We wanted to do something different this summer.
It was Lori's idea, to give credit where it's due. She handles a lot of the e-mail, and mentioned that there are certain old fragrances that people keep asking about. This summer, the idea went, we should bring one fragrance back all three months - June, July, and August. Let the Monsters who have been with us for years take a trip down memory lane. Let the people who have joined us since try some of the fragrances they missed.
To keep things fresh, and to keep our creative juices flowing (something that is necessary to keep us from going mad), we churn out new fragrances at least a few times a year. Mostly they are made to be temporary, like the Hellfire we just finished offering through May of this year. Others became too expensive to produce when an essential oil supplier raises prices (or in one case, went out of business, leaving us without a source).
Others fell victim to a decision we made a few years back to limit our number of offered fragrances to 13 (12 plus the unscented Invisible Man). We're a small business, and producing an oil, balm, wash, and wax in 13 varieties is already a great deal of work. And 13 happens to be our lucky number, so we cut it off there.
Thus was the fate of Ectoplasm - our first offering of Resurrection Summer. We introduced the Headless Horseman in Halloween of 2017, and it was immensely popular. We knew we had to keep it around or there would be riots in the streets, so we had to pick one to get rid of. We already had the Ghostly Pirate with it's beachy scent, and when we decided to add the Headless Horseman (which we retitled the Psycho Clown since it wasn't going to be Halloween all the time), we knew two oranges and a tangerine was just redundant. Thus, Ectoplasm got the axe.
Personally, I always really liked the Ectoplasm and was sad to see it go. The tangerine is a nice alternative to orange if you are a citrus fan, while the smooth, almost vanilla-like woodsiness of the atlantic cedar creates a very summery tone. The overall vibe is very beachy, and the perfect choice to kickoff this summer event of ours.
We've also been told that it reminds some customers of a certain green juicebox beverage from the 80's and 90's.
Ectoplasm will be available as a beard oil, beard balm, beard wash, and mustache wax through the month of June. After that, another retro scent will rise from the grave. So if you've got one you have been hoping to get the chance to try again, keep an eye out - it might be next.