Altra

Altra is a UK natural perfume house launched in February 2022 by Beckielou Brown and Bridget Plant, who are business partners and close friends. Brown is the perfumer and creative director. The house grew out of a personal experiment in Los Angeles, first with a mix of naturals and synthetics, and it took about seven years to reach launch. The pair had planned to launch in 2020, just before the pandemic.

Every Altra eau de parfum is composed entirely from natural, plant-based materials, with no synthetic fragrance ingredients, and is vegan and cruelty-free. The scents are hand-blended in small batches in the UK in a base of certified organic grain alcohol from Italy. The bottles are infinitely refillable, the boxes are recycled paper, and the house describes this approach as Profuture. It is also a member of 1% for the Planet. The scents are presented as genderless and sit in three collections: Skin Scents, Altra Intense and Future Florals.

The five scents read as abstract and architectural rather than classic. Altra Skin is a white-musk skin scent that can be worn alone or layered. Jasmin XXX is an animalic white floral that opens on Italian bergamot and jasmine sambac. Stone Cold Heart pairs maté tea and Haitian vetiver with orris and Himalayan cedar. Dualist sets crushed green leaves against honeyed blossoms and blonde woods. GHST FLWR is a white lily wrapped in smoky woods, resins, incense and saffron, and it has drawn the most press attention.

Altra sits in niche natural perfumery. It sells through its own website and a wholesale network, with its main markets in Europe and North America. It suits wearers who want natural-only, genderless, refillable perfume with an art-and-architecture brief rather than a classic floral or woody structure.