July 12, 2026

Polaris Olfactive

This article is part of a series where we highlight shape as identity in the design stages of a perfume bottle.

This time, we have: Altra, from the UK. The interview includes Beckielou Brown, founder & perfumer of the brand.

Altra is a artisanal perfume house from the United Kingdom. The founder, Beckielou brown is the perfumer and the creative director behind the brand, and i also had the chance to meet her on Polaris Olfactive Week, in summer 2025.

Without revealing too much, I can say that her energy and personality is as beautiful as the perfumes. Beckielou is very down to earth, calm, and always starts and ends conversations with a huge smile. Just the way life is supposed to be. This interview is joyful.

Beckielou, you started your brand in 2022, and it is visually stunning. How did your brand emerge from a design point of view – and how did elements like form, weight, and closure shape that identity from the beginning?

Beckielou Brown
— Altra UK

“I’m deeply fascinated with design, and obsess over form, texture, how the light hits an object and how you interact with it, how it conveys a story, a feeling, and how it can become part of you. During the time we were developing Altra, I had so many ideas about the type of bottle I would love to create, I felt trends had become so sterile, so overly compliant to tasteful norms, which although elegant, did not feel original or inspiring - they’d lost their playfulness, whimsy and imagination.

I toyed with ideas from reimagined ancient artifacts, to crystal shards to using emerging materials and complicated cases, but as Altra came into sharper focus, it became clear that the scents needed to be housed in an outer form that reflected their essence.

At the heart of Altra is a sense of juxtaposition between worlds - the natural world and the man-made world, the ancient and the futuristic, and alongside that, a foundational belief in creating something of beauty that lasted and was not thrown away. This clarity solidified the direction and informed the decisions we made.”

“We wanted a bottle that felt like a sculpture, an objet d’art -something you want to carry with you as well as display at home.

We call it the ‘Liquid Contour’ bottle - as you hold it up to the light the perfume inside looks like a droplet suspended in motion. Every angle of the bottle looks different, playing on surrealistic forms and tactility, it feels like it’s made to fit your hand.

Our bottle represents the natural world, the clear glass allowing for the aliveness of the colourful liquid contained inside to shine through, in contrast to the structured silhouette of our pentagonal black boxes - who’s architectural Brutalist form and raw materiality was inspired by the work of some of my favourite buildings by architects Paul Rudolph and John Lautner, bringing the creativity of the man-made world.”

At what point did the bottle stop being packaging and become part of the fragrance itself?

“From the very beginning! The thing that makes perfume bottles so exciting to design, is that you are essentially working with an invisible medium in perfumery - so your bottle becomes the visual language that conveys so much about the scent inside. Although each bottle is the same in our collection, the colour of the scent inside, and the touch of colour at the base (which reflects into the inside curve of glass), anchors it to each perfume’s personality.”

The packaging has many sustainable elements, such as biodegradable outer layer for the sample sets. –>

If all branding were removed, would the shape alone still belong to your house?

“Yes, absolutely - it was designed as a direct expression of the brand, so I believe it holds that identity without needing a logo. The balance of fluid and structured form, natural and man-made, runs through everything we do. It doesn’t feel interchangeable, and although we’re still a small brand, I feel people recognise that.”

Did the form come before or after the scent – and what did you choose to remove along the way?

“After, or actually during...The scents were in various stages of development when we began the bottle design, which took about a year to perfect, especially getting the balance of the heavy base and finer curved glass right in production. So while the scents already existed, they evolved alongside the bottle, and both the final forms of the fragrances and the design were finalized around the same time.”

What should someone feel the moment they see and hold the bottle – before experiencing the scent?

“A sense of curiosity. Something that draws you in on a sensory level and makes you want to pick it up. Then a feeling of stepping into Altra’s world, where scent feels alive and unexpected. It should hint at what’s inside, before it even touches the skin.”