Ffern

Ffern's fragrance bottle / Source: Ffern

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7 MINUTE READ

Nate Tyler

WHAT WE SAY:

Humans' fascination with scent stretches all the way back to the ancient Persians, Egyptians, and Romans. But as time went on, our fragrances became mass produced, synthetic, and packaged in plastic - a far less personal and sensual experience than the purveyors of perfume intended. British fragrance brand Ffern is rewriting the rule book, drawing from past practices to create small batch seasonal fragrances as rare as a natural phenomenon.

Acquiring one of the brand's handcrafted scents involves waiting for a spot on the company's ledger. Upon joining, customers will receive a dose of Ffern's fragrance up to four times per year, each one blended in line with the season and delivered on the solstice or equinox. The brand only makes as much as is needed based on their customer list, while its packaging design is grounded in the concepts of reuse and rejuvenation. Scaling this solution seems like the antithesis of the company's philosophy, but the model Ffern has created should serve as an example to fragrance makers the world over.

KEY FACTS:

Hailing from Somerset in the UK, Ffern is a small batch fragrance brand creating seasonal scents that are only available to the clients on its production ledger.
The company operates a 'one in, one out' business model, whereby new customers can join its waiting list and be added to the ledger if and when a space opens up.
Once on the ledger, each customer receives four seasonal fragrances a year, priced at GDP 79 (USD 101) each. Customers can leave the ledger whenever they want, or take a maximum two season hiatus if they are yet to finish their scents.
New scents are created in line with each season of the year, and are delivered to clients on either a solstice or equinox. Fragrances are named after the season and year in which they were released.
All fragrances are vegan and made with 100% natural ingredients, with 95% of them certified organic. The company's own organic certification is in the works.
Working with the rhythms of the seasons, the brand blends, barrel-ages, and bottles the unique fragrances, using a wealth of natural ingredients including narcissus, bitter orange rind, ginger root, red cedar, and peppermint. Ingredient quantities are small, with the brand's Spring 2023 fragrance containing only 12, and the Winter 2023 fragrance 15.
While the brand only makes one bottle of fragrance for each customer on its ledger, it acknowledges that some scents might not be for everyone. To that end, the brand includes a small vial of its seasonal release with every order. Customers can test the fragrance to determine if they want to keep it before they open the larger 32 millilitre bottle.
If a client doesn't want the latest release, they can return it to Ffern, where it will be added to the company's archive. The returns are stored in controlled conditions and monitored for signs of age, and ledger members can order bottles from the archive whenever they wish.
The sample vials are only one part of Ffern’s intentional packaging ethos, wherein designs are plastic free and grounded in reuse. The fragrance itself comes in a Glass bottle with metal components at its opening, which the brand says can be easily separated by recycling facilities in the same way a metal ring is removed from a wine bottle.
The brand has also removed the cap from its bottle, a component usually made from multiple types of plastic and sent straight to landfill after use. Instead, the brand houses its fragrances in a kraft Paper tube that acts as a cap and protects the scent from light. When the fragrance is finished, the paper tube is completely recyclable.
All of the brand’s printed materials are made with FSC-certified, 100% recycled, carbon-balanced paper, and each piece of its packaging has an end-of-life scenario that avoids landfill and incineration.
More recently, the company collaborated with Magical Mushroom Company (MMC) to create Mycelium bottle trays to protect the fragrances during shipping. MMC grows mycelium packaging from Hemp and Wood waste, using far less water and energy than its petroleum counterpart. The trays are home compostable, and can also be used as grow mats. To facilitate their reuse, Ffern includes seeds with every spring fragrance so customers can grow herbs and flowers.
Ffern was founded by brother and sister duo Emily Cameron and Owen Mears in 2017. The brand is headquartered in Somerset, UK, and the fragrances are bottled in neighbouring Devon. Scents ship to the UK and the US. The company works with two esteemed noses to create the fragrances, François Robert and his protégé Elodie Durande.

The brand's mycelium tray / Source: Ffern

Ffern's London store / Source: Ffern Instagram (@ffern.co)

DIVE DEEPER:

The average fragrance bottle is comprised of multiple materials that are often fused together. Made up of a glass bottle, a metal and plastic atomiser, and a plastic cap, bottles are designed to arrive in a consumer's house in one piece, and leave it the same way.
This multi-material design approach - where consumers are unable to disassemble packs at home for efficient recycling - means most fragrance bottles are sent to landfill, and precious and easily recyclable resources such as glass and metal are wasted. Not to mention the small plastic fragrance caps that leach into the environment and sit in landfill for hundreds of years to come.
By choosing to only use glass and metal in its primary packaging design, Ffern's bottle prioritises reuse and recyclability. According to Statista, the global average recycling rate of glass in 2018 was 21%, standing at 27 million tonnes. Container glass had a rate of 32%.
While these numbers are relatively low, further investigation demonstrates that rates vary dramatically between regions - the US recycled 33% of its glass in 2018, compared to many European countries that recycled 90%. This points to a lack of education on how to recycle glass, and the infrastructure to do so, but could also indicate that the material is being reused more often before it's recycled. Glass bottles can be washed and reused up to 25 times before needing to be recycled, according to the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative.
The brand's dedication to reducing and preferably eliminating waste from the fragrance industry expands to its brick-and-mortar store in Soho, London, which opened its doors in November 2022. The space has been designed in partnership with design studio House of Grey and is 100% plastic free. Mirroring the materials used to house the fragrance, the store sees a central desk made from mycelium - said to be one of the first large-scale pieces of furniture in the world to be made from the material - a hanging screen made from a leather-like Seaweed biomaterial, and handwoven seagrass matting on the floor. "The store has been designed with regenerative interior design at its heart," House of Grey founder Louisa Grey told Wallpaper.
Ffern also prioritises the promotion and protection of the history of perfume making by celebrating the craftsmanship involved, as well as the artistic heritage of its regional home. The company's recent activation, Ffern Artists, sees a range of artists create pieces in response to the brand's seasonal scent, resulting in an array of work that brings the nuances of the fragrance to life. The brand's monthly podcast shines a spotlight on some of Somerset's local wonders, while accompanying branded content pays homage to seasonal practices such as Morris dancing groups and the changing sounds of nature.

"Working in this way allows Ffern to remain true to traditional, small batch production processes and – by being so tightly controlled – to minimise waste."

Ffern

Key Design Considerations:

The benefits of niche offerings

Ffern is an intentionally niche brand, focusing on small batches of high quality product while limiting its reach to a dedicated customer base that it fosters through brand activations and personal touches. Remaining small allows a brand to stay true to its roots, operate on a smaller scale, and drive demand for its products while ensuring its footprint doesn't grow beyond the reaches of sustainable practices. To borrow the classic marketing phrase: if everyone is your target audience, then no one is. Knowing exactly who your customer is can ensure longevity for a brand that knows how to change with its customer.

Transparent pricing structures

At GBP 79 (USD 101) for a bottle of fragrance, Ffern is staying competitive with its price point. While some luxury brands - which still use synthetic ingredients and plastic packaging - can stretch several hundred pounds more, Ffern is showing that organic ingredients in plastic-free packaging can be relatively affordable. Consider the cost saving practices the brand employs: bottles remain the same season after season; labels are simply altered with text; a guaranteed consumer base is charged for the fragrance before it's made; and secondary paper packaging is undyed. All of these choices, and more, help keep costs down to ensure the product is accessible, while the waitlist business model conveys luxury status.

Facilitate disposability routes

The discrepancy in the glass recycling rate between the US and many European countries reinforces the importance of educating your customer on how to dispose of your packaging correctly. In regions where glass collection or food waste and home compost routes are inaccessible or inefficient, brands should consider take-back schemes that ensure materials are disposed of correctly. An added benefit of this choice is that vessels such as glass perfume bottles could be cleaned and reused, reducing waste further and saving on production costs.