When it comes to product design and function, we’re absolutists. We won’t release something until it’s absolutely top of its class.
But when it comes to sourcing and sustainability, we're committed to making things better: not perfect. Here's why...
We take sustainability seriously. But we don’t just want to talk about making perfect things, we want to get out there, get our hands dirty and make better things.
That said, there are certain lines we won’t cross. For example, our UNITE collection isn’t tested on animals. This means we can’t sell the product in China, which demands animal testing for perceived safety reasons. So be it.
Better, Not Perfect
We know UNITE isn’t perfect. For example, for the first year of development, we worked on over a dozen variations of 100% organic colognes, where not just the alcohol but also the concentrate was organic. We believe it's possible to make a great organic cologne: we'll keep trying.But after a year of testing sub-par products, we had to change tack. We learned that it takes a small number of carefully used (and thoroughly tested) man made ingredients to make a world class cologne.
This is partly because some classic aromas, such as musk, were previously obtained in rather nasty ways from animals - we’d rather go with the synthetic alternative. And it’s partly because over the years there have been some amazing developments in scent production. To ignore them would be to produce an inferior product. We, and you, demand more.
A Cologne Can't Save The World
But we’d like it to do a little something to make it a bit better, and a bit more united. So in our launch year we gave 10% of our cologne profits to charity. The 100+ people who pre-ordered the UNITE collection had the chance to choose which charity we support this year from a carefully selected shortlist of three: Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), GiveDirectly and The Refugee Council.In the end our customers chose Médecins Sans Frontières. But all three show that, when push comes to shove, we Unite. On top of this small gesture, we're also doing our best to make sure that we're sustainable in our cologne production.
The Thomas Clipper Unite collection is made with 100% organic alcohol, even if it’s not 100% organic concentrate. Plastic use is minimised and of course all of the paper products used in the cartons are FSC certified.
We try keep plastic use to a minimum in all of our products and their packaging.
A Positive Vision For The Future Of Cologne
A premium cologne needs to perform. It needs to have an exceptional fragrance that you can enjoy every day. But today, we think it also needs to be made in a way that’s as responsible as possible.To help highlight our commitment to sustainable practices, from 20th September until 27th September we're going to plant one tree for every product ordered on our site.