Bentley

Bentley is a fragrance line that extends the British luxury car marque of the same name into perfumery. The automotive company, Bentley Motors, was founded in 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley and his brother Horace Millner Bentley, and has been a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998 [5]. The scents, however, are a separate venture: a licensed brand extension developed and distributed by the Swiss-based Lalique Group, which first launched Bentley-branded fragrances in 2013 [9]. The two strands meet in the marketing, where each bottle is presented as a translation of automotive craftsmanship into scent.

Because of this split, the founding date depends on what is being counted. Bentley Motors traces its origin to 1919, and that automotive year is the one carried on the brand's lifestyle pages. The fragrance business itself dates only to the 2010s, with the first perfumes appearing in 2013. For a fragrance buyer, the practical point is that "Bentley" perfume is a comparatively recent, licensed product trading on a century-old car name rather than a long-established perfume house.

The parent company was established in Cricklewood, North London, where W.O. Bentley began building cars under his own name in 1919. Over the following decades the company changed hands several times — passing through Rolls-Royce and later Vickers — before becoming part of the Volkswagen Group in 1998, after which its headquarters settled in Crewe, England. None of this automotive history involves perfumery; the fragrance line arrived almost a century after the first Bentley car.

The move into scent came through a licensing deal rather than an in-house launch. Bentley Motors signed an initial fragrance agreement with the Lalique Group in 2012, and the first products reached the market the following year [10]. The lifestyle and fragrance operations are managed under the Bentley name by a separate branding entity registered in Woking, Surrey, while creative development and distribution sit with Lalique.

The fragrance range made its debut in early 2013 with an exclusive launch at Harrods in London, before expanding across the United Kingdom from March that year. The opening lineup paired two men's scents — Bentley for Men and Bentley for Men Intense — with a limited Lalique for Bentley Crystal Edition, produced in a run of 999 numbered pieces in hand-crafted crystal [12]. From there the catalogue grew steadily, adding the Infinite and Momentum lines that were already in place by the time the licence came up for renewal.

In 2017, Bentley and the Lalique Group renewed their fragrance licence for a further five years, extending an arrangement that both companies framed around shared values of craftsmanship and design [10]. The most prominent expansion followed in 2019, when Bentley Beyond – The Collection launched in the spring with Wild Vetiver, Exotic Musk and Majestic Cashmere; a fourth scent, Rich Pimento, was added that December to coincide with Bentley Motors' centenary year [13]. In 2020 the house introduced its first women's fragrances within the Beyond range — Radiant Osmanthus, Mellow Heliotrope and Vibrant Hibiscus [11].

Launches have continued into the mid-2020s. Scent of Noir, described as a gentleman's fragrance inspired by the darker "Blackline" Bentley cars, arrived in 2023, followed by Bentley Become in 2024 and Bentley Become Zenith in 2025 [4].

Two ownership layers apply. The Bentley name and its automotive heritage belong to Bentley Motors, which the Volkswagen Group has owned since 1998. The fragrance line is not made by Bentley Motors directly; it is licensed to the Lalique Group, which handles development, production and distribution of the perfumes [10]. Lalique's broader portfolio of licensed and owned fragrance brands also includes Jaguar, Parfums Grès and Lalique's own perfumes, among others, placing Bentley within a stable of car-brand and heritage-name scents [6].

Bentley positions its fragrances as a continuation of the car company's craftsmanship rather than a standalone perfume identity. The company describes the collection as drawing on "a prestigious world of rare natural ingredients," developed "with the finest artisan parfumiers and glassmakers" so that each fragrance carries "passion, time-honoured tradition and elegance" [1]. The Perfume Society records the brand's stated aim of embodying "craftsmanship, the finest materials, and high performance" — a phrasing that mirrors Bentley Motors' own language.

The bottles make the automotive link literal. Editorial coverage notes that the flacons borrow two Bentley signatures — the knurling on the stopper and the "flying B" emblem on its top — while crystal versions echo the cut-glass headlights of the Continental GT. The Beyond collection takes its theme from founder W.O. Bentley's interest in travel, building each scent around a specific place; the men's trio was tied editorially to Java, Acapulco and Goa, and the women's scents to Kyoto, Lima and Seoul. Positioned in the luxury tier, the line has been distributed through Harrods and Lalique stores in the UK and sold across the Middle East, Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The men's range centres on Bentley for Men and its variants, including Bentley for Men Absolute, whose bottle was designed by Thierry de Baschmakoff. The Beyond collection is the house's premium tier, with woody and amber compositions built around materials such as vetiver, musk, cashmere wood, amber and leather. The most exclusive single release remains the Lalique for Bentley Crystal Edition of 2013, limited to 999 pieces.

Perfumer credits vary by source. The Beyond scents have been attributed to several noses — The Perfume Society lists Sidonie Lancesseur, Mathilde Bijaoui and Julie Massé for the original trio, while one luxury-lifestyle account credits Nathalie Lorson, Mylène Alran and Mathilde Bijaoui. The house affiliation behind the original Bentley for Men is itself contested: industry coverage names Firmenich as the perfumery house, whereas a Fragrantica listing points to Robertet [10][16]. Sources agree that the women's line was composed by Karine Dubreuil-Sereni.

On sustainability, the commitments that appear in Bentley's material belong to the car company rather than the perfumes. Bentley Motors states a "Beyond100" strategy targeting climate neutrality by 2030, and reports that its UK factory has been carbon-neutral since 2019 [2]; these are not described as applying specifically to the licensed fragrance line.

Coverage of the fragrance line has come mainly from trade and specialist press rather than awards. Marketing Week reported the first men's fragrances in 2013, and Cosmetics Business covered both the 2017 licence renewal and the 2020 launch of the women's range. The Perfume Society and Cent Magazine have published editorial profiles examining the scents, the Lalique bottle design and the Beyond collection's geographic inspirations. No industry awards or third-party certifications surfaced in the available sources.

The brand is active. Bentley fragrances have launched continuously from 2013 through 2025, with the most recent addition — Bentley Become Zenith — introduced in September 2025 [4]. The line remains in distribution across multiple regions, and the underlying licence with the Lalique Group, renewed in 2017, has supported a steadily expanding men's and women's portfolio.