How We Create a Fragrance Concept at The Wandering Bee
A question we get asked quite a lot is how we come up with our fragrance concepts. There's actually quite a lot that goes into developing a fragrance at The Wandering Bee.
We plan our year of scents around six months to a year ahead, so when we start developing a new concept, there's already a lot to think about.
It all starts with the month
When we want to start developing a concept, we look at the month itself.
Take February, for example.
There's a lot going on in February. There's the hero event, which is Valentine's, you have Pancake Day and it's also The Wandering Bee's birthday.
It's a very busy month for us, which means there's a lot to take into consideration when we're developing February's scent, but step one is always the same.
We sit down together and talk about and jot down what February means to us. What do we think of when we think of February?
Finding the concept
Once we've compiled a list of everything that the month means to us, we pick out a few of our favourite concepts. It could be date night. Having dinner with someone you love, followed by a gorgeous dessert.
If you're a customer or in our Subs Club, you'll know this was our concept for February 2026. Our underlying concept was to create a date night and beingserved a delicious dessert.
Once we're set on that concept, we start talking about what that concept actually smells like.
What does a date night smell like?
For us, date night meant feminine and masculine perfume and aftershave, a mix of the two. Getting ready. Dusky. Romantic. Heady. Strong. That was one angle.
The other was the dessert.
We wanted something sweet and sexy smelling, with a smokiness to it and the sweetness of sugar. So we had two ideas that could feed into the main concept.
Then come the scent notes
From there, we start talking about scent notes.
For the date night side, what notes do you think of?
Jasmine and sandalwood. Tobacco and vanilla. Maybe a little bit of patchouli.
Then, for the dessert course, what comes to mind?
Maybe honey and crystallised sugar. Something with a crème caramel element to it.
And that's where the fragrance starts to take shape.
From concept to fragrance
Once we've got the concept and the notes we're interested in, we move on to testing fragrances. We test, tweak and refine until we find the combination that captures the original idea. That's essentially how we pin down a fragrance concept for each month.
It all starts with a feeling.
Then a concept.
Then the scent notes.
And finally, the fragrance.
0 comments