Last updated: 2 September 2026
This Privacy Policy explains what personal data Element for Men collects, why, what we do with it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it. It is written to meet the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).
Element for Men is a trading name of Element Essentials Men Limited, a company registered in England and Wales.
We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer; data protection enquiries are handled by the address above.
Anyone who buys from us, subscribes, creates an account, joins our mailing list, enters a competition, leaves a review, uses our referral scheme, contacts us, or simply visits www.elementformen.com.
We do not knowingly collect special category data — health, ethnicity, religion, political opinions, sexual orientation, biometrics, trade union membership. Please do not send it to us. If you tell us about a skin sensitivity or allergy when contacting us, we use it only to answer your question and do not add it to your marketing profile.
Under the UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for every use of your data. Ours are set out below.
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Take your order, take payment, pack and deliver it, send order and dispatch emails | Performance of our contract with you |
| Run and manage your subscription, take recurring payments, send renewal reminders | Performance of our contract with you |
| Manage your account, returns, refunds and customer service | Performance of our contract; our legitimate interest in running the business properly |
| Send marketing emails and SMS about our products | Your consent — or, if you have bought from us, the "soft opt-in" under regulation 22 of PECR, with an opt-out in every message |
| Analytics cookies, session recording, advertising cookies and pixels, and building advertising audiences | Your consent |
| Publish and moderate product reviews and customer content | Your consent |
| Run our referral scheme and competitions | Performance of our contract with you; your consent where you enter |
| Detect and prevent fraud, and keep the site and checkout secure | Our legitimate interest in protecting the business and our customers; legal obligation |
| Improve our products, our site and our service, including aggregated reporting | Our legitimate interest in improving what we sell |
| Keep accounting, VAT and company records | Legal obligation |
| Establish, exercise or defend legal claims | Our legitimate interest in protecting our legal position |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interest against your rights and freedoms and concluded that our use does not override them. You can ask us for the detail of that assessment, and you can object — see section 10.
We send marketing only where you have opted in, or where you have bought from us and we are marketing similar products under the PECR soft opt-in. Either way you can stop it at any moment:
Opting out is immediate for future sends and free. We keep a minimal suppression record — your email address or number and the fact you opted out — so we do not contact you again by mistake. That is a legal obligation, not marketing.
Service messages — order confirmations, dispatch notices, subscription renewal reminders, refund confirmations — are not marketing and are sent whether or not you have opted in, because they are part of fulfilling your order.
We do not sell your personal data, and we never have.
We share personal data only with organisations that need it to deliver our service to you. Each is bound by a written contract to process it only on our instructions and to keep it secure.
For a current, itemised list of our processors, email contact@elementformen.com and we will send it.
Cookies are small files stored on your device. We use them in four categories:
We set functional, analytics and advertising cookies only with your consent. Where a cookie preference tool is shown to you on the site, you can accept, reject or change your choices there at any time, and withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it.
You can also control cookies in your browser settings, and you can opt out directly with the main platforms:
Where your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as an opt-out of advertising and analytics cookies on that browser. Blocking cookies may stop parts of the site working, including the cart and checkout.
Some of our providers — including Shopify, Klaviyo, Appstle, Judge.me, Microsoft, Meta, Google and TikTok — process data outside the United Kingdom, principally in the United States and the European Economic Area.
Where data leaves the UK we rely on one of the following safeguards:
To request a copy of the safeguards in place for a specific transfer, email contact@elementformen.com.
| Data | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Order, invoice and transaction records | 6 years from the end of the financial year in which the order was placed, to meet HMRC and Companies Act requirements |
| Customer account and subscription records | While the account is active, and for 24 months after your last order or login |
| Marketing contact and engagement data | Until you unsubscribe, or after 24 months with no engagement, whichever comes first |
| Unsubscribe and suppression records | Kept indefinitely, so we do not contact you again in error |
| Customer service correspondence | 24 months from the last message |
| Reviews and published customer content | Until you ask us to remove it |
| Session recordings and heatmap data | Up to 13 months |
| Cookie, analytics and advertising identifiers | Per cookie, typically up to 24 months from your last visit |
| Fraud and security records | 6 years |
When a period ends we delete the data or anonymise it so it can no longer identify you. Aggregated, anonymised statistics may be kept indefinitely.
Under the UK GDPR you have the following rights. They apply free of charge, and we will respond within one month, extendable by up to two further months for complex requests — we will tell you if that happens and why.
To exercise any of these, email contact@elementformen.com with "Data request" in the subject line and tell us which right you are using. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act, to make sure we do not disclose your data to someone else.
We use profiling for marketing — grouping customers by what they have bought or how they have engaged, so that emails and advertising are more relevant. You can object to this at any time under section 10.
Our checkout uses Shopify's automated fraud analysis, which scores orders for risk. We review flagged orders ourselves before cancelling anything; no order is refused by a machine alone.
We do not make decisions producing legal effects or similarly significant effects on you by solely automated means.
Our site and checkout run over HTTPS. Payment data is handled by PCI DSS compliant providers and never touches our own systems. Access to customer data is limited to people who need it, and protected by strong authentication.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach were to put your rights and freedoms at risk, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours and tell you without undue delay where the law requires it.
Our products and our site are intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, email contact@elementformen.com and we will delete it.
Our site links to other websites and social platforms. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their policies before giving them your data.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, tell us first at contact@elementformen.com — we would rather fix it than have you escalate.
You also have the right to complain to the UK supervisory authority at any time:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
We may update this policy to reflect changes to our practices, our providers or the law. The date at the top shows when it last changed. Where a change is material, we will tell you by email or by a notice on the site before it takes effect.
Element Essentials Men Limited (trading as Element for Men)
Capital Office, 124 City Road, London, England, EC1V 2NX
Company number: 16282325
Email: contact@elementformen.com
We reply to all enquiries within 1 to 2 working days.
