The chaotic beauty of Leo Crabtree's BeauFort
Leo Crabtree is many things — BeauFort London founder and creative director, former whiskey distiller, accomplished musician and student of history, literature and poetry. After experiencing the BeauFort collection and meeting Leo in person during a brief stop in San Francisco, we knew an interview would be necessary, were he willing. And so he was...
Q. When and where did the idea "I'll make perfume" strike you?
A. In 2013 I had the idea of developing some men's grooming products — moustache wax! I had experimented with homemade blends and had some success, but the "moment" came when a friend and mentor suggested that there was more to be explored with our aesthetic in the world of fragrance. It wasn’t anything I had considered before and honestly felt like it was a world I couldn’t possibly comprehend or access.
In actuality it was very much the right direction: the men’s products were kind of interesting, but in terms of story-telling and "world creation," fragrance opens up myriad possibilities and these aspects really appeal to me.
Q. Where does the name BeauFort come from and (how) does it represent your brand?
A. The name is borrowed from the 1805 "Beaufort Scale" which was the first effort to standardize ways of describing observed sea and wind conditions. I was raised in close proximity to the sea and the weather conditions had profound influence on our activities — and as a Brit I think we’re all a little obsessed with the weather...
The Beaufort Scale was and is still used as a reference for sailors and aviators. I really like the idea of trying to define something invisible — forces you feel but do not see.
Q. Where is BeauFort based and who makes your perfumes? Set the stage please...
A. We moved out of London a couple of years ago and are now based in the Cotswolds, in one of the historic villages there. We have a small factory in the village, where our team make everything. We have two warehouses, one for production and one for inventory and dispatch.
It’s all grown organically for us, and we've been lucky to have the opportunity to bring everything in-house, a decision I made in "lockdown." We've used third party manufacturing and fulfillment in the past but the ability to oversee exactly how every single product is made and dispatched is really important to me: this luxury is all in the details.
Q. We'd love to learn more about your creative direction and what defines a BeauFort composition...
A. When we're composing new fragrances the first thing I look to do is create something arresting that captures the attention in a unique way. So we're looking for angles that surprise and push the envelope a little, which is really the intention.
One of our perfumers (Julie Marlowe) once described approaching a BeauFort as like creating a huge oil painting with a large brush and a pallet of bright, powerful colors, using thick strokes of color to produce something really impactful. This approach has kind of become the MO.
The perfumers for the Come Hell Or High Water collection also employed the technique of "overdosing" certain ingredients to create this effect which I think has become something of a trademark now. The inspiration comes from things I've read about, bits of ephemera that seem to resonate and stick. Quite often there are ideas that have been around for a long time that find a way through eventually.
Force Majeure, for example, is based around the concept of the sea areas around Britain, one of the very first ideas I had when we started. These areas are used in conjunction with the Beaufort Scale to alert sailors to sea conditions in the coastal waters, and the Shipping Forecast, as it is named, is broadcast daily on national radio for their benefit.
Acrasia was an interesting one too, this version kind of reverse-engineered itself. I had a version of the fragrance produced in 2016 as a sketch for a different idea. I kept returning to it as something worthy of a name, but it took reading Spenser’s The Faerie Queene some six years later for the idea to resonate and come to life fully. Sometimes it seems like we are looking to join a fragrance to a story, but this process is dynamic and can equally happen in reverse.
Q. Who do you imagine wearing your perfumes?
A. In the early days of the brand we had a store report back to us that they advised customers that with a BeauFort fragrance a person must not let the fragrance wear them, they have to wear it… This has kind of stuck, so anyone who fits that particular bill.
Q. How have your academic studies of history, literature and poetry influenced your work in fragrance?
A. Almost totally. When I was studying history, one of my tutors suggested that analyzing texts was a matter of approaching them "like a pirate" — get aboard, take what you want to make your point, and get out.
I’ve used this approach ever since: all BeauFort fragrances are built around a kernel of a story, real or not, and we incorporate these stories into our own. Fragrances are inherently poetic: they leave gaps for the imagination to fill, but the language here is chemical.
Q. There are now three BeauFort fragrance collections, can you describe each in one sentence or less?
Come Hell or High Water: London's future-past fever dream.
Revenants: Literary ghosts that never really left.
Force Majeure: The power of the unseen.
Q. Similarly, can you describe three iconic BeauFort fragrances, one from each collection, in no more than five words each?
Vi Et Armis: Narcotic Chaos in A Bottle
Iron Duke: Man vs / + Beast
Cape Wrath: Perilous wind-beaten seascape
Q. If not music and perfume, what would it be?
A. A disaster.
Q. What brings you the most joy and/or satisfaction in your work?
A. There is a real capacity with fragrance that you get "1+1 = 3" moments… so a perfumer can present certain ingredients and then these in combination reveal something new and unexpected. When this happens, we are on the right track, and stories begin to write themselves.
I have also been astounded when people come back to me with stories of how our fragrances remind them of vivid situations or people from their past. I've had many people approach me at trade shows and say things like "thank you for creating this, it reminds me of my father / mother / friend / a time when I was most happy." This connection is really powerful, and it's such a privilege to be able to make something that resonates in such a deep way for people.
Q. What have you found to be most surprising about working in fragrance, and what has been most challenging?
A. The whole "niche" perfume industry is a constant surprise — it was not something I had any real concept of until we were fully immersed in it. I'm surprised it exists at all, and the people who work within it, champion it and support it represent some truly independent thinking.
Conversely I find the word "niche" sometimes problematic: it deliberately excludes and differentiates this world in an occasionally self-conscious way which sets up immediate barriers. Changing this thinking can be challenging.
On a more mundane level, when we started this business we had no idea of the challenges you face on the day-to-day — IP protection, IFRA compliance, payroll, cash flow, the grey market. All things that can occasionally frustrate creativity!
Q. Is there a perfume that you've dreamt of making but haven't yet been able to achieve — and if so, what would it smell like?
A. I think knowingly or not, there is always a "white whale" that keeps us searching and pushing on. And I hope we never find it… a kind of mirage of the perfect fragrance that is just that. Having said that, I’ve had this idea for a long time — a "Frankenstein’s Monster" that borrows elements of classic perfumes (in the way Mary Shelley borrowed from Classical literature) to stitch together something new and energized.
It’s a nice idea, and in the novel Viktor Frankenstein’s mother’s maiden name is Beaufort, so this concept has some resonance, although early attempts to make a version of this idea have not been very successful!
Q. What can we expect to see traveling across the seas from BeauFort next?
A. We have new additions to the Force Majeure collection due in the autumn. We are also working on some new, more powerful versions of the Come Hell or High Water collection coming to celebrate the collection's 10th anniversary. Never a dull moment here...
Thanks, Leo! We truly appreciate you taking the time to tell us about your work. We're excited for the wonderful fragrance community to experience the entire BeauFort universe.
