Guilty Pleasures

GuiltyPleasures

Seven scents for the hours when nobody is watching. No pumpkin, no spiced leaf, no cider stand — this is the other half of autumn and winter: the kitchen light at midnight, the bakery box riding shotgun, the slice nobody needs to hear about.

Gourmand, not harvest. Built on sugar, dairy and fried dough instead of the usual seasonal botanicals, so your line does not smell like every other fall release on the shelf.

Colour is the planning decision here. Vanillin runs from 0.1% to 19.2% across these seven — a 190-fold spread. Wide enough to choose by: three of them hold a white base, one will take it all the way to caramel.

The season is long. Unlike a Halloween drop, this one sells from September through Valentine’s. A single production run covers two gifting peaks.

Every one of these will change colour

That is not a defect, it is what gourmand means. Vanillin oxidises on contact with air and light and takes a batch from white to cream to tan over a few weeks. What is useful here is the spread: these seven run from 0.1% to 19.2%, so the collection sorts itself by what you are trying to keep white.

Holds a white baseApple Fritter · Kettle Corn · Hot Out of the Oven0.1%, 1.6% and 2%. Low enough that a white lotion stays white for a normal shelf life with no stabiliser at all. The fritter is effectively vanillin-free.

Plan for cream2 AM Doughnut · Straight from the Pint · Dark Strawberry Truffle3.6%, 7% and ~9%. Expect a warm drift within weeks. A Vanilla Stabilizer slows it; a cream colourway hides it.

Commit to colourOne More Slice19.2%. Nothing keeps this white. Build it in caramel, cocoa or deep red from the start and the discoloration stops being a problem.

Before you batch

Vanilla content drives the colour risk. Flashpoint drives when you can add it to a hot base — and two of these sit well below the others.

Oil	Vanilla	Flashpoint	CP Soap	Candles
Glazed Apple Fritter	0.1%	200 °F / 93 °C	Yes	Not rated
Salted Kettle Corn	1.6%	200 °F / 93 °C	No	Not rated
Hot Out of the Oven	2%	200 °F / 93 °C	Yes	Not rated
2 AM Doughnut	3.6%	200 °F / 93 °C	Yes	Yes
Straight from the Pint	7%	200 °F / 93 °C	Yes	Not rated
Dark Strawberry Truffle	~9%	162 °F / 72 °C	No	Yes
One More Slice	19.2%	147 °F / 64 °C	Yes	Yes

Watch the flashpoint on two of these. One More Slice at 147 °F and Dark Strawberry Truffle at 162 °F both sit well below the rest of the collection. Awkwardly, they are also two of the three oils here rated for candles, and wax is commonly poured between 135 and 185 °F — right across both figures. If you are pouring either into wax or into melt and pour, add the fragrance at the bottom of your temperature range and measure it with a thermometer rather than estimating. The other five have a comfortable 200 °F margin. Fragrance load is set by the base rather than by the oil — see the full reference table for all 86 of ours.