Cocoon was founded in 2013. Thorakao was founded in 1961.
That gap – 52 years – is the entire history of K-beauty, the rise and fall of several Western beauty empires, and the complete lifecycle of most cosmetics brands that have ever existed. Thorakao has been making skincare and haircare products in Ho Chi Minh City for longer than most of its current competitors have been alive. It distributes to Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, the United States, Australia, Dubai, and more than a dozen other markets. Its products are on the shelves at Guardian in Hanoi.
Almost nobody writing about Vietnamese skincare in English has mentioned it.
Fast track:
- Brand history → Since 1961
- What Thorakao makes → The product range
- Key ingredients → Vietnamese botanicals
- Thorakao vs. Cocoon → Two generations compared
- Where to buy → Availability
- Vietnamese skincare context → Vietnamese Skincare: The Complete Guide
Since 1961: A Brand Older Than K-Beauty
Thorakao was established by Lan Hao Company in Ho Chi Minh City in 1961 – during the Kennedy administration, before the first K-beauty brand existed, and twelve years before the first Innisfree store opened in Seoul. The brand survived the reunification of Vietnam in 1975, the economic reforms of Đổi Mới in 1986, and the subsequent opening of the Vietnamese market to international competition in the 1990s and 2000s.
By 1969 – eight years after founding – Thorakao had already expanded beyond Vietnam into Cambodia. The brand’s current international distribution covers Singapore, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Egypt, Russia, and several African markets. This is not a local brand that never left its home market. It is a 60-year-old Vietnamese cosmetics company that has been quietly exporting while the global beauty industry was busy talking about everything else.
The manufacturing facility spans 50,000 square meters. The product range covers more than 60 SKUs across skincare, haircare, and body care. The brand claims 100,000+ loyal customers and positions itself explicitly on three commitments: 100% made in Vietnam, 100% no corticoids, 100% no isobutyl parabens.
The English-language editorial coverage of all of this: essentially zero.
The Product Range
Thorakao’s product range is built around Vietnamese botanical ingredients – many of which overlap with the traditional pharmacopoeia covered in Dewsia’s Vietnamese Skincare Ingredients Glossary. The brand organizes products around natural ingredient heroes rather than skin concerns or clinical actives.
Skincare
Turmeric Cream (Kem Nghệ) – Thorakao’s most iconic product and the one most frequently mentioned in Vietnamese beauty discussions. A skin-brightening and anti-acne cream built around turmeric extract. The formulation draws on the same curcumin activity covered in Turmeric in Skincare: What It Actually Does – anti-inflammatory, brightening, antibacterial – in a traditional cream format that has remained largely unchanged for decades. The Turmeric Cream is the product that built Thorakao’s domestic reputation and continues to anchor the brand.
Cow’s Milk Cleanser – a facial cleanser built around milk protein and skin-softening ingredients. Milk-based skincare has a long tradition in Vietnamese and broader Asian beauty – proteins, lactic acid, and fats in milk provide gentle cleansing with humectant properties.
Ginseng Cream – a moisturiser featuring Panax ginseng extract, one of the most extensively used botanical actives in Asian skincare tradition. Ginseng’s adaptogenic and antioxidant properties are well-documented; at Thorakao’s price point, it represents accessible access to an ingredient more commonly found in premium Korean formulations.
Gấc Cream – a moisturiser featuring gấc fruit extract (Momordica cochinchinensis), one of Vietnam’s most distinctive indigenous botanicals. Gấc contains exceptional concentrations of lycopene and beta-carotene – the same ingredients behind its use in traditional Vietnamese ceremonial rice dishes. Clinical evidence for gấc extract in anti-aging formulations exists, making this one of Thorakao’s more scientifically interesting products.
Pearl Cream – a brightening cream featuring pearl powder, a traditional East Asian beauty ingredient with documented skin-brightening and antioxidant properties. Pearl powder has been used in Vietnamese and Chinese skincare for centuries.
Snail Cream – a moisturiser featuring snail secretion filtrate alongside botanical extracts. The snail mucin ingredient has strong clinical backing for wound healing, hydration, and skin barrier repair – the same mechanism behind COSRX’s globally popular snail products, in a Thorakao formulation discounted the price.
Haircare
Bồ Kết Shampoo – a shampoo built around soapberry (Gleditsia australis), a traditional Vietnamese hair care ingredient used for over 2,000 years. The natural saponins in bồ kết provide gentle cleansing and scalp-soothing properties. This is one of Thorakao’s most traditional products – the ingredient predates the brand by millennia.
Pomelo Shampoo (Vỏ Bưởi) – a shampoo featuring pomelo peel extract from Bến Tre province, traditionally used to stimulate scalp circulation and support hair growth. The combination of pomelo and soapberry appears across Vietnamese traditional hair care.
Hair Serum – a treatment product featuring pomelo, coconut, and olive oil. The formulation addresses hair strengthening and shine, drawing on the emollient properties of the oil blend.
Body Care
Thorakao’s body care range includes powder, rose water, and exfoliating cream – products that address the practical daily needs of the Vietnamese climate rather than trend-driven categories.
The Ingredient Story
Thorakao’s complete ingredient roster draws from Vietnamese traditional pharmacopoeia: turmeric, grapefruit, gấc fruit, cucumber, garlic, milk, snail, ginseng, pearl powder, beeswax, mulberry, silk cocoon extract, aloe vera, soapberry, and pomelo peel.
The breadth of this list is notable. Where newer Vietnamese brands like Cocoon have built focused product lines around single hero ingredients (winter melon, coffee, lotus), Thorakao’s range draws on a wider traditional botanical vocabulary – the accumulated knowledge of Vietnamese herbal medicine applied to daily cosmetics over six decades.
Several of these ingredients appear in Dewsia’s Vietnamese Skincare Ingredients Glossary with documented functional evidence: turmeric (anti-inflammatory, brightening), gấc (antioxidant, anti-aging), soapberry (natural surfactant), pomelo peel (scalp health), and aloe vera (wound healing, barrier support). The formulation philosophy is traditional, but the underlying ingredient science is real.
Thorakao vs. Cocoon: Two Generations of Vietnamese Skincare
Comparing Thorakao and Cocoon reveals as much about the evolution of Vietnamese skincare as it does about either brand individually.
Origin and positioning: Cocoon (founded 2013) was designed with international export and modern consumer expectations in mind – vegan certification, bilingual packaging, Instagram-ready aesthetics, and premium price positioning. Thorakao (founded 1961) was designed for the Vietnamese domestic mass market of the 1960s and has evolved gradually without a full rebrand. The visual language reflects this: Thorakao’s packaging is functional and dated by current beauty standards; Cocoon’s is contemporary and internationally competitive.
Ingredient philosophy: Both brands use Vietnamese botanical ingredients. Cocoon organizes by geographic origin – Đắk Lắk coffee, Hưng Yên turmeric, and An Giang lotus. Thorakao organizes by traditional ingredient function – the Turmeric Cream does what Vietnamese women have used turmeric cream for, and the Bồ Kết Shampoo does what Vietnamese women have washed their hair with for centuries. One is modern storytelling around tradition; the other is the tradition itself.
Certifications: Cocoon holds Leaping Bunny, PETA, and Vegan Society certifications – among the most rigorous cruelty-free and vegan standards available. Thorakao’s stated commitments (no corticoids, no isobutyl parabens, 100% made in Vietnam) reflect pharmaceutical safety standards rather than ethical lifestyle positioning. Different audiences, different frameworks.
Price: Thorakao is among the most affordable Vietnamese skincare brands – products typically range from 19,000 VND (~$0.75 USD) for basics to 300,000 VND (~$12 USD) for more developed formulations. This makes Thorakao genuinely accessible at a price point below Cocoon’s positioning.
Consumer base: Thorakao is known primarily among Vietnamese consumers aged 40 and above and among the Vietnamese diaspora internationally. Younger Vietnamese consumers have largely moved toward Cocoon or Korean brands.
Where to Buy
Inside Vietnam:
- Guardian and Watsons stores – Thorakao products are stocked in Guardian Hanoi and Watsons HCMC locations
- Thorakao’s Online Store
- Shopee Vietnam (Thorakao Official Store)
- Lazada Vietnam
Outside Vietnam:
- Thorakao Online Store ships internationally to some markets – check availability for your country
- eBay and Asian grocery e-commerce platforms carry some Thorakao products via resellers
- Vietnamese grocery stores in diaspora communities (particularly in Australia, the US, and Europe) sometimes stock Thorakao products
Pricing: At Vietnamese retail, Thorakao products are among the most affordable in the market – the Turmeric Cream and basic skincare products start around 19,000–50,000 VND (~$0.75–2 USD), with more developed formulations in the 100,000–300,000 VND (~$4–12 USD) range.
FAQ
Is Thorakao still popular in Vietnam? Thorakao has a loyal domestic customer base, particularly among older Vietnamese consumers and the diaspora. Among younger Vietnamese consumers, the brand competes with Cocoon and Korean imports. It’s not the most visible brand in modern Vietnamese beauty retail, but it has consistent distribution and a stable customer base built over 60 years.
How does Thorakao compare to Cocoon? They target different consumer profiles. Cocoon is modern, premium-positioned, vegan-certified, and internationally distributed. Thorakao is traditional, affordable, broadly botanical, and oriented toward the mass domestic market. Both are authentically Vietnamese; the differences reflect the 52-year gap in their founding dates as much as anything else.
Are Thorakao products safe? The brand explicitly states 100% no corticoids and 100% no isobutyl parabens across its range – both are relevant safety commitments for the Vietnamese skincare market, where adulterated products have been a documented consumer concern. Products are manufactured in a certified 50,000 m² facility in Ho Chi Minh City.
Where can I buy Thorakao outside Vietnam? The official website ships internationally to some markets. Vietnamese grocery stores and Asian beauty e-commerce platforms carry some products via resellers. Availability varies significantly by country.
