1805 Tonnerre BeauFort London

1805 Tonnerre BeauFort London

Have you ever sniffed a fragrance and taken a seat to try to process what it smells like? Well, that’s BeauFort London for you — one of my most beloved brands. When it comes to being peculiar, no one does it better than BeauFort. Their scents include notes and revolve around topics no other brand dares to come close to. I have sampled many from the house, and as I continue to hunt for more, I cherish the two I own.

A personal favourite from the brand would be Tonnerre. Unapologetically blended: gunpowder, ash, smoke, brandy, fir, and a slight sea breeze. By no means is it a light, airy fragrance, but it is one of the most beautifully blended — that, I’ll give it. The scent smells like a battle from the film Pirates of the Caribbean: sweaty men and creatures fighting one another, guns blazing hot, cannons drowned in sulphuric powder, metals clashing, broken wood chips from the ship piercing flesh, and the breeze carrying a faint reminiscence of the ocean (at no point oceanic or seaweedy, but rather a hint of something that used to be fresh before the destruction).

This — this is a representation of perfumery by BeauFort, who understood that perfumes were meant to be treated like art. The two scents I have in the picture were both blended by the same perfumer, Julie Marlowe, and all I can say is that she has done a mighty good job.