Dulcie

Dulcie is a skincare and fragrance company from Margate on the Kent coast, founded by Dom Bridges in 2012 and trading as Haeckels until 2025. In 2024 the company stopped using the Haeckels name because of its namesake's scientific racism. It traded as Formerly Known as Haeckels before becoming Dulcie in November 2025. The company says this is a name change only: the owners, team and products are the same. The registered company, Dulcie Skincare Ltd, was Haeckels Limited until December 2025 and sits in Margate.

The business grew from seaweed skincare made from ingredients gathered on the Kent coast. Its perfumes follow the same idea. Seven current scents, each named for a real place in east Kent, are built as scent snapshots of those spots: Botany, Dreamland, Pegwell, Reculver, Richborough, St John and Walpole. Each comes as a 50 ml bottle and a 15 ml miniature, with a wooden cap, and the shop prints a short pyramid and the full ingredient list for each one. Candles, incense and a discovery set sit beside them.

The scents are green, herbal and marine rather than sweet. Fennel and juniper, fir and star anise, mint and chamomile, lavender and eucalyptus, and a rose with smoked wood and leather make up the range. Older wearer accounts praise natural-smelling character and long wear, and often single out Pegwell. Those accounts may describe earlier versions. Some find the more herbal scents, such as Walpole, sharp or like essential oils rather than perfume. The older names were grid coordinates, and the same scents still appear on fragrance sites under Haeckels. Those databases retain earlier records; their votes and comments may describe earlier versions rather than the current relisted Parfums.

Dulcie suits wearers who like green and herbal scents with a sense of place, and who value a small founder-led company with a clear environmental stance.