Five years of being rated as the fastest growing British skin care brand is an impressive achievement. Tropic Skin Care Forbes 300 Members includes me.
I had one goal in mind: to help pay for my mum’s bills. “As a fifteen-year-old, inspired by my grandma’s homemade body scrub recipe, I recreated her exotic blend at our kitchen table in Croydon in south London and sold them in jam jars in London’s Greenwich market every weekend. My mother also ran a stall selling scarves, wooden wind spirals, and other items. Susie Ma, founder of Tropic Ambassador and Shanghai-born Susie Ma; “Grandma was a medicinal chemist and toxicologist. Her bespoke scrub soothed mozzie bites. The scrub was made with a combination of macadamia oil, lemon myrtle, jojoba and fresh sea salts. I added bergamote and eucalyptus. It has gone global!”
Growing up in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, the whole of Susie Ma’s incredibly successful premium self-care portfolio is built around tropical ingredients. Her soothing plant-based balms and cruelty-free body products, as well as her healing lotions, feature the entire botanical alphabet.
Starting with Amazonian Dragon’s Blood Extract, avocado milk, Aspen bark extract, banana flower, blue spirulina, bisabolol (from chamomile), banana flower, bamboo charcoal, baobab oil, babassu, Brazilian electric daisy, cupuacu, emu apple and illipe butter cold-pressed from the nuts of the Bornean Shorea Stenoptera tree thru kangaroo paw flower and kadhai oil to rarabe butter, resurrection flower, shala tree resin, willow bark, and white tea. Madagascan murumuru and monoi butter, Madagascan leaves of life and monoi are in the center. Lord Sugar invested in Ma’s dream after firing her on the UK’s The Apprentice in 2011. She was the youngest contestant to appear ever on the show.
The young entrepreneur has studied Philosophy and Economics at University College London, and she worked for Citigroup as a foreign exchange trader. In 2013, she invited 400 customers to become Tropic ambassadors and toured the UK, teaching women to demonstrate her product.
“Our ambassadors make money by getting friends together. We also have Tropic hostesses incentivized to host pamper parties.”
Susie has now employed 450 employees and has 20,000 Ambassadors. What began in a jam jar has grown into a multimillion dollar business offering vegan hair and make-up care products, as well as its popular ultra-energizing formulas, potent brightnessers, and ultra reparative replenishers.
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Tropic best sellers include Skin Dream firming night cream, Skin Feast nourishing essence, Skin Re-leaf containing chamomile, oats, tamaku oil, and tiger grass, Juicy Greens exfoliating essence, and Rainforest Dew hydration serum, unique formula with multi-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid for intense daily hydration. The men’s range includes water-activated Clear Slate Deep Cleansing Powder.
Continues Suzie: “Nothing much has changed really. We still dedicate ourselves to the Infinite purpose. To create a world that is healthier, greener and more empowered.
“We donate 10% of all profits to charities and good causes because we believe in doing good beyond beauty. The Trussel Trust has funded two food banks and built three schools in remote areas of the world. Tropic’s Hampshire South Downs forest has 7000 climate resilient trees, and we are building coral nurseries in the Great Barrier Reef. Our purpose is infinite, and it will never end. We are always looking for ways to improve. Both for the world and people’s skin.