Element Brooklyn is an eco-luxury brand of refillable home and body care products.

Andrew Nicol started his career as a corporate lawyer and also spent some time working in travel tech. During the pandemic, when he was looking for a side project, he kept thinking about all of the expensive hand soap bottles he’d see his friends go through — throwing them in the trash when they were empty.

“There was no way to just buy more soap,” says Nicol. “Once you start looking at where the money actually goes in that transaction, and at how much plastic gets manufactured and discarded to move a few dollars of liquid around, refills become an obvious solution.”

This led him to create Element Brooklyn, an eco-luxury brand that makes refillable home and body care products to help reduce waste. The line includes candles, hand soaps, lotions, diffusers, and haircare products — all featuring the highest-quality ingredients and a wide range of fragrances.

All of their soaps and creams are made in New York while their candles are hand poured in their Bushwick factory. Element Brooklyn’s products are free of sulfates, phthalates, and other harmful ingredients, in addition to being certified cruelty-free and net plastic negative.

“We also have a hospitality program, because a lot of people encounter us in a spa or hotel bathroom well before they ever visit our website,” adds Nicol. “We supply businesses with soap, cream and haircare products in bulk formats and collect and reuse the gallon drums, which means a spa can offer a genuinely luxurious amenity and produce no plastic waste doing it. It's the fastest-growing part of our business right now.”

We chatted with Nicol, who shared the inspiration behind the products, their bestselling scent, and more.

Andrew Nicol is the founder of Element Brooklyn.

When was Element Brooklyn founded and what’s the meaning behind the name?

I started Element Brooklyn in 2021, working out of my apartment with a KitchenAid mixer and the help of my dad (over FaceTime — he's in Australia!) and a lot of trial and error. Brooklyn is the easy half of the name to explain, since almost everything we sell is made either in our Bushwick warehouse or within a few blocks. "Element" reflects our focus on ingredients — on what makes a great product — rather than on branding, packaging, and legacy prestige.

What inspired the creation of your brand?

The idea behind Element Brooklyn is that sustainability shouldn't cost you anything, either in how the product performs or in what you pay for it. Everything we make is refill-first, so you buy a dispenser or a candle vessel once and after that you're only buying refills. It's the simultaneous focus on quality, affordability, and sustainability that makes us unique.

All of Element Brooklyn’s candles are hand poured at their Bushwick factory.

Tell us more about your products and what makes them special.

The idea behind Element Brooklyn is that sustainability shouldn't cost you anything, either in how the product performs or in what you pay for it. Everything we make is refill-first, so you buy a dispenser or a candle vessel once and after that you're only buying refills. It's the simultaneous focus on quality, affordability, and sustainability that makes us unique.

Do you have a hero/favorite product?

Our bestseller since Day 1 is our Mandarin Crush Hand Soap; we now offer that fragrance as a cream, hand mist, and all-purpose cleaner. My personal favorite, and the one that I use at home, is Genovese, with notes of basil and verbena. We now have 20 fragrances in total so it's really fun when we have all of them out for sampling to see how everyone experiences them differently but can always find one they love.

Element Brooklyn’s Mandarin Crush is the brand’s bestselling soap fragrance underscored by woodsy and herbaceous notes of cedarwood and rosemary.

Where are your products sold?

Everything is available on our website, and we ship within the U.S., UK, and Australia. You can also find us on Nordstrom and Ulta Beauty online. We've deliberately stayed off Amazon because we prefer to remain in direct contact with our customers and because Amazon's environmental and ethical practices are at odds with our own.

We're currently running a pop-up, Gallery of Scent, at the South Street Seaport. This has been a really exciting project for everyone at the company. There's a scent library where you can rate 30 raw perfumery ingredients one at a time, plus free scent portraits, candle-making workshops, and a zero-waste refillery with 20 soaps on tap.

Element Brooklyn has a pop-up, Gallery of Scent, where fans can shop the line of products at the South Street Seaport in New York.

What's next for the brand?

New fragrances plus a couple of all new product categories coming later this year! We also recently launched a loyalty program called Scent Society where you earn a point for every gram of plastic you keep out of circulation. We're going to be introducing more member-only fragrances and products — we recently added a custom engraved candle vessel. We'll also be using the program as an opportunity to engage with our VIP customers to help decide what we build next.

For more information about Element Brooklyn and to purchase their products, visit their website and follow on Instagram: @element.brooklyn

[Images courtesy of Element Brooklyn]

Behind the Brand: Element Brooklyn Brings Luxury Fragrance and Sustainability to Everyday Routines