"Seasons change on the mountain. Each season brings a shifting palette of scents: sunshine on the pines, rain on the earth, crisp air holding a breath of fireplace, a tingle of cold in the snow.
Life on the Mountain is a new concept in scent which captures the shifting seasons to transport you all year ‘round. Subscribing to the Life on the Mountain will bring the wilderness to your personal adventure, wherever your wandering takes you. Available in natural soap, body wash, and cologne.
This campaign should be rich, vibrant, and lively… it should capture the wonder and magic of the pine forests of Washington. It would ideally convey a sense of the passage of time -- of growth, of decay -- on both a macro and micro level. I’m envisioning the Cascades (where I went hiking and backpacking when I was growing up)."
We’ve been working on a new scent experience called Life on the Mountain. The above paragraphs are from the scent brief I’ve put together for our team and for my internal reference. Even though briefs feel reminiscent of my corporate days, they’re helpful in ensuring we keep the vision consistent as we’re working on different parts of the scent.
Developing a scent is fun, interesting work, but it also can be a very long process.
The other day, Isabella asked how long scent development takes in our Instagram Live where we were working on the Fall scent of Life on the Mountain.
The truth is that it varies… Some scents come together in a flash of inspiration and are very much what we imagined. Some scents require rounds and rounds of scent blending, then testing, and then reformulating. These days, we’re also working with a professional perfumer and a scent researcher to ensure that our scents are well-balanced and aligned with our general scent profile (for example, my first take of the Life on the Mountain: Spring was kind of floral).
Once a scent is blended, we try it in soap. If it works in soap, then we mix it with body wash and cologne, in turn. All along, we have to make sure it’s both consistent with our vision and consistent across the product types (which is challenging, if you’ve tried recent batches of Fire in the Hole solid cologne).
All this takes a long-haul commitment to one idea… and for something as complex and unique as the Life on the Mountain concept, the scent brief helps us stay on track.
What does the forest smell like to you? What’s your favorite season of the forest, by scent?
If you haven’t found your perfect scent yet, take the scent quiz here: https://outlaw.love/UY1Lkx
Or order our top eight handmade soaps in one handy set of samples: https://liveoutlaw.com/collections/sample-the-outlaw-goods/products/handmade-soap-sample-set-8-pack-of-our-best-sellers
