Vacation Is Reviving the Iconic Ban de Soleil Orange Gelèe Tanning Gel

Fans have been begging for the cult beauty product's return since it was pulled from shelves in 2019.

Some things will always make me think of my grandma, like lime green, Westie dogs, and buttery chardonnay. Mostly, though, I remember her scent. There's the Kiehl's Musk she always wore, the burnt sugar of her signature pecans, the faintest hint of Virginia Slims, and most importantly, Ban De Soleil Orange Gelèe.

When we visited her every summer in Vermont, she would slather the tanning gel on by the pool, and I was always fascinated by the little aluminum tube. It smelled incredible, of course—like orange with a hint of sunscreen and chemicals—and felt very old-fashioned (which it was, considering the SPF 4 and the fact that its popularity peaked in the '80s). When my grammy died, I got a tube to remember her by—I never used it, just smelled it every now and again and was transported back to summers by the pool. I recently went to repurchase it and was shocked to see that the product was pulled from shelves for good in 2019.

I'm not the only one missing the iconic gel. Tubes go for as much as $400 on eBay, and fans around the world have attempted to make their own recreations in their kitchens. One even went so far as to create a Change.org petition to bring back the product, and it currently has 10,900 signatures and counting. Luckily, it looks like our prayers have been answered. While the original manufacturer will not make Orange Gelèe again, the delightfully kitschy 80s-inspired suncare brand Vacation is stepping up to the plate.

With products like whipped cream-inspired foam sunscreen and baby oil with actual sun protection, along with a pitch-perfect retro aesthetic, Vacation was the only possible option to carry on Orange Gelèe's legacy. In fact, the brand has received countless customer requests to bring back the product, and it's doing just that with the Orange Gelee Revival Project. The final product won't be on shelves until summer 2024, but given the product's loyal fanbase, the brand wanted to include fans as much as possible in re-creating the beloved formula, including a panel of consultants and a website for real-time updates on the formulation.

Ahead, Dakota Green, Founding Partner of Vacation Inc., gives us all the exclusive details on the project.

The Inspiration

For the unfamiliar, the original Ban de Soleil Orange Gellèe was created in 1925 to help get a St. Tropez tan and really boomed in popularity in the '70s and '80s. Originally, the product had no actual sun protection, but eventually, the range expanded from SPF 4 to SPF 30. However, most fans loved it for the signature citrus fragrance—which, for those mourning its loss, smells like childhood—and silky feel. The product bounced around from parent company to parent company before landing at Bayer, who discontinued it in 2019.

"Our mission at Vacation is to create leisure-enhancing' sunscreen that people look forward to applying and wearing," Green tells Byrdie of the brand's mission to revive it. "Orange Gelée is a product that absolutely embodies the unique sense of joy that we aim to create with all of our sunscreens."

Green adds, "When you talk to lifelong fans of the product, there is an instant twinkle in their eye as they recall its indulgent feel and transportative scent. Add to this the influx of messages from our customers demanding that we bring it back—it was obvious that the iconic product was discontinued before its time! It felt kismet and like the right sort of thing for us to get behind."

The brand isn't just simply copying the OG formula, however, but instead revisiting and recreating Orange Gelée for a current consumer—keeping the look, feel, and, of course, fragrance as close to the original as possible. Green is tight-lipped on exactly what that will look like (to be fair, the process is still underway) but promises that we can expect "an elegant, modern take on a classic formula." Personally, I'm hoping for a higher SPF so I can use it as my main source of sun protection.

The Process

"To kick this process off, we first purchased as many tubes of the original as we could—we had our team scouring eBay, bidding hundreds of dollars for expired and even half-used tubes of the original," says Green. Then, the brand sent the tubes to its chemist, who started finding alternatives for some ingredients that didn't fit the brand's standards (like mineral oil, petrolatum, and paraffin, to name a few) and then started creating the first iterations of possible formulas.

Next, the Vacation team put together the Orange Gelée Advisory Committee, a panel of lifelong fans—including one who makes her own dupes and one who makes photo art prints of the original packaging—to weigh in on the final result. "We kicked off with in-depth sessions with each panelist, exploring their personal connection with and memories of Orange Gelée: this helped guide the project as a whole, and we’ve since been working with the panel on the actual formulation process," explains Green. "They’ve been testing lab samples to determine the optimal color, texture, fragrance, application experience, wearability, and more—all trying to find 'the one.'"

"One of the biggest challenges with this project is that it’s similar to developing a scent: it is such a subjective and personal thing," he adds. "There is no one objective way to recreate the formula perfectly because everyone draws from their personal memories of it, and memories are so subjective and difficult to describe in universal terms. So our ambition was to create a formula that everyone on our panel was excited about!"

If you're as invested in this product as I am, you're in luck—starting November 30, you can sign up at orangegelee.com for regular updates on the revival process. You'll also have access to long-form articles on the history of the product, in-depth explanations of the brand's formulation decisions, and early access to purchase the final product in 2024.

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Read the original article on Byrdie.