Product Development - A Peek at the Tweak

Here's a peek at a project I worked on for a client earlier this year.

Part of the work included creating a blend of essential oils to function as both active and scent for a specialty product.

A New Oil

The job was educational, fun, and challenging as it required researching and getting acquainted with an essential oil I have never worked with before.


If you're waiting for me to reveal the name, I'm afraid I must disappoint. This product is not yet on the market and it is my client - not me - who is at liberty to reveal anything about it.

I am however, at liberty to share a bit about the process.

Today, we're looking at tweaking! (yes, tweaking, not twerking)

Tweaking a Formula

Normally, a product sample is created and sent to the client for trial and comment. The client tries and tests it out for an agreed period of time, then returns with feedback.

The feedback may or may not require subsequent tweaking of the formula.

Feedback on a formula that will require tweaking can be something along the lines of
'I'd like it to be a bit thicker.'
'Can we add a bit of color?'
'Can we change the scent so there is a stronger floral note?'

Feedback on a formula that will not require tweaking can be something along the lines of:
'I love this to bits. How fast can we get it into production?'

I'm sure you get the picture.

Bypassing Tweaking

Because the goal here was to achieve not only a pleasant scent, but a specific function, we decided it would be most advantageous to make and test 4 different versions of the essential oil blend simultaneously.

These were created and sent to the client with super sexy labels like the ones you see below.

Luckily, our clever plan to bypass the tweaking phase worked.
Two out of four blends were chosen as possibles and the rest of the formula was developed from there.

The product will be going into production soon.

Do Tell

How do you work with essential oils when you are creating blends?