Behind The Tea, Edition 4

This is the story of a failed product.

One that never even made it into the shop.

Say hello to Vanilla Latte:

A few months ago I began to test scents for the Fall collection of apothecary products. I had the WILD idea to make one that smelled like coffee. The difficulty here is that I only use essential oils to scent my products and sometimes essential oils don't work the way you want them to.

Well about 6 weeks ago I tested out vanilla and coffee essential oils in both lotion and soap! I couldn't BELIEVE how good the lotion smelled. My husband has a favorite Vanilla Latte from the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and it legitimately smelled just like it.

Soap is a bit more difficult because you, essentially *insert essential oil joke here*, wash the scent right off of you. You want it to smell good, not overpowering, and also not so subtle that you could have used unscented.

Anyway, after I created the scent I decided I would just go for it, create the labels for all of the products, and keep testing the next few weeks.

Well...testing proved that the scent is just not ready and I'm not sure it will be end up working. A few of the issues: 

1. The coffee essential oil seemed to EAT the vanilla essential oil. After a few days you could no longer smell the vanilla.

2. The coffee and vanilla essential oils cost a LOT. I was already going to have to price these products higher than I'd like (and more than the other apothecary products I carry). After the scent sat for a while in the lotion/soap base it started to lose its intensity. Using more essential oil isn't really an option otherwise the scent would be VERY expensive.

 3. For a more high end product the coffee scent didn't really smell as good as I would have liked. 

Therefore, last weekend I officially scrapped the Vanilla Latte scent. I have replaced it with another scent I am very excited about but I have to say I am very sad to lose this scent. I may try again sometime in the future and attempt to search out a different coffee essential oil but for now it's the product that got away.

What do you think? Are you sad that I couldn't make the vanilla latte work in time? Is there a scent you're hoping for in the Fall? Tell me more in the comments.

I love you and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it,

Sara