The most asked question I get both in person and on social media is "how do you come up with your product names?"

Full disclosure, I'm probably not like most people when it comes to my names. I typically come up with the names first, then form a scent around that name. Sometimes the scent is a literal translation of that fragrance. Sometimes not.

THE NAME GAME 

Let's take Oh, honey for example.

This candle does in fact smell like honey, along with honeysuckle, clover, and lilac. That was an easy one. It's quite literal.

But on the other end of the spectrum, I also have Crystals & Shit. 

The literal scent might not be that pleasant! Plus, crystals don't actually smell. At least not that I'm aware of. So, I took my cue from the fact I wanted to use rose quartz on top of the candle. Rose quartz...roses. This candle smells like roses (with some other things mixed in).

Now, if you're not like me and choose to go the opposite direction and choose the scent first, and THEN figure out the name, then here's some options for how I would go about that.

NAME OPTIONS

The first option, is naming the candle after the fragrance oils you use. A lot of people go this route and it's perfectly acceptable. Returning to Oh, honey, this candle uses a fragrance oil from The Flaming Candle called "Wild Mountain Honey." 

So you could name the candle "wild mountain honey." That would be a great name and describes exactly what it's going to smell like.

Of course, if you custom blend your scents like I do, then you might use more than one fragrance oil. You could combine the oil's names or just pick whichever sounds better to you.

The other option is to come up with a custom name. With a honey scent, you might think of honey bees. Or sticky golden amber. Or liquid gold. Or Pharaoh's nectar, or if you're a history buff, Charlemagne's tomb, where he was buried with hundreds of gold bees. You might be working on a scent for each state, and land on Utah, and name the scent "The Beehive State." I don't know! 

This is really where your imagination can run wild. I would personally recommend finding a name that has to do with the fragrance, though, as I've already shown you, I don't always follow that rule either.

NAME ON BRAND

If that's the direction you'd like to take, then I suggest creating a name that fits with your branding. As with Crystals & Shit, I named that candle to summon all of the tarot and crystal gays. Spirituality in this way is an important part of LGBTQ+ culture.

Even Oh, honey is part of The Big Gay Collective's branding, whether that's in my personal life where I don't go a single day where I don't mutter to myself "oh...honey." Or by being an unofficial catchphrase of "super famous drag queen," Trixie Mattel.

No matter how you come up with your scent products names, just have fun with it. If a name doesn't sell, there's no shame in changing it to see if it will move with a new name. Sometimes that works in your favor, because you can see if it's the name or the scent that people don't like and readjust what needs to be changed.

Coming up with fantastic and eye-catching product names doesn't need to be a headache. Hopefully, this has helped your creativity juices percolate. Drop some of your most creative product names in the comments, and Have a Big Gay Day!

This post is made with 100% human content.