“The sea inspires and drives me forwards every day,” says Dom Bridges, founder of the Margate-based natural skincare brand Haeckels. He is carrying a bucket brimming with slippery looking seaweed — the fruits of his coastal harvest — and the smell of it hangs in the air. “All our ingredients are sourced from this stretch of coastline. Our shop overlooks the sea. Our slogan ‘From the ocean, for the ocean’, is written on the windows of our store. This is where Haeckels began.”

The store — a tiny apothecary-style space bedecked in reclaimed oak panelling — opened in 2012, the year Bridges established the brand from his kitchen table. A beachcomber and volunteer warden, Bridges quit his job directing television ads for big skincare companies after becoming disillusioned with the way they were creating their ranges. His first product? A vegan bar of soap, made from Margate seaweed. “I wanted to bring craftsmanship and transparency to the table,” he says. “I wanted to create something that was an ambassador for this entire coastline.”

Haeckels is just one of a growing number of beauty brands with a focus on sustainable beauty. Austin Austin Organic makes shampoos and conditioners in East Anglia, while New York-based Kahina Giving Beauty and UK fragrance brand Sana Jardin both source their materials fairly through women’s collectives in Morocco. Former Calvin Klein creative director Francisco Costa recently launched Costa Brazil, which harvests its oils from the Amazon rainforest.