Daniel Bense • Founder • To My Ships

Daniel Bense spent nearly 12 years inside Aesop, helping build its commercial engine and cultural presence across Europe and the US, before leading British heritage brand Sunspel as Managing Director. In 2022 he stepped away to build something of his own. To My Ships launched in 2024 after two years of unusually rigorous product development, and what emerged is a personal care brand that treats a category most people never think twice about with the seriousness typically reserved for fine fragrance.

In this episode, Fred Moore talks to Daniel about what he saw missing in the deodorant category, why formulating without cost restraint produces a fundamentally different product, and how the Iliad became the unlikely foundation for a brand built on depth and substance. They also get into the tension between natural efficacy and performance claims, what 12 years at Aesop actually taught him, and why the most intimate products on your shelf might be the ones most worth reconsidering.