake of growth.”
Instead, Jacine invests in education, science, and her team, maintaining close relationships with the community. “We’re not a faceless brand. We’re a movement that stands for transformation without trauma.”
She sums it up beautifully: “Roccoco’s loyalty doesn’t come from clever branding. It comes from results, from integrity, and from a refusal to compromise on what I know to be true: when you treat skin with empathy and intelligence, it responds. Growth hasn’t changed our values, it’s amplified them.”
Breaking Barriers and Leading with Empathy
Being a female founder in the beauty industry might seem a natural fit, but Jacine’s experience reveals the tougher realities behind the scenes. She has often been underestimated, her intelligence questioned, and her passion mistaken for emotion. “At one point, I was even told no one would ever take me seriously because I was blonde.”
Facing stereotypes like the “dumb blonde,” she transformed underestimation into fuel. While others made assumptions, she focused on building a disruptive brand grounded in science and heart. “Those experiences didn’t break me, they sharpened me.”
Determined never to feel like she didn’t belong, Jacine doubled down on education — cosmetic chemistry, business strategy, human psychology — everything she needed to grow personally and professionally. “I made it my mission to never walk into a room and feel like I didn’t belong, not because I conformed, but because I owned my space.”
This journey shaped her leadership style today. She leads not from ego but from empathy and example, creating a culture where every voice is heard, neurodiversity is valued, and bold thinking is championed. “I don’t play small to make others comfortable. I take risks. I invest in my team. I coach, I mentor, and I lead from the front.”
Embracing the Future
As the beauty industry evolves rapidly, Jacine watches exciting trends redefine how skincare is formulated and understood.
One major shift is toward skin microbiome-centric formulations. Rather than killing microbes, brands like Roccoco focus on restoring harmony and reducing inflammation at the microbial level through postbiotics, fermented ingredients, and microbiome-safe surfactants. “The goal is no longer to kill everything on the skin, but to restore harmony.”
Another emerging field is neurocosmetics and psychodermatology, where emotional stress and skin health intersect. Ingredients that influence neurotransmitters or calm neuroinflammation, such as Tephrosia purpurea and Neurophroline™, are being integrated not just for physical effects but for emotional modulation.
Barrier-first innovation continues with a move toward biomimetic lipids, multilamellar emulsions, and smart humectants designed to strengthen rather than just occlude. “It’s about strengthening, not just occluding.”
Senotherapeutics and cellular longevity is another cutting-edge focus, addressing aging by targeting cellular senescence with botanicals and peptides to clear or improve function of “zombie cells.” This brings longevity science into skincare.
Lastly, chronocosmetics taps into the skin’s circadian rhythms to time ingredient delivery, using melatonin analogues and day/night-specific formulations.
Sustainability also drives innovation with a rise in waterless, low-energy formulas using powders, solid serums, and upcycled materials. She notes, “Formulators are focused on reducing energy consumption during production and using regenerative raw materials.”
Commitment to Ethical and Sustainable Beauty
For Roccoco, sustainability is not an afterthought — it’s embedded in every choice. Jacine made a promise early on: formulations must be kind to skin and planet alike.
Ingredient sourcing is highly selective, focusing not only on efficacy but ethical and environmental impact. “We prioritize biodegradable actives, low aquatic toxicity, and suppliers that align with ethical harvesting practices.”
The brand is proudly 100% cruelty-free and vegan-friendly wherever possible, with transparency around any non-vegan components sourced ethically.
Packaging innovations reflect the same commitment, moving toward recyclable materials, reduced waste, and exploring refillable options. Jacine admits it’s ongoing work but underscores a philosophy of progress, not perfection.
Education is central to their approach, addressing myths, greenwashing, and the complex balance between nature, efficacy, and ethics. “Conscious beauty should be informed, not just trendy.”
She sums it up: “Healing skin should never come at the cost of harming the earth.”
Moments That Validate a Vision
Among the many milestones Jacine cherishes, one stands out as a powerful validation of Roccoco’s mission: being named by the Financial Times in 2022 as the fastest-growing beauty brand in the Asia-Pacific region.
Seeing Roccoco on the High Growth Companies list alongside global giants was surreal and deeply personal. It was more than numbers; it was proof that a brand born from pain and purpose could compete on the world stage without compromising values.
She reflects, “That recognition didn’t just represent growth, it represented impact.”
It was also a moment of triumph over early doubts and stereotypes. “I remembered being told I wouldn’t be taken seriously because I was blonde… that the way I was formulating was ‘too complicated’ or ‘too gentle to be effective.’”
This milestone symbolized not just business success but the breakthrough of a vision rooted in both science and heart.
Balancing Innovation with Compassionate Leadership
For Jacine, innovation and empathy are inseparable partners. Every new formula and leadership decision is guided by both logic and love.
She explains, “I innovate because I care. I dig into the pathways, the cytokines, the biofilms, not to impress anyone but because behind every skin condition is a person who’s hurting, and I want to solve it for them.”
This passion fuels her relentless research and the complexity of Roccoco’s formulations. The goal is relief and real results, not trend-chasing.
Her leadership mirrors this approach: direct and demanding excellence, but grounded in understanding. “I know what it’s like to be dismissed, underestimated, or struggling to be seen.”
Many team members are neurodiverse, just like Jacine, bringing unique perspectives and talents. She invests in unlocking their potential rather than fitting them into molds.
Empathy extends to customers, too, whose feedback guides innovation. “We listen intently to the skin therapists who say, ‘I’ve tried everything and nothing’s worked,’ and to clients who’ve spent years hiding behind makeup or filters.”
When asked how she balances science and heart, Jacine says simply, “I don’t. I fuse them.”
Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Female Entrepreneurs
Jacine’s journey offers powerful lessons for women aiming to leave their mark on the beauty world.
Her first advice: “Back yourself even when no one else does. Don’t wait for permission.”
She encourages relentless learning and obsession with solving real problems. “You don’t need to be perfect, you need to be committed.”
Doubt and underestimation will come, but Jacine advises using them as fuel. “Let them.”
Building a supportive circle is crucial. She credits mentors and coaches for pivotal growth, even when resources were scarce. “Success doesn’t happen in isolation, build your circle wisely.”
Finally, she urges entrepreneurs to lead with purpose. “Don’t create a brand just to sell products, create a brand that solves a problem, tells the truth, and gives people hope.”
The beauty industry needs bold women ready to disrupt with heart, science, and unapologetic vision.
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