“Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange”
Beaufort’s Come Hell or High Water collection is dark, moody and fuelled by testosterone. Inspired by Britain’s seafaring history, the fragrances – 1805 Tonnerre, Couer de Noir, Vi et Armis and Lignum Vitae – are full of adventure and high treason, wth a yo ho ho (and dare I say it, a bottle of rum) thrown in for good measure.
But then there’s a fifth – Fathom V – a siren that sucked me in from the moment its top came off in Bloom in Covent Garden.
It boasts an overwhelming notes list – blackcurrant, green leaves, juniper, tangerine, cumin, ginger, mimosa, jasmine, thyme, black pepper, ylang ylang, lily, amber, patchouli, atlas cedar, vetiver, moss, frankincense, sea salt – this is a shrieking chord of weirdness that just….sings. Maybe it’s the olfactory equivalent of jazz. I’ve never understood jazz.
And don’t for a second think the spices or amber bring warmth to this fragrance. This is an icy cold scent; a frosty white lily swirling down, down into the depths.
Although you’d expect this to be a defined marine fragrance, Fathom V is super-green; it’s freshly-cut stems from a flower shop and the most accurate representation of lilies I’ve ever experienced in a perfume.
And despite the long list of ingredients, Fathom V is surprisingly linear. Where you might anticipate a rollicking voyage from opening to drydown, the promised ‘sea-change’ doesn’t occur. Instead, every moment is constant, but deep and weird and impossible to explain.
I appreciate the grammatical aberration in describing this as totally unique. But it is. Totally unique. And I don’t want anyone else to wear this, ever.
This one’s mine.
Nose Dives 