Beaufort London Cape Wrath via the brand

At the end of 2024, to celebrate the brand’s tenth anniversary, Beaufort London quietly released the Force Majeure trio. Inspired by the rugged, unique coastline around the British Isles, the three fragrances Cape Wrath, Pyroclasm and The Grudge were all developed by Scottish perfumer Euan McCall, marking his first collaboration with the house. Having smelled some of his earlier work for his own Jorum Studio, it’s immediately obvious that McCall has the kind of open embrace of experimentation necessary to properly illustrate Beaufort’s nautical, geographical and conceptual briefs.

I’ve written here before about Beaufort’s unique approaches to their individual collections: how overloaded and larger than life the Come Hell or High Water collection is and how pensive the melodrama of the Revenants collection is. The Force Majeure collection proves to be a grandstanding of various unconventional aquatic ideas that are leagues away from the mainstream ‘blue’ of a pioneering aquatic fragrance like say, Davidoff’s Cool Water or D&G’s Light Blue. From the glassy, mastic tonalities of Cape Wrath, to the ocean pocked minerals of Pyroclasm and the ambergris allure of The Grudge, McCall leans further and further into a palette of unorthodox materials (at least for designer marine centric compositions).

Euan McCall courtesy of the perfumer

As McCall notes in one of his unrelated journal entries: “Marine fragrance profiles can be created a million different ways, depending on the intention of the perfumer. [In Phloem] I wanted to showcase the warmer, sensual and perhaps odder side of its character, in stark contrast to the ubiquitous ‘blue’ style of profiles we all know (and love or hate). I find commercially successful ‘blue’ notes rarely smell marine – they are more like laundry detergent and thus almost chlorinated – not a slight, but perhaps more functional-leaning than fine perfumery?”

St. Ives Harbour Steps by Oli Marlow

As I noted when I chose Beaufort London Cape Wrath for my Best of 2024 selection, I’s is the olfactory equivalent of staring through the bottom of a glass bottom boat; you’re peering through the toughened glass at a mottled, swirling, deep green, oceanic abyss. Using resins like elemi, frankincense and mastic in an aquatic fragrance might seem a bit counterproductive on paper, but in reality, it creates an otherworldly shapeshifting green tone that’s then made salty with touches of seaweed and ambergris. It exemplifies the grandeur and the danger posed by the jagged coastline on the North Westerly tip of Britain for which the fragrance is named…

Cape Wrath’s cliffs by Colin Wheatly via wiki commons

Pyroclasm might be the more bombastic fragrance of the trio – it imagines the ship building works of the Scottish River Clyde, who in their heyday produced a slew of massive boats and transatlantic liners with scorched tones of tar, oxidizing metal and saffron – and The Grudge could be considered the ‘cleanest’ – it’s probably the most nature identical, wearable ambergris perfume that I’ve yet to encounter – but there’s something weirdly spellbinding about the mossy green depths of  Beaufort London Cape Wrath. Like the ocean itself it’s something I won’t ever comprehend or understand but that’s where the perfume’s allure really lies.

Notes: Pink pepper, elemi, galbanum, angelica root, frankincense, mastic, geranium, ambergris, vetiver, ambrette, seaweed, oakmoss.

Disclaimer: samples of Beaufort’s Force Majeure trio were provided by the brand.

–Oli Marlow, Contributor

Thanks to the generosity of Indigo Perfumery, we have a sample set of Beaufort London Cape Wrath, Pyroclasm and The Grudge available in the US only. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Oli’s reviews and that you live in the US. Draw closes 1/17/2025

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