Scent trends

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SoapAddict415

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For those of you who sell, how do you decide what scents to make? Is there a site for scent trends? I tried to find one for winter 2018 because I wanted to start planning for next Christmas but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for.
 
I know that WSP has a list of "Fragrances By Market Trends" section, but it's pretty extensive. I'm not sure how that list is compiled.

Rustic Escentuals has a list of their most popular fragrances by year, month, and popularity, going all the way back to 2003. Although the top scents change over time, a lot of them remain in the top ten for years at a time. So, although it's supplier specific, it does provide some interesting data if you look at patterns over time.

https://rusticescentuals.com/Most-Popular-Fragrance-Oils.html

I hope this helps. I'm curious to see what others might have to say. I wonder about this often.
 
Thank you! That looks like a good place to start. All I could find in my Google search (2018 scent trends, 2018 fragrance trends, etc) were sites that talked mainly about what new designer/celebrity scents were coming out in 2017.
 
If you're planning for next Christmas, see what's selling for this Christmas and go with that. Most FO suppliers have a list of "best sellers" on their sites, or so I've noticed over the years.
 
It totally varies from Show to Show for me. I make a vast variety of scents as you never know what people want or like. OMH is my hands down best seller with lavender, lilac and citrus type scents after that. Fresh scents and men’s sell well too. Holiday fragrances not so much. I make 1 or 2 each season. It’s pretty much trial. May even depend on your geographical area.
 
Thanks for the tips! I had a coworker that I gifted soap to ask if I would be selling it. Other than a few bars here or there over the years I've never really got into selling but I think I'd like to try selling gift tins next year.

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It totally varies from Show to Show for me. I make a vast variety of scents as you never know what people want or like. OMH is my hands down best seller with lavender, lilac and citrus type scents after that. Fresh scents and men’s sell well too. Holiday fragrances not so much. I make 1 or 2 each season. It’s pretty much trial. May even depend on your geographical area.
For me OMH is one of my worst sellers, Dragon's Blood tops, followed by Lavender, Hardwood musk, Plumeria, Eucalyptus, and Lavender & Lilac. Like Shunt I take 40-50 different fragrances to market in Vegan and non-vegan soaps. If you sell you need to cover all potential customers. I have a lot of men regular customers, probably more than women, so I always have a decent amount of men's type fragrances. Unfortunately it takes time to learn your particular markets and as Shunt mentioned it varies. I can go for almost a year not selling a particular fo and suddenly I will have a run on it, so guessing is virtually impossible.
 
As you can see from conflicting reports above, fragrance preferences can also be regional. They're also very subjective. What makes one person go, "Ahhhh!", can make another go, "Ewww!" That being said, my best sellers were always these three from BB...OMH, Energy and lavender.
 
It totally varies from Show to Show for me. I make a vast variety of scents as you never know what people want or like. OMH is my hands down best seller with lavender, lilac and citrus type scents after that. Fresh scents and men’s sell well too. Holiday fragrances not so much. I make 1 or 2 each season. It’s pretty much trial. May even depend on your geographical area.

Which citrus scents do you use that stick?
 
Which citrus scents do you use that stick?

Almost all of my citrus FO's stick well such as, blood orange, blood lime, satsuma, grapefruit and my lemon's, and my Lime EO sticks like glue. I have a lime EO soap I made about 3 years ago (I am hoarding it for myself) that is still very strongly scented.

However, I don't work with many EO's except for lime, lemongrass and patchouli because I have never been able to get ANY of them to stick for more than a year, no matter which scent it was or how it was "anchored".
 
Almost all of my citrus FO's stick well such as, blood orange, blood lime, satsuma, grapefruit and my lemon's, and my Lime EO sticks like glue. I have a lime EO soap I made about 3 years ago (I am hoarding it for myself) that is still very strongly scented.

However, I don't work with many EO's except for lime, lemongrass and patchouli because I have never been able to get ANY of them to stick for more than a year, no matter which scent it was or how it was "anchored".

Thanks I wasn’t sure that citrus FOS stuck.
In Australia we have a pitiful array of fragrance oil suppliers that have reasonable prices. My go to supplier seems to have watered down their fragrances so even 9% ppo does not stick through a few weeks cure.

I am searching for another supplier. I can buy B.B. from a supplier here for $$$$$$.
 
Sometimes I go on Etsy to look at the top soapmakers, and if you look at their Sales records, you can see what people order the most. Obviously this isn't as easy as just looking at a list, but it does help me decide on fragrances when I feel like taking my time to browse.
 
Unfortunately, most aren't straight up citrus. As they don't stick as well.
Lemongrass EO, Cranberry Citrus (Peak), Energy (BB) , 15x Orange (WSP) but they have jacked the price up so high can't purchase anymore. White Citrus (WSP).

Some (most) of the US fragrances here are so expensive that it’s cheaper to use EOs. When one of the fragrance oil suppliers find a good selling scent they put the prices up! It just becomes unviable. I end up paying more for the FO/EO than the soap ingredients.

I’m not confident in EO blending yet to replace the FOs.
 
Wait, lime EO sticks? Woohoo! My lime FO did not.

Mine did yes. I have one bar that is about 3 years old. It has faded a tad, but the scent is definitely still there.

However, I am down to my last few ounces from the source I got it from, and they have gone out of business, and I will have to find a new source and test. :problem:
 

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