In celebration of international stoner holiday 4/20, subversive fragrance maker Bel Rebel has launched Stunned, a tongue-in-cheek new scent playing with the idea of cannabis as a sensual key ingredient, rather than a taboo. 

At the heart of Bel Rebel’s ethos is the drive to create unique stories and challenge industry conventions. All products are designed to reject outdated ideas of what gender and age-appropriate fragrance should smell like. Scents are created on instinct and intuition, driven by a spirit of experimentation, and playfulness over beauty industry statistics and trends.

With top notes of Labdanum, Geranium and Rose and heart notes of Cannabis, Nutmeg, Clove, Olibanum, Myrrh, Vanilla and Carnation, Stunned creates a compelling aura of smoke, spice, resins, and woods. Its wearers, like the scent, are deep and mysterious – smooth, but hard to pin down. Sound like you? Or you wish it did.

True to a new-gen beauty brand, Bel Rebel is intrinsically sustainable. Fragrances are produced in small batches in London. Packaging and labels are created from agricultural waste and mycelium (part of a mushroom) in the Netherlands, meaning that they are 100 per cent compostable wherever they are discarded (although, as Bel Rebel points out, preferably you’d dispose of it in your food waste bin or compost). Devoted to the details that make creators truly environmentally counscious, the perfume bottle caps are made without the unrecyclable magnet you usually get with a fragrance. It’s vegan unless otherwise stated so too, and always free from animal testing as a proud member of the Leaping Bunny program for cruelty free practices in the beauty industry.

Perhaps the most truly subversive thing about Bel Rebel – beyond its portfolio of fragrances inspired by the saccharine, almost plasticy sweetness of roses, wild winter air, or a tangy, mischievous bubblegum – is the understanding that the customer of the now and of the future appreciates radical transparency over the smoke and mirrors of the beauty and fashion ads of yore. Production processes and brand values are available for all customers to read about, broken down to increments from Bel Rebel’s shipping footprint, to its molecular makeup and cruelty-free practice.

Relax, let loose, and give Stunned a deep inhale – happy 4/20! 

Stunned, the sixth fragrance in the collection retails at £139 for 69ml and will be available on Bel Rebel’s website April 20.