For over a century, Orange Gelée has captivated sunseekers with its distinctive look, feel, and scent — an icon of French Riviera luxury. To honor this milestone, Vacation® presents “100 YEARS OF GELÉE,” a month-long celebration featuring product launches, parties, and promotions.

They say all good things come to an end, but sometimes they can be revived into something new and beautiful. With that, the time is finally here! We are pleased to introduce Orange Gelée by Vacation®, the finished product born from a joint initiative between Vacation® and a panel of eleven Orange Gelée fans and modern skincare experts.  Throughout the entire journey, the Orange Gelée Advisory Board was with us every step of the way, advising on all aspects of the development process, from scent to ingredients, to SPF level, packaging design, and more. The result is St. Tropez luxury revisited in a modern SPF formula. Stunning. Now, wherever you are, you can close your eyes and imagine yourself on the shores of Côte d'Azur, soaking up the sun (safely, with Orange Gelée by Vacation®).

Making a sunscreen and figuring out its SPF can be a long and challenging process for any brand, but this specific project has its own set of nuances. After all, the Orange Gelée Revival Project is about bringing fans into the journey, which means getting their valued input at every stage– including the SPF value! There were several crucial steps to the development: We needed to seek the opinion of the Orange Gelée Advisory Board, see what other fans thought, consult with the medical community, and ensure it lined up with FDA regulations, as well as the sun safety standards set forth by the Vacation® brand.

Taylor describes the original Orange Gelée as one of her “little pleasures” and says it has been present in every important moment of her life (including when Wave was born!). “I wore it like I wear perfume,” she says. Taylor has even worn Orange Gelée in the South of France, aka its birthplace! A former entertainment journalist, Taylor has fond memories of attending Cannes, interviewing celebrities during the day, and yacht-hopping until the early morning hours. “The sun would barely be coming up, and the shopkeepers would have their handmade brooms, dusting off the dirt in front of their stores. You'd smell the espresso, the salt air, the night-blooming jasmine. The women would walk on the sand in their gowns…that was Cannes to me. And I always wore Orange Gelée, so that and those smells in the Mediterranean — it’s all tied together for me,” she says. 

Taylor describes the original Orange Gelée as one of her “little pleasures” and says it has been present in every important moment of her life (including when Wave was born!). “I wore it like I wear perfume,” she says. Taylor has even worn Orange Gelée in the South of France, aka its birthplace! A former entertainment journalist, Taylor has fond memories of attending Cannes, interviewing celebrities during the day, and yacht-hopping until the early morning hours. “The sun would barely be coming up, and the shopkeepers would have their handmade brooms, dusting off the dirt in front of their stores. You'd smell the espresso, the salt air, the night-blooming jasmine. The women would walk on the sand in their gowns…that was Cannes to me. And I always wore Orange Gelée, so that and those smells in the Mediterranean — it’s all tied together for me,” she says. 

Our vision for Orange Gelée by Vacation® was for it to be an homage to the original and inspired by its look, feel, and scent, but with a few modern changes. The formula would contain ingredients that were clean, nourishing, beneficial for skin, and based on science, including natural, plant-based butters, oils, and waxes. Interestingly, many of the Orange Gelée Advisory Board Members never cared too much about the original ingredients; everything else about the product, like its texture, was more important. The mission was clear: Our reimagined version had to be better for you, but essentially felt the same to our Board Members. It was a tricky feat.

Orange Gelée by Vacation® will officially launch on March 28! (Ooh, an Aries? Fabulous!) It will be available to purchase directly here at vacation.inc, or you can pick it up at retailers such as Ulta, Nordstrom, and Amazon.

Like many other worthy legends, Orange Gelée has endured throughout its long, illustrious, nearly century-old history. So, where does one begin when embarking on such a colossal endeavor? You must search far and wide for old tubes. It sounds daunting, but who doesn’t love a good hunt? Grab your Sherlock cap and learn what happened behind the scenes when the Vacation® staff gathered old tubes of Orange Gelée for this vital research.

Nostalgia is more than a warm, fuzzy feeling when you randomly come across an old toy you had as a kid or a movie you quoted all the lines from in high school. It’s a complex and nuanced phenomenon that has been the subject of countless studies. It’s also the basis for our project, Orange Gelée by Vacation®. Keep reading to learn more about the science of nostalgia and the memories it evokes for our Orange Gelée by Vacation® Advisory Board Members.

The first component of Orange Gelée we’re dissecting is intangible but important nonetheless. It’s the nostalgic emotions associated with the product. When we first met with the Orange Gelée by Vacation® Advisory Board Members, we wanted to understand what kinds of memories and feelings it evoked, as this would lay the groundwork for our project. We also wanted to learn what they’d hoped to see in the all-new Orange Gelée by Vacation® formula.

The storied past of Orange Gelée is quite an interesting one. For instance, did you know that it’s almost 100 years old? And that a certain French fashion designer influenced its very existence? We’re delving into the origin of tanning and the creation of our dear Orange Gelée. So, grab a refreshing Pina Colada and jump into my DeLorean as we do a little time-traveling.

Out of the thousands of sun care products that exist and have existed, Orange Gelée has always stood out from the rest. But what is it about this precious orange gel that has put fans in a chokehold for decades and inspired Vacation® to bring it back from the afterlife?

There is so much love for the original Orange Gelée out there (apparent by the tubes selling for hundreds of dollars on reseller sites). We wanted to do things right by taking old and potentially new fans through this step-by-step process. So, if you’re wondering how this whole project works, keep reading!

The Orange Gelée Advisory Board is composed of notable dermatologists, industry experts, modern beauty mavens, and Orange Gelée superfans. This mighty group has been sharing their insights on test samples while giving us advice and feedback on the formula, scent, and more.

We here at Vacation have been hard at work at what some may regard as the most exciting endeavor of the century: The Orange Gelée Revival Project. A truly comprehensive effort for the brand, this project marks the comeback of the beloved Orange Gelée sunscreen gel initially created by Bain De Soleil and discontinued, sadly, in 2019.