Since launching during Bend’s Startup Weekend in May, Coco’s Haven has found a Redmond company to manufacture its coconut oil-based skin- and lip-care products.

Co-founders Suzanne Bell and Angela Goodstein also have been cooking up samples, connecting with retailers and selling limited quantities of the product through the company’s Facebook page.

“We have a lot of the foundation in place,” Bell said. “I think as a company we’re a little more formed in that we have found relationships locally, so we know where we can manufacture and source the coconut oil.”

The next step is obtaining funding to cover manufacturing costs and create packaging that “has the necessary look and feel to stand on a shelf,” Bell said. The goal is to sell the products in either recyclable or sustainable packaging.

“In order for us to do large quantities, we need enough capital to buy the material and the containers,” she said. “Buying large quantities gives us a better value for our dollar, but it is expensive to buy it all at once.”

To help gain that funding, she said, the company has applied to compete in the concept stage of the Bend Venture Conference in October.

Last week, Bell met with Brasada Ranch spa director Lynne Hite to discuss using Coco’s Haven in body treatments, specialty pedicures or other services.

“At Brasada Ranch, we try to support local business, and any time we can use a local product it’s a great story,” Hite said. “We have people visiting from all over the U.S., so it’s nice for them to get to sample a local product.”

Within the spa industry, Hite said, coconut oil is becoming a very popular ingredient.

“There are spas all over the country using coconut oil in their services, and it works so well in the High Desert because it is so dry here,” she said.

Bell said Hite took some product to try in the spa for a week.

If Brasada orders Coco’s products, Jim McConnell, co-owner, president and chemist of McConnell Labs, said he can make it quickly.

“We can get in all the raw materials within a couple of days,” he said. “We can mix it, pump it into bottles and containers, label it and have it ready for them to sell within a week, and we would charge them for that service.”

Redmond-based McConnell Labs manufactures a line of gels, hardeners and strengtheners for Light Elegance Nail Products, the company owned by McConnell and his wife, Lezlie,as well as for other companies in the U.S. and Europe. But Coco’s would be the first local business. Jim McConnell plans to work on potential formulations.

“The idea that we can be a part of someone else’s local success is more rewarding than helping someone else from another country,” he said.