One of the projects we love to work on is the yearly Scentsicles' feature fragrance. This year it's Icicles on Spruce. The challenge? Creating something that stands out while still fitting with the existing product line - plus choosing a completely new stick color that breaks from Scentsicles' traditional green and brown stick colors. Working closely with the Scentsicles team, we landed on solutions that honored the brand while bringing something fresh.
Breaking Tradition: The Iced Green Stick
The biggest departure was the stick color itself. For Icicles on Spruce, we chose an iced green - a lighter, frosted tone that stands out on traditional dark green trees while blending beautifully with white, flocked, or heavily frosted trees.
Capturing Ice on Paper
Here's the tricky part: ice is incredibly difficult to photograph against a light background. It often gets lost visually when working with soft, wintry colors. We needed frosted spruce branches with just the right amount of ice coverage - enough to feel wintry without losing detail against our background. Finding the right imagery that struck that balance was crucial to bringing the scent story to life.
The Color Palette
The icy blue-green gradient background evokes crisp winter air and creates that frosty atmosphere. The palette communicates "winter" while staying inviting and magical.
Standing Out on Shelf
The real test for retail packaging is context. This design catches your eye on a holiday display while looking cohesive with the entire Scentsicles family. The icy palette creates contrast with warmer, traditional evergreen scents while consistent branding keeps it firmly part of the collection.
Key Takeaways
Brand consistency doesn't mean everything looks the same. The strongest product families have room for individual personalities.
Small details make big impacts. That iced green stick color is what makes this product feel truly different and appropriate for its scent story.
Smart sourcing is good design. Finding imagery that solves technical challenges (like ice on light backgrounds) is just as important as creating custom elements.
If you spot that icy blue tube with frosted spruce branches in stores this season, take a closer look - and maybe a sniff!
Icicles on Spruce is now available in stores. Have questions about packaging design for retail products? Feel free to reach out.