It will have taken roughly a year since I finished my first fragrance – Rhapsody in Violet – to its official launch.
It's been a journey of wearing many hats! So I wanted to elaborate a little on what has been going on in the background here, as my original launch window was April 2026.
Legalities, and All That Jazz
To launch a perfume in the UK legally, a qualified chemist must review the entire formula and all of its constituents and determine that is safe for use for its intended purpose and at its intended concentration. This is called a Cosmetic Product Safety Report, or CPSR. Each CPSR costs hundreds of pounds.
Having a finished formula that has been legally cleared is then just the beginning. The fragrance can't just be bottled and sold as is. The packaging must also be compliant and present specific information, such as the ingredients list and the batch number.
Presentation
And what did I know about packaging? Absolutely nothing. So months of time went by talking to manufacturers, learning some Adobe Illustrator and obsessing over stuff like font spacing, and researching finishes for labels and boxes.
The hunt for a supplier to work with that will produce customised packaging for you affordably is its own hurdle, particularly since some manufacturers have high minimum order quantities more suited for brand startups with a glut of seed capital and a range of fragrances to launch day one.
But I think I've found a partnership that can produce an experience for customers that is as worthy of the brand as I can make it at this point in time. I hope you love the packaging for your fragrance.
On the website, I am fortunate enough to have a husband who is both techie and developer rolled into one. I have a little experience in the workplace with software development myself, but my husband is the one who wired up all the whirlygigs in the background.
The current product images are AI placeholders while I await my product packaging. So I'm targeting a launch date of July at this point. It is what it is – nothing is as quick as you'd hope. 😊
Current Tinkerings
My iteration cycles for fragrances in development are quite long. As a rule of thumb, I like to leave each trial I make for six weeks to form a final opinion on it. Some take longer to round out, others shorter, but six weeks is my preferred timeline.
The first dozen trials or more I make are just feeling out the core structure, in terms of what works best with what I am trying to centre. I am currently working on a white rose devotional scent whose core structure I more or less settled on by the third trial I made (not typical for me!), and it is currently on trial 23 as I play with micro additions and alterations to that structure. It could be ready on trial 33, or 103 – whenever I'm happy that I've done all I can to elevate it.
Once I'm happy with a trial, I incubate it at 40 degree heat for a minimum of three months to simulate an extended shelf life. Then I freeze it and thaw it for a minimum of three cycles to check that the fragrance doesn't separate. I'm also looking for changes to the scent profile and assessing its stability.
All of this – plus the cost, of course – is why I launched with only one fragrance. But my aim is never to have many available for sale. I think I would be quite content, eventually, just to have half a dozen I've obsessed over. Sometimes, I'll play with an idea and it just doesn't 'grab' me enough to make me want to keep going with it, or I'll bench it and think about it for a while.
But sometimes I believe I really don't choose a scent profile; it chooses me and holds me captive until I give it form. Rhapsody was my first such fragrance, and I'm already planning my white rose scent to be the second when it's finished, as it's already well received despite not being completed. But more on that and the story behind it at a later date.
My Hopes
So, assuming no unexpected delays, the first small batch of Rhapsody in Violet will be available for sale in July this year. If you sign up to the newsletter, I'll provide a precise launch date nearer the time.
Authors hope that people will love their books. Musicians hope that people will play their songs. It is my hope that you will love your perfume and its presentation, and I want you to have the best experience I can provide.
Until Summer, then. 😊