People care.
Planet care.
Fair share.
By Jonathan Campbell
Born straight out of the soul of founder Dom Bridges, the Margate company represents the the blueprint for a modern luxury brand, with an emphasis on wellness, natural ingredients, recycling, giving, and investing into the community […]
Updated: 08 November 2024
Dom Bridges, founder of the Margate skincare company formerly known as Haeckels has, after twelve years of investing in the brand name, decided to rebrand his company. He’s not doing it because of low brand awareness or because people don’t know how to pronounce it, or any of the other reasons companies re-brand themselves. He’s doing it out of principle. It turns out the German botany illustrator Haeckel, who inspired Dom to use his name for his skincare brand, wasn’t a very ethical man. He was allegedly a fascist, believed in Eugenics and was generally unpleasant. We at The Obsessive believe Dom has created a blueprint for the future of the luxury skincare brand, a brand with a conscience. Our piece on Dom’s company still stands, whatever he decides to call it. Well done Dom, for sticking to your beliefs.
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There's a modern luxury skincare or beauty company that demonstrates through actions and products that it is truly the blueprint for a modern luxury brand. Haeckels was established in Margate in 2012 straight out of the soul of its founder Dom Bridges - who feels omnipresent throughout the brand.
Seaweed is a big issue in Margate, there’s a lot of it, with four different varieties that are only found there. Most people don’t appreciate that and just complain about the amount of it—how it looks and smells. Dom decided to use this natural abundance and started by making seaweed bars of soap in his kitchen for his friends.
They loved the soap, so Dom continued in his kitchen creating skincare products to the point where his wife Jo told him to get a lab for his experiments. So, he converted an abandoned casino into his lab. Dom’s obsession with seaweed is scientifically justified as seaweed hydrates the skin, not only that it’s rich in valuable vitamins, minerals and amino acids; it’s anti-bacterial; skin rebuilding and anti-inflammatory; it’s all natural plentiful resource that Haeckels harvest by hand from Margate beach fronts under licence. To create something so desired from a natural product that most people dislike must be an alchemy oF sorts.
The products are wonderful to use and, most importantly, they work. The skin oil makes your skin soft and smooth. The hair oil gives your hair a glorious shine and lustre, and the Bladderwrack + Buckhorn body wash and Bladderwrack + Pumpkin moisturiser make you and your skin feel great. The scents are cleverly named after areas around Margate, such as Botany and Pegwell, and are inspired by the aromas of those areas. The resulting unisex Parfums are complex with layers of scent - but all share a sea air freshness.
I chose Reculver with its Top notes of Green mandarin/Cassis, Middle notes of Neroli/Pink Pepper, Base notes Cedar/Oud. Reculver is the area around the sea defences where Barnes Wallis and 617 squadron (Dambusters) developed and tested the bouncing bomb. Haeckels embraces and celebrates the environment it comes from.
The Haeckels store and lab are just up the road from The Turner Gallery in Cliftonville, its simple yet stylish frontage stands out but also fits into the small parade of shops. Inside is like stepping into the depths of the brand, this is no ‘for show’ flagship store—it’s a lab. It has vertical farms growing produce used in the production of Haeckels products, and sections of the floor growing moss because moss is a natural air purifier and Haeckels wanted the oxygen in the store to be superior to the outside air. This attention to detail for the user experience of Haeckels goes above and beyond. The product package design is superb, simple, clear and tasteful. The Haeckels Spa is upstairs above the store where you can enjoy being pampered with their products.
Haeckels is an essential part of the Margate renaissance, most importantly it brings an eco-industry that employs local people, uses local raw materials, invests in training local people and is active it the Margate community from beach cleaning to building a free to use rolling sauna wagon called a sea bathing machine. The Bathing Machine was built to encourage all-year-round open water swimming so swimmers can warm themselves post-dip. The bathing machine is currently parked by the Tidal Pool in Walpole Bay.
All great luxury brands can create a desire in its products: Haeckels is the new way, with an emphasis on wellness, natural ingredients, recycling, giving, and investing into the community—whilst doing its best to take on global environmental issues seriously. Haeckels is the conscious way to buy beauty products—there’s no greenwashing going on with this brand.
Haeckels also has a bit of that Margate "Fuck You" attitude or "Irreverence" in marketing terms, which we at The Obsessive love.
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