Penhaligon’s x Maggi Hambling

Penhaligon’s has never been shy of a little drama, but its latest act – a limited run of Endymion Concentré bottles reimagined by Maggi Hambling CBE – reads like a love letter to nocturnal London and the artists who thrive in its half‑light. To mark the fragrance house’s 155th anniversary, 155 bottles have been individually numbered, engraved and finished with a bespoke indigo ribbon created by Hambling herself, each one nestled in a specially designed case and accompanied by a print taken from her ink drawings. With only 155 pieces available worldwide, across Regent Street, Dubai Mall and New York, this is perfume as collectible artwork: rare, talismanic, a little bit unruly.

Hambling – painter of storm‑lashed seas, queer icon and perennial “original bad girl of British art” – has long blurred the boundaries between studio, street and runway, most recently stepping into the fashion spotlight through Eden Loweth’s riotous Fashion in Motion presentation at the V&A, where her gestural mark‑making became the blueprint for a catwalk of rebellious tailoring and fluid silhouettes. Editors and designers orbit her for that same fearless sensibility: the shock of grey hair, the inky lashes, the boyish jackets and cigarettes have become a kind of uniform for those who prefer their style with teeth.

Endymion itself is built on storytelling: named for the shepherd beloved by the moon goddess, it is a midnight‑blue composition that Penhaligon’s describes as serenely seductive, a passage of time and scent that turns prose to poetry on skin. Famed for her own indigo seascapes and restless, fluid brushwork, Hambling talks of feeling an affinity with the moon’s beauty and mystery; here, that connection becomes almost literal, as her art wraps around a fragrance that already trades in tides, skies and the quiet pull of darkness. Artists are always translating sensation into something tangible – waves into paint, memory into line, desire into gesture – and this collaboration simply extends that instinct into the realm of perfumery, where alchemy happens not on canvas but in the air between wearer and world.

Get your bottle quick - only 155 ones to collect, launching at their Regent Street flagship today!