What is Tropic Skin Care
Tropic Skin care is a beauty brand founded by a lady called Susie Ma (who you may have seen on The Apprentice back in 2011 where she came third) she used to make her own skincare products and sell them at Greenwich market and the business has grown from there to become one of the fastest growing beauty brands in the UK today.
How does it differ to other health brands
All the products are freshly made in our Surrey kitchens which is why they’re not sold in shops but through Ambassadors like me. They’re made to order then shipped straight to the customer. They’re also trying to do more than just make great products, they’re heavily involved with charities and have a huge focus on the environment – something the beauty industry is notoriously poor at addressing.
What are the main focus of Tropic as a brand and company
Tropics Infinite Purpose is to help create a healthier, greener and more empowered world. Susie’s grandmother was a medicinal chemist and toxicologist and she taught her that, like our bodies, our skin needs feeding healthy, nourishing and most importantly, natural ingredients so this is a hugely important part of the Tropic brand. All our carbon emissions are accounted for and double offset by funding work in the Amazonian rainforest. A large number of our products are refillable or recyclable and in 2019 we sent 0% of our waste to landfill.
Tropic works with United World Schools meaning every Tropic order helps fund a child’s education in Cambodia, Nepal or Myanmar. Every £50 spent on Tropic funds a day of schooling for a child. We also work with Big change in the UK, which pioneers improvements in education for Britain’s young people, and the Winnie Mabaso foundation which cares for orphaned children in South Africa.
There is a hugely supportive community of Ambassadors, we all work independently so each of us has our own little business but there’s no rivalry and just such a fantastic team.
How & why did you get into working with Tropic Skin Care
I was introduced to Tropic by a friend who is a Tropic Ambassador. At the time I wasn’t looking to take anything else on but as I learnt more about the brand and started using the products I just completely fell in love with it and knew it was something I needed to be a part of.
Do you just sell skin care
No. We sell skin care, make up, hair care and body care. Our product range is always growing so I’m always excited by new product launches to see what else Tropic are going to introduce.
Why are the ingredients of skin/health products so important? Surely it just goes on our skin/hair?
Studies have shown that our bodies can be burdened with synthetic chemicals found in every day products. In 2016 a study was done by UC Berkeley in California on 100 girls, every single one of them tested positive for 4 of the most toxic chemicals – chemicals that have been shown to interfere with the body’s endocrine system. These are chemicals that are primarily used in personal care products and would have entered the girls bodies through absorption through the skin. With long term exposure to these chemicals they can build up in our body and increase our potential to health risks in the long term. The same girls were then given products that were free of these chemicals for 3 days and the levels dropped by one third on average.
This shows just how important it is to be putting healthy, natural products onto our largest organ, our skin.
What is the best seller?
Our best seller is our Smoothing Cleanser which comes in scented or unscented versions. It’s a non-foaming pH-balanced formula that makes it great for sensitive skin. The scented version has eucalyptus and rosemary essential oils which smell incredible and it’s fantastic at removing make up, pollution and dirt without stripping the skin.
Has this changed during the pandemic?
No, if anything it’s got more popular! It’s a fantastic product that our customers love.
What is your favourite product & why?
This is such a hard question because I love so many!! At the moment I’d probably choose our whipped body velvet because it’s a rich creamy moisturiser that smells of buttery vanilla. I suffer with eczema on my legs when the weather gets colder and this is so richly moisturising it’s amazing for my skin at this time of year.
Any predictions for what will be popular next year?
I think our cleanser will continue to be popular and also our Clear Skies face wash which is a powdered face wash activated with water. The idea of a second cleanse is becoming popular (it’s very big in the beauty industry in Korea) and it’s something I’ve been doing myself. It’s predicted to take off here in the UK.
Anything else?
Although the ingredients we use are natural or as close to nature as possible we get incredible clinical results and our products are multi award winning. Tropic never test on animals and are a 100% cruelty free brand who are certified by Cruelty Free International, The Vegan Society and PETA. I feel incredibly proud to be a small part of such an amazing brand