More than skincare: Dulcie’s (former Haeckels)  one-of-a-kind sustainable journey

Some might have thought Dom Bridges was crazy, back when he took the plunge and started a skincare brand like no other in 2013. Some might still think he’s crazy now, as he keeps challenging the status quo through his steadfast, all-encompassing commitment – from veganism to regenerative agriculture – to care for the planet and those who inhabit it. 

As sustainable beauty professionals, we prefer to think of him as a visionary, fearless, and resourceful soul whose calm, intentional presence in an increasingly fast-paced, saturated industry feels like a breath of fresh, Margate air – the town on the Kent coast where Dom and his wife Jo moved to, seeking solace and new beginnings after the pain of a miscarriage. 

The re/sources team, together with brand photographer Abi Aiello, sat down with Dom at Dulcie’s Hackney shop for an enlightening, inspiring chat about skincare, community, legacy, and so much more.

A story of sea, love, and community

It all started from a very small, very cheap oven in the back of a Margate shop, as Dom recalls with a smile. “I’d be there stirring the soap on the stove whilst trying to serve a customer at the same time. If the electricity went off, I couldn’t operate the stove – but I knew that wouldn’t have stopped me. I would have got a gas camping stove, or something like that, and kept going. Once I’ve got access to the live ingredients I need, you can’t stop me.”

This sentence perfectly encapsulates Dom’s character: resilient, resourceful, rebellious. So much so, that the seaweed that made the brand famous was not only hand-harvested by Dom himself and his trusted team, but it was also physically transported – by bus – to the former casino that served as the brand’s first physical store on the Margate promenade.

Dom also recalls, with an infectious laughter, that time when they sailed the seaweed all the way to London on a barge. “We came up the estuary, stopped by Tower Bridge, and then we got another boat to come into the canals. At the end, we brought some of our customers back to Margate, on the boat, and treated them to a facial or a massage.” The Margate community loved it. The London community was intrigued and drawn to the newly opened shop on Broadway Market – a buzzing road by Regent’s Canal, brimming with local life, family-run businesses, and that small community feel that instantly resonated with Dom and his crew.

Undeniably, the brand had found its second home from home – away from the sea, but still very close to another, historic body of water. Even in the big city, though, Dulcie never faltered from its ethics and values – particularly, in terms of sustainability and the commitment to providing slow, intentional, locally-sourced skincare products.

“The entire beauty and skincare industry is hell-bent on just pumping out as much stuff as it possibly can, and getting it to as many places as possible. We’re not interested in that. To me, it doesn’t make sense to keep harvesting seaweed in the UK and turning it into a product that is shipped all around the world. To me, it’s about getting hold of a robust, sustainable, local ingredient source that I can then transform into something valuable for the community – a sort of farmers’ market for skincare, if you will.”

Moving beyond seaweed

Algae was where it all began, for “that seaweed skincare company”, and will remain at the core of the brand’s offering, which continues to grow, ferment, and manufacture spirulina in-store.

Leaning into – when not greatly anticipating – the bio-intelligence trend, Dulcie’s products don’t look at nature as some kind of inspiration. They turn to it as a collaborator, kicking off a symbiotic relationship in which humans work with nature rather than against it. 

Experts have already named this shift: “Symbiocene”, or “the era of symbiosis between humans and nature”. With biotech, skincare and beauty brands are increasingly able to unlock new materials through algae systems, distillation, fermentation, microorganisms, and nutrient recovery, whilst carbon-capturing, compostable, and bio-mimicking solutions become more mainstream. 

The gap between skincare and food, in Dom’s eyes, will continue to shrink, as new discoveries and technological advancements make it possible to “borrow” traditionally food-related practices and transfer them to beauty and skincare, delivering a genuinely holistic, organic experience. “We envision a future where each skincare product we make is morning-fresh, like a loaf of bread bought from your neighbourhood bakery,” explains Dom, with a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. 

Legacy, knowledge, and giving back: A real model for circularity

Dulcie has always done things very differently, shaking up the status quo and proving to the whole industry that difficult, perhaps uncomfortable, but necessary changes can be made when there’s enough creativity, vision, and courage at the helm of a company.

“The thing with us is that we don’t rely on fleeting trends or marketing gimmicks to survive. Yes, you can put up a beautiful website. You can create incredible visuals. You can communicate really well on your social media. But as soon as all that becomes unsustainable or outdated, the bubble bursts and you’re done,” states Dom.

In a world of plastic sheet masks, skincare for toddlers, and yet another celebrity-endorsed beauty brand, what Dulcie is interested in is full, transparent, authentic circularity. The circularity model that Dom pursues through Dulcie is all-encompassing, touching both people and the planet. 

Minimising waste, giving back, and supporting the local community have long been pillars of the brand, as Dom recalls, “During Covid, I became so concerned that people were not getting their daily intake of nutrients that I started giving away the lettuce I grew in the market shop, for free – and I would also sneak in some micro-greens, for that extra nutrient boost.” 

But here’s something even more radical. Dom’s 72-acre Cornish farm acts as waste disposal and management for Dulcie, as he explains, “All of our old Shellworks packaging comes to the farm and we compost it. Then, we grow our own fruit and veg straight on the farm, which essentially means we’ve been eating Shellworks for the past four years.” 

Circularity is also strictly connected with legacy and heritage, which the Dulcie team – from shop staff to those working behind the scenes and experimenting with ingredients and packaging – becoming, like Dom says, “the authority on the brand. They are the teachers, they are those who go out there and broadcast their knowledge and the Dulcie philosophy so it reaches as many people as possible.

“I feel like I’m nothing without them. There are people, in our Margate building, that have been working with us since they were in their late teens and early twenties. Now, they’ve got families of their own, they managed to buy their own houses, and I feel like Dulcie really gave them those foundations to create the lives they wanted to live. So yeah, it’s never been just about making and selling skincare. It’s about so much more.”

From Haeckels to Dulcie: “It’s about all of us”

Before re-introducing itself to the world as Dulcie, Dom’s brand was called Haeckels. The idea for that name came to Dom after he discovered some wildlife drawings by German zoologist Ernst Haeckels. “I was fascinated by his work, but I was also completely unaware of his abhorrent racist beliefs,” explains Dom.

“When I found all that out, I literally felt like someone had stolen my child and tattooed their own face on them. I know it feels like a horrendous thing to say – that’s precisely how I felt.”

So, ever committed to his values of honesty and authenticity, Dom got to work to find the brand a much more suitable name. The journey was long and complex, yet the outcome has been one of the most candid and spontaneous choices in the entire skincare industry: Dulcie, the name of Dom’s daughter. 

“I probably knew it from the start, because everything has always been about her. At one point in our journey, when we were still operating as Haeckels, I found myself surrounded by entrepreneur-type people who claimed they knew exactly what our brand was about. They said it was about me, or about the English coast, or about seaweed. None of that was the entire truth, I felt, because it was always about our children, our community, our legacy, and our future. So, renaming the brand Dulcie felt like the best, in fact, the only possible choice for us.”

Hence the “it’s about all of us” tagline which, particularly during the months in which the brand operated without a name, anchored Dulcie to its identity. An identity that encompasses natural and organic skincare products, sustainable and regenerative practices, love and support for local communities, and now even the possibility to pay less – or more – for some of the products, through the “Pay what you feel” initiative.

“We want as many people as possible to have access to our skincare range, but also to get to know our brand’s story and ethos, and to find comfort in the knowledge that another way to do business – and to live life – is possible,” states Dom. “So, we’re letting customers pick the price they feel they can or want to pay. In some cases, we’ve even found out that this incentivises some people to pay slightly more, simply because they truly understand and appreciate the value and the reason behind our decision to offer a sliding scale.”

With a father (literally and figuratively) like Dom Bridges, we can only expect that Dulcie will continue to enjoy a fulfilled, responsible, and joyful life – always doing things differently, yes, but guided by the heart, soul, and creativity of someone who cares too deeply to look the other way.