Ffern: The Most Exclusive Fragrance Club That All Beauty Insiders Want To Be A Part Of
How the British brand stands out in a busy and loud market
I don't have a Soho House membership, and I haven't seen the inside of a nightclub in a long while. Thankfully, the only club I am remotely interested in these days is Ffern's. Ffern is the British fragrance brand that celebrates nature in the most heavenly way—with limited edition seasonal scents and a small batch subscription model. Its unique offering, which is ever so considered, is inspiring. And I'm by no means alone in my thinking. The waiting list to join its exclusive ledger is rumoured to be half a million-strong.
Somerset-based Ffern is headed up by brother and sister, Founder Owen Mears and Creative Director Emily Cameron. They launched their first fragrance in 2019 with the simple goal of "restoring perfumery to its artisan roots".
How it works
The brand creates a new fragrance four times a year, one for each of the seasons. The release dates coincide with either an equinox or a solstice, the points of the year that mark our planet's seasonal changes.
Getting your hands on one isn't easy, though, almost akin to landing Glastonbury tickets. It all starts with the infamous Ffern ledger, which is essentially the brand's subscription list. If you make it on the ledger, you'll receive a new perfume each season. They are £89 per perfume, and you can stop it at any time. However, the ledger has a strict number, and the brand only opens up to new members periodically. To put your hat in the ring, you first have to join the waiting list. If you don't manage to make it onto the ledger, then fear not, there is another option. The brand opened its boutique on London's Beak Street in 2022, and it's here that non-members can experience Ffern and its fragrances. It also plays host to all of the archival fragrances, which ledger members can order whenever they want.
There's a reason why the brand doesn't want to make the scents too readily available. "Our production volumes are tightly controlled to ensure that our commitment to process and ingredient quality is not compromised," the brand says. "Each season, we will blend just one bottle for each of the names on our production ledger." By keeping their numbers down, the brand won't create any unnecessary packaging or ingredient waste or excess stock. Demand is plain to see, yet, opposing traditional economic responses, Ffern has no plans to increase supply.
Key notes: Cardamom seed, lemon rind, timut pepper, peppermint, violet leaf, mimosa, lavender, jasmine sambac, oakmoss, black tang seaweed, sandalwood, patchouli
This season's fragrance, which launches today, is inspired by Britain's wild coastline during wintertime. Picture the deepness of the midnight-black waves that crash in the wind, lit up only by speckled moonlight and the warm beam of a nearby lighthouse. For a scent so focus on the wild side of nature, it's a surprisingly warm scent that's uplifting and hopeful. There's a spiciness too that makes this season's perfume slightly addictive.
This year saw the launch of the brand's candles, which were released to coincide with the perfumes. This season, for the first time, the Winter 26 candle will be available to non-ledger members online and in-store.
What is so special about Ffern?
That's one of the FAQs on Google when you search the brand's name. And that's it, you see—the intrigue and the FOMO that its small-batched world creates. Well, what is so special about Ffern? Why do so many people want to be in the Ffern club?
Naturally, the fragrances are beautiful—each one is hand-crafted using natural and organic ingredients that are linked to the specific season and barrel-aged. Alongside Mears and Cameron, are legendary perfumer François Robert and his protégée Elodie Durande. The two noses bring both the traditional practices and new ideas to the brand.
But the industry is not short of pleasing fragrances. For me, what makes Ffern stand out in a very saturated market is everything else that the brand creates to exist alongside its scents. It curates moments that celebrate nature at that specific time—the scent is just one aspect of the tale.
Ffern partners with creatives across all industries to tell the story of each fragrance—from ice skaters turning perfect choreography on a frozen lake in the Canadian Rockies for last year's Winter scent, Cotwolds-based florists creating a bouquet that captures the essence of Autumn 25, and the Japanese artist who uses watercolours to paint an original piece that looks exactly how Summer 25 smells. Each fragrance's moodboard comes to life through the brand's visual approach and emotional and sensory collaborations. Just two weeks ago, the brand dropped the trailer for the Winter 26 film starring Rose Wilson, a brooding clip that seems to quietly represent the feeling that this season's perfume is trying to portray. There's also a podcast—As the Season Turns—which is presented by nature writer Lia Leendertz. Each month, Leendertz talk guides listeners through the effect the changing season has on the natural landscape, as well as extra episodes, Found Sounds, which are created with sound artist Alice Boyd, who captures sound recordings befitting the season.
What comes with your delivery each season?
Each season, your delivery will arrive, and from the outside, it looks almost identical to the previous season's. However, inside tells a different story. Yes, the contents are always the same each time, but they are also unique to the new scent.
Inside your package, you will find your bottle of fragrance housed inside a small box with a seal down the side. There's also an original frameable print (yes, I do have five of them on my bedroom wall) and a leaflet that contains everything from the full ingredient list and the beautiful story of the scent written by Ffern's Creative Director, Emily Cameron.
You'll also find a little envelope, which contains a movie stub, a small vial of perfume, which is your tester, a terracotta diffusion stone for home scenting, two fragrance blotters, seasonal organic tea and your sampling guide.
The guide is a crucial part of the pack. It takes you through the best way to try the scent—first after 20 seconds, then every 10-20 minutes, followed by an hour and then over the course of the next couple of days in different places and at alternate times of the day. The brand wants you to discover if you form a bond or a connection with the scent before you fully commit. If you love it, then break the seal to reveal your bottle. If you don't, the brand includes a returns slip, which goes back to the HQ and is added to the archive.
Each scent comes with its own cinematic clip, and the movie stub inside your package has a QR that directs you to that season's film. Past seasons have seen stars such as Bill Nighy and This Country's Charlie Cooper feature.
Instead of double-page ad campaigns in monthly fashion magazines or billboards on the side of bridges, Ffern has chosen creative storytelling to cut through the deafening noise of the big fragrance houses and their even bigger marketing campaigns. This is the secret to the brand's success and why people patiently hope to one day make it onto the ledger. The Ffern club is worth the wait.
