Our Story | Tropic – Tropic Skincare

SUSIE'S STORY

Our founder, Susie Ma, drew inspiration for Tropic from two sources. The first was her grandma, a medicinal chemist and toxicologist, who taught her that our skin needs feeding with nourishing, healthy ingredients just as much as our bodies. The second was her upbringing in Cairns, tropical North Queensland, Australia, where fresh aloe vera plants and exotic fruit trees pretty much grew on her doorstep! This is also where we got our name from.

After moving to London as a teenager, Susie decided to start selling homemade body scrubs (inspired by her grandma’s recipe) to help her mum with the household bills. While most of us were smuggling our favourite snacks into the cinema at age fifteen, Susie was pouring her first batch of body scrubs into 50 jam jars to sell at Greenwich Market.

We've come a long way since Susie first started out. We are now one of the UK’s fastest-growing skincare brands, with over 275 award-winning products across our bountiful range of skincare, sun care, makeup, body, mama and baby care.

Creating a healthier, greener, more empowered world.

We pledge to update and evolve in the most powerful, purposeful, planet-protective way possible, to make sure we’re always treating you to luxurious beauty products and treating the Earth with the care and attention it deserves.

Our Infinite Purpose →

Double-offsetting our emissions

Responsibly sourced ingredients

Recyclable and refillable packaging

Cruelty-free and vegan

Every purchase funds education

POWERFUL

Nutrient-dense, sun-soaked soil has powered our products since day one. We freshly make our formulas at Tropic HQ, to ensure the plant-based goodness stays effective for as long as possible. Our range also includes a rainbow of COSMOS-certified organic formulas, packed with powerful antioxidants.

We strive to be at the forefront of natural ingredient research, with every single formulation developed in our HQ’s Innovation Lab. Our in-house chemists opt for ingredients that are small in molecular weight wherever possible, to carry nature’s actives deeper into the skin. This essentially creates more ‘glow’ per gram, which is evidenced in our clinical data! We rely on independent labs, qualified dermatologists, and trusty technology to verify our product efficacy – clinically testing as much as possible.

PURPOSEFUL

Every single Tropic product has a purpose. As well as being targeted to your unique skin type and beauty goals, each bottle is a force for good beyond beauty. Every order funds education, bringing brighter futures to children in remote regions of Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Madagascar. It’s all part of our Infinite Purpose to create a healthier, greener, more empowered world. But the best part about our purpose being ‘infinite’ means we don’t stop at just one goal. From planting forests to supporting food banks through the Trussell Trust, double offsetting our carbon emissions, and propelling British industry from our Surrey-based HQ – we’re on a never-ending mission to spread positivity around the globe. .

PLANET-PROTECTIVE

Creating a greener world means safeguarding the health of our Earth and its creatures. That’s why we’re certified vegan, landfill free, and carbon negative. We’ve even engineered a refillable Colour Palette to reduce waste, and we make our beauty packaging from PCR (recycled) plastic, recyclable glass bottles and aluminium, wherever possible.

In fact, 100% of our core skincare range is now refillable, recyclable, or returnable as part of our rewards scheme. Our moisturisers are leading the industry, with zero waste INNERBOTTLE™ technology that ensures every last drop of goodness can be squeezed out and refilled. So, you can rest assured your beauty routine is having a positive impact.

WHAT IS PROVENANCE®?

In the world of skincare, honesty is of the essence. We know that every time you make a purchase, you want it to be as informed as possible so that you can trust your support is going to a brand aligned with your own values.

But with what can often feel like so much information to sift through and deciphering ethical credentials can feel overwhelming. So, we’re using Provenance®, a software that allows us to push the jargon aside and enable transparency through technology.

Powered by blockchain and open data, Provenance® brings together all the need-to-know ethical stories on each of our products in accessible, clear, and comprehensible Proof Points. That means sharing information on everything from our cruelty-free, vegan status, the origins of our sustainable ingredients, our various charity partnerships, and much more. The result? We’re able to prove all the ways we’re helping to carve out a better future for our world and allow you to shop in confidence that our impact is real.