BeauFort London
A British fragrance house founded in 2013 by Leo Crabtree. Naval history and coastal lore inform perfumes that use materials such as incense, salt and gunpowder accords to evoke specific places and stories.
United Kingdom
About BeauFort London
BeauFort London is a British fragrance house founded in 2013 by musician Leo Crabtree. Its perfumes draw on naval history, poetry, architecture and the lore of the sea, and most are built around smoke. It makes its perfumes in small batches in Britain.
Brand History
BeauFort began with a single product: a handmade moustache wax in a billet aluminium case, made in response to poorly executed men's grooming products. Fragrance followed. Chapter One, Come Hell or High Water, launched in 2015 with Tonnerre, Cœur de Noir and Vi et Armis. British perfumers Julie Dunkley and Julie Marlowe created them from briefs based on paintings, poems and historical events. Chapter Two, Revenants, arrived in 2017 and turned to ghosts and restless historical characters. For the brand's tenth anniversary in 2024, Scottish perfumer Euan McCall created Chapter Three, Force Majeure, drawing on British coastlines, tides and geology.
Name and Approach
The name comes from the Beaufort Scale of wind force, devised by naval officer Sir Francis Beaufort in 1805 as a way of measuring a force that cannot be controlled. Crabtree also took the origin of the word perfume, the Latin per fumum ("through smoke"), literally. Gunpowder, tar, incense, charred wood and salt-stained rope recur across the range.
Signature Fragrances
Smoke and sea take different forms from one scent to the next.
- Tonnerre: lemon, brandy and gunpowder over sea spray, drying down to salt-stained charred timber.
- Fathom V: an aquatic named after the drowning verse in The Tempest, using juniper, green leaves, salt, moss and vetiver to contrast the sea's surface and depths.
- Terror & Magnificence: inspired by architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, it pairs church incense and candle wax with a wet stone accord recalling London's first rain after a hot summer.
- Sirenide: based on the Orkney selkie myth, moving from bitter almond and water flowers to ambergris and leather.
