[slow upbeat music]
- Hey, Edward.
- [Edward] Hey Clara, what are you up to?
- So I'm just arriving in lovely Margate.
I'm gonna meet the people from Haeckels.
I'm gonna forage for some seaweed.
I'll find out all the science parts behind
this lovely brand.
- Great, well good luck.
- I'll see you soon. - Bye.
[slow piano music]
- Hello.
- Hello, good to see you.
- Good to see you.
- Welcome to Margate.
- Thanks very much for having me.
- Good, are you ready to go seaweeding?
- Let's do it. - Let's go.
- All right.
So Otis, here we are.
We are surrounded by it.
So let's talk about it.
Seaweed.
Why is it such a crucial ingredient to Haeckels' products?
- Well, it's the foundation of the whole brand.
We took seaweed from the beach,
became a soap bar
and that's kind of how the product started.
- And talk to me about how you guys go about sourcing it.
Do you use machines?
Is it done by hand?
What's the process?
- It's all done by hand.
Get a couple of boxes of us,
pair of scissors, let's get to it.
Maybe aim to look for a nice kind of healthy bit.
- [Clara] So, oh, like a bit of it like this?
- [Otis] Bit like that.
Yes, that's a perfect bit.
- [Clara] So on an average day,
how long are you out here collecting?
- Well, we come about twice a week,
hour and a half each time.
Doesn't take long, depending on the tide times.
And take it back, that's all we need.
[upbeat piano music]
- Hi, Charlie.
Thank you for welcoming me
to this lovely space, Haeckels house.
It is glorious.
- Thank you for being here.
- Can you tell me the story of how Haeckels
first came to be?
- So 10 years ago it started
and we made our first seaweed soap block.
And then it's also grown from there.
I think as we've developed our demands now
our products have become more complex.
And so it's not just about seaweed anymore.
We use mushrooms.
We still pioneer other materials.
This seaweed that we have is a natural resource.
And so we have to work with councils and English heritage
in order to secure the license to harvest this sustainably
because over-harvesting, obviously,
we can have a detrimental impact on the environment.
So we have to be really, really careful
in the amount of seaweed that we take.
That's sort of why we're expanding into other
kind of categories of seaweeds.
We have kelp, we've got bladderwrack
and a few other extracts
and we're actually growing them in lab.
Therefore we're able to get the same essence
of the seaweed that's grown in our own environment
- When it comes to beauty products,
I think we are definitely in the era now
where we can't find ignorance anymore.
We're all very aware about the overuse of plastic.
How are Haeckels tackling plastic waste?
- What we're on the cusp of developing
is a really exciting new technology
that's home compostable.
So therefore the customer hasn't got to think
about where they've gotta put it.
It's basically a banana skin.
So if it goes to landfill it composts,
if it goes in the ocean it composts.
Every single place in which this could possibly
end up it's taken care of.
And I think that that is the next step
of the beauty industry,
is taking sustainability off of the customer
and just presenting a solution.
And that's why we're so excited to introduce
Haeckels 2.0 in which we've really, really concentrated
on end of life cycle analysis.
- I love how big that sounds, Haeckels 2.0.
[slow upbeat music]
- Hey, Clara.
I'm Lottie.
Welcome to our spa, Haeckels House.
So I'm gonna be doing a little hand massage on you
with our new eco hand balm.
- [Clara] So what's inside this?
What are the main ingredients?
- [Lottie] Sea vegetable extracts,
naturally derived ingredients.
Especially the seaweed.
It acts as a humectant.
So it draws moisture into the skin
and keeps the skin nice and hydrated.
- I like the sound of that. - Yeah.
- Right, let's do this.
Talk to me about the beauty school and what it does.
- It's going to help to train and educate
the next generation of skincare therapists.
I have written a course that is
all about providing facial treatments
for skin of color. - Fantastic.
- So there's failings in the beauty education system
at the moment where therapists don't get taught
about how to treat people that have got skin of color.
We want to be part of the change
to bring that about. - Right on.
I think it's great to show that, you know,
the UK looks like a lot of people
and everyone deserves to have great skincare.
- Yeah, exactly.
- This is so relaxing and do you know,
I'm delighted that a piece of seaweed that I cut
is gonna be in someone's future treatment like this.
I feel very proud. [laughs] - Good.
Yeah, I know.
And it is so nice to see how it happens and, you know,
with the seaweed,
when we finish using it
if it's not all in products,
it goes to local farmers who use it as fertilizer.
So we see the whole cycle from start to finish,
which is really cool.
- Yeah, that's just a real
community thing as well. - Yeah.
- Like nothing goes to waste.
- No.
- Thank you so much for treating me today.
[slow upbeat music]
[Clara laughs]