why we kept nordic forest and luminous veil in the permanent collection

when i was building the blissli collection, i had more scents to consider than I had room for. some decisions were easy. others were not.

nordic forest and luminous veil were the not-easy ones.

both of them sat in what i started calling the "interesting but risky" pile. meaning: i loved them. but i wasn't sure if enough people would. they're not the scents you reach for instinctively. they require a small act of faith.

i kept them anyway. here's why that turned out to be the right decision.

nordic forest

pine, clove and raspberry. on paper this looks like it shouldn't work. it sounds a bit confused. is it a forest? is it fruity? is it christmas? the answer is: it's none of those things exactly and it's all of them a bit.

in practice, nordic forest is one of the most consistent repeat purchases in the range. people who try it tend to come back for it specifically.

what it does is create atmosphere in a way that sweeter or more predictable scents don't. it's a proper scent rather than just a nice smell. bold, grounded, a little unexpected. the kind of thing that makes someone walk into a room and immediately ask what that is.

i nearly cut it because I was worried it was too niche. i kept it because i thought: the people who get this will really get it. and that turned out to be true.

if you haven't tried nordic forest, the best time to start is autumn or winter, though the people who burn it year-round would argue with me about that.

luminous veil

fig tree, white florals and coconut. this one is harder to describe because it sits outside most of the usual fragrance categories. it's not floral in the way fresh sheets is floral. it's not warm in the way soft haze is warm. it's something else.

sophisticated is the word I keep coming back to. it's the scent equivalent of a room that's been put together by someone who knows what they're doing but isn't trying to tell you about it.

luminous veil almost didn't make the collection because I wasn't sure it was accessible enough. it doesn't immediately announce itself the way uplifting citrus does or sweet treat does. it rewards the people who stop and pay attention to it.

those people, as it turns out, are very loyal. luminous veil has a following that's disproportionate to how much i expected it to land. the customers who choose it tend to choose it again. it was part of our christmas collection for exactly that reason.

the lesson from both of them

there's a version of the blissli collection that didn't include either of these. one that played it safer and stuck to scents that are easier to explain at a glance. that collection would have been fine. it would have sold.

but it wouldn't have been as interesting. and honestly, "fine" isn't what we're going for.

the scents that feel like a small risk are often the ones that build the most loyal customers. because they're selecting people who actually get what blissli is about. that's worth more in the long run than the extra sales you'd get from playing it safe.

if you're curious

nordic forest and luminous veil are both available as candles and in wax melt form. if you've been unsure, the wax melt tasters are a good way to try them before committing to a full candle.

find them at blissli.co.uk.

love, amy.