What Does Anticipation Smell Like?

How a chance encounter with The Raconteur helped us find fragrance’s place in BOXBOX.

Chris and I had a question we couldn’t quite resolve.

We were building BOXBOX around a clear principle: every ingredient had to earn its place. Function mattered. We wanted to explain what went into our products and why it belonged there.

Then there was fragrance.

We knew how much scent mattered to the experience of using a product. But if every ingredient needed a purpose, what job were we asking fragrance to do? Intuitively, we felt it belonged. We just hadn’t found the right balance, or someone who really understood what we were trying to achieve.

Then we stopped for coffee.

Chris and I were traveling through Sydney, working on BOXBOX in anticipation of the Melbourne Grand Prix. A friend had recommended a coffee shop. As we were leaving, we noticed The Raconteur’s studio shop and decided to walk in.

Something clicked.

The fragrances were layered and complex. Each had a personality and a story. As we explored them, we noticed how they made us feel. Some felt calming. Others felt energizing. Others brought a sense of familiarity or nostalgia.

There, in front of us, was something we’d struggled to put into words. The experience of scent had a purpose of its own. How we felt while using a product mattered to us, and fragrance could be an intentional part of that experience.

The more we learned about Craig Andrade, The Raconteur’s founder and perfumer, the more we felt we’d found the right partner.

Craig came to perfumery after a 25-year international career in law. He trained at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery in France and with natural perfumer Mandy Aftel, developing a practice that combines technical discipline, craftsmanship and storytelling.

The beginning of his journey particularly resonated with us. In an interview with Tasmanian, Craig described receiving a candle-making class as a gift. When he added the fragrance and breathed it in, he felt a sudden sense of stillness. That personal experience helped set him on an entirely different path. 

We also connected with the care he brought to his materials. Craig has spoken about his fascination with Australian native botanicals and the questions he asks about their farming, supply and conservation. In a 2021 interview, he described choosing to leave ingredients out when he couldn’t justify their sourcing. That kind of thoughtfulness felt familiar to two people asking every ingredient to earn its place. 

His approach gave us a way forward. We could start with the experience we wanted to create and give fragrance a clear role within it.

And we knew exactly which moment we wanted to explore.

Our brief to Craig was anticipation.

That energizing moment before the lights go out. Before an important meeting. When the preparation is done and it’s almost time to act.

That one moment of calm before action.

The call to perform.

We were curious: what does this smell like?

That question became the starting point for our work together. It captured something we wanted people to recognize in BOXBOX: the feeling of getting ready for a moment that matters.

Craig’s ability to give a story character through scent made him the right person to help us explore it. His attention to ingredients gave us confidence in how we would get there. Together, those qualities helped us find a place for fragrance across the line that felt true to what we were building.

Every ingredient still had to earn its place. We now had a clearer sense of what we were asking fragrance to contribute.

Looking back, it would have been so easy to keep walking that day in Sydney. We were busy. We had plenty to do. The coffee stop could have been just a coffee stop.

But something made us pause and walk through the door.

We’re grateful we did.