Our First European Launch Event
We pack up and roll out to Germany for our first event at our European Distribution Centre...
Every Car Air Freshener Ever
We launched our first hanging car air freshener way back in 2012, and they've been a mainstay of the Auto Finesse range ever since. With over half a million sold (or simply given away) in that time, we thought we'd take a look back at all of our unique designs over the years, including those rare, super-special limited editions that are fast becoming collector's items.
As you'll already know, car air fresheners are very much our thing, and what with all of ours being designed in house (not to mention infused with a whole range of specially selected scents), we've certainly produced some of the freshest and most popular finishing touches out there.
So, whether you're looking for a little nostalgia in your life, or you're a serious collector, here they are - just about every air freshener we've ever produced…
In the beginning... Aroma (Pin-up Girls) - 2012
Early 2012 saw a second round of newly developed detailing products to expand our very first range. Among these new additions was our very first car air freshener collection - Aroma air freshener.
Featuring perhaps our most classic designs, the lovely ladies - inspired by retro '50s pin-ups - have never changed over the years, and neither have the five classic scents: Clean Cotton (green), Midnight Oil (yellow), Cherry (purple), Cool Wave (blue) and Berry (red).
In a bid to offer more than a little nostalgia, we've also kept these in our shop ever since, and they're just as popular today as they were nearly a decade ago.
The Auto Finesse Mainstays
Our current car air freshener collection contains a mixture of new mainline products and popular AF classics, all of these are available to buy right now on our shop.
The Sweet Shop Collection - 2012
The original Sweet Shop Air Freshener (edged in blue) hit the shelves in late 2012, and over the years even more additions have followed, including Sherbet Pear (green), Sherbet Lemon (yellow), Tropical (orange), Coconut (teal) and Tutti Fruiti (red). Only distinguished by their colour borders, we've been proud to find our iconic 'black squares' and classic logo displayed hanging in cars all over the world. Only those with the sweetest tooths need apply for our sugar-coated (metaphorically, not literally) Sweet Shop Air Freshener!
Bubblegum Air Freshener - 2013
There's no doubt that this little number is one of our all-time best sellers, a simple design and a classic scent that will always be a big hit - after all, they don't come any more classic than bubblegum! If you're ordering our Bubblegum Air Freshener it pays to be be quick - these go out the door almost as fast as we can physically make them!
Coconut Air Freshener - 2015
It's hard to believe that it was over 6 years ago that we added this one to the range! A bona fide crowd pleaser, the Coconut Air Freshener still comes with a totally tropical scent and in teal, our official company hue.
Retro Air Fresheners - 2020
A whole new decade saw us enter the twenties, so winter 2020 was the time to launch a trio of Retro Air Fresheners that, take some of our favourite nostalgic imagery from the worlds of motorsport, product design and even architecture. But you don't need to be born in the 1940s, or drive a genuine vintage vehicle, to appreciate the Cool Wave scent of the Classic Retro Air Freshener, the Leather whiff of the Signature Retro Air Freshener or the rather satisfying Vanilla and Fig aroma of the Yesteryear Retro Air Freshener!
Aroma Car Fresheners
As much as we love to stretch our creative legs on the graphic design front, it's not just about the sights and smells of our hanging air fresheners, either. We also stock a range of four Sweet Shop inspired scents in the form of pump bottles. These are designed for the bigger jobs and engineered to instantly atomise the liquid, spreading it evenly throughout your vehicle. Our Aroma Car Freshener pumps allow you to choose from long-lasting Parma Voilets, Billberry, Candy Floss and Bubblegum fragrances.
The Limited Editions
Over the years we've also made more than a couple of strictly limited runs. You'd be surprised how many people tell us they have one or two of these stashed away for a rainy day!
Union Jack - 2015 & 2020
We came over all patriotic with this design in 2015 as a special addition to the Sweet Shop range, and infused it with one of our favourite scents to date - old skool strawberry laces. Admittedly 2020 wasn't the best year for the UK, either… or the entire world. But, lockdown or no lockdown, we were as keen as ever to show that we're a proud British brand, and that the detailing game on our shores was (and still is) as strong as it's ever been. So, we brought back the Union Jack for a limited run, and it proved just as popular as it was the first time around.
Detailers Fuel Air Freshener - 2018
The classic, but throughly new wave, AF Fuel Can from summer 2018 is still one of the most sought-after designs and we still see a few pop up here and there, such was their popularity. One that was offered in multiple colours and multiple scents, thousands of these hit the streets with a choice between Midnight Spice (orange), Fresh Breeze (teal), Gumball (blue) and Berry Crush (red). Yep, like many others, we always had a bit of a soft spot for Berry Crush!
20th Anniversary 'Frank' - 2019
As a company we celebrated the huge milestone of 20 years in the detailing business back in 2019. There could be only one way of commemorating this momentous occasion, too - a design featuring the Auto Finesse legend, and mighty mascot, that is Frank the French Bulldog. We're often asked if this is based on a real dog, and the answer is a resounding yes. You'll often find Frank at (actually under) his desk at the Auto Finesse Factory in Harlow. There's no doubt these four air fresheners are all staff favourites, mostly because of our Frank, but also because of the unique Vintage Botanical (blue), Nostalgia (teal), Classic Gentlemen (black) and Old Skool Sweet Shop (red) flavours.
The Car Wash Club - 2019
2019 saw the opening of our Detailing Academy, a one-of-a-kind facility designed by detailers for detailers. Aside from the professional training courses we offer, The Auto Finesse Detailing Academy also houses our flagship store - the only place where these strictly limited edition air fresheners were ever available. Selling out in record time, plenty of people traveled from all around the UK just to get their hands on one of these - did you visit the Academy and manage to get yours?
Worthersee Tour - 2019
It has to be said that, having something of a penchant for modified German cars, Worthersee is one of our favourite international events. And yes, we know that it's actually in Austria - we've been there many times - but the German Connection isn't anywhere near as mad as it sounds! To commemorate our biggest project fleet tour to date, we created an extra special, and rather evocative, design to give away on our 2500-mile lap of Europe. Definitely one of the most sought-after air fresheners ever.
Spring Promo Air Fresheners - 2021
We love creating classic, cool and totally unexpected designs, and we have to say that our Spring 2021 air fresheners were both unusual to look at, but reassuringly familiar none the less… what with being infused with a selection of our favourite Sweet Shop scents. They're not exactly rare these - we gave them away in their thousands!
Spooky Specials
Halloween is one of our favourite times of year, chiefly because we get to go a bit crazier than usual on the special edition products in our famous Spookctacular promotion. When it comes to the air fresheners, too. We have to say that these are some of our all-time favourites...
Pumpkin Air Freshener - 2014
The original AF Halloween air freshener landed in 2014 and came free with every single online order that year. We can still smell the amazing sweet orange scent - still one of our faves!
OG Voodoo Doll - 2015
Designed to eliminate the, ahem, evil smells, the Juicy Orange scented OG Voodoo Doll is possibly the most requested air freshener ever created. We've actually lost count of the times people have asked if we have a box of these stored away at the back of the warehouse - and we promise you that we haven't… but you never know what the future holds, right? This crazy little freshener has also spawned the odd tattoo. True story.
The AF Mummy - 2016
Our 2016 Halloween Mummy design also proved to be a big hit. There's no doubt that this is one of the rarer spooky special editions for collectors, we've even seen one or two change hands on a well-known auction site for way more than even we expected. To this day we still love this little underdog.
Voodoo Doll V2 - 2019
The AF Voodoo Doll cleaned up his act after a few years with a whole new colourway. This came with the same Juicy Orange scent as the OG, and is often known as the 'White Voodoo Doll'. Requested just as much as the Original Voodoo Doll.
Werewolf Air Freshener - 2019
An infinitely popular design from the 2019 Halloween Spooktacular was the Auto Finesse Werewolf. We're not sure if it was the sweet bubblegum scent or his cute - albeit rather hairy - little face, but this little fella was definitely one of our most loved.
Sugar Skulls - 2020
Three new designs and three new scents for 2020, and it all went a little 'Day of The Dead' here at AF HQ. Inspired by the famous Mexican festival, and complementing three special edition bottle products, these were available in some equally bonkers scents including Sandalwood and Petiole (yellow), Pumpkin Spice (orange) and Candy Apple (blue).
Zombie Pinup - 2021
Another Halloween, another of our most popular designs, ever! This year our Zombie Pinup girl featured a spine chilling toffee apple scent, which perfectly matched our limited edition Lather Toffee Apple Shampoo... that one came sporting an extra-special ghostly glow-in-the-dark label, no less.
Festive Favourites
We find that both Easter and Christmas are some of the best times to give away a lorry-load of air fresheners…
Merry Christmas - 2012
The very first of our seasonal air fresheners was a double sided snowflake design featuring our classic logo on the reverse and an Aroma-inspired pin-up lady on the front. It looks like she was just as happy as we were to be celebrating the festive season that year, too. Arguably the rarest of all AF air fresheners.
Xmas Pin-up - 2013 - 2017
Yes, it's safe to say that we love a retro-style pin-up, and Christmas 2013 brought with it this lovely lady. These were so popular we had to bring them back every Xmas for four years straight!
Original Bauble - 2014 - 2017
The very first Christmas bauble design came in 2014, and quite a few variations have followed over the years. We actually re-ran this OG design for a few years (alongside our 2013 pin-ups), because they were such a fan favourite.
Festive Frank - 2018
This was actually the first appearance from our Frank, way back in 2018, sporting a rather fetching Xmas hat and smelling of sweet vanilla. And he's been popping up on the odd occasion ever since.
Easter Eggstravaganza - 2019
Some relatively sedate designs - although the scents we're anything but! The first of our huge easter promos kicked off in 2019 with some seriously tangy flavours including Grapefruit (blue), Foam Banana (yellow) and Chocolate Orange (orange). We remember these fondly!
Xmas 'Black' Bauble - 2019
Another classic, but more realistic, Xmas bauble design was created for 2019 and while it can never be as attractive as our Frank (in our opinion, anyway), the spiced apple scent proved to be one of the best, not to mention most talked-about.
Eggstravaganza - 2020
Another classic design for Easter 2020, along with some extremely classic infusions! We were particularly keen on the blue 'Fresh Linen' version - which could be the most retro of them all, although the yellow 'Starburst' and Purple 'Wild Berries' were also up there with some of the best whiffs we've ever created.
Xmas Baubles - 2020
The Spiced Apple scent proved so popular during the Christmas before, we decided to bring it back in 2020. This time though, we also offered a festive colour to stand out in any interior.
Easter Eggs - 2021
For 2021, we really set about putting the eggs in eggstravaganza! The scents for this super trio of festive treats certainly screamed about the fun of Eastertime and, even more than that, catered for those with the dreaded Easter sweet tooth. Here we had Vanilla (yellow), Paradise Candy (pink) and Chocolate Lime (blue). Yum!
Xmas Gingerbread Man - 2021
There was more than a little 'catch me if you can' with our limited edition Gingerbread Man for Christmas 2021… which kind of explains why he was running, doesn't it? He certainly looks good enough to eat! As you'd expect this cheeky chap shook up our festive season with a lush gingerbread scent. And no, we're afraid we haven't got any more of these stashed away either… please stop asking!
Eggstravaganza - 2022
Three new designs and three new scents for 2022, when we were going all subtle, restrained an elegant with our festive freebies. Free with every order during the Easter period, we chose the stunning aromas of Clean Cotton (Blue), Vanilla (Yellow) and the ever-popular Coconut (Green).
Limited Edition Collaborations and Trade Exclusives
Over the years we've also teamed up with various other brands to offer few limited runs of AF designs, infused with one or two of their favourite scents…
AF x DMPD - 2014
One of our very first collabs, and an extra special item to celebrate 3-years in collaboration with Dutch brand DMPD.eu, thousands of these were given away with online orders and UK/European events.
AF x Sole Flavours - 99 Auto - 2017
We created this psychedelic little number in conjunction with the guys at Sole Flavours as our first collaboration way back in 2017. Only available at selected events around the country, these are certainly one of the rarest and most difficult air fresheners to get your hands on nowadays.
AF x Sole Flavours - African Sunset - 2020
African Sunset was an immensely popular aroma that was so evocative of the 1990s we just couldn't help but get busy on a custom, double sided, design especially for it. You see, the '90s is where we come from, and we have more than a few projects in the stable that are legends because of this era. This limited run blew up the socials and became one of our most popular air fresheners in just a matter of hours… it simply had to be smelled to be believed!
AF x Soul Flavours No.3 - 2020
Our third, and most recent, collaboration with Sole Flavours was put together to commemorate our epic journey to the amazing Ultrace event in Poland at the tail end of the 2020 show season. Simply known as 'No.3' we spread a huge amount of these strawberry-scented delights all around Europe on our way to and from the show.
Worldwide Trade Exclusive - Flags - 2021
What with the expansion of a huge distributor and dealer network around the world, this year our top Business Management Team decided to produce exclusive bubblegum-scented air fresheners to support the extended Auto Finesse family from each and every country. You may find that you'll need to rack up the air miles to get your hands on every one of these!
Get Fresh With Us!
So, as they say, that's the lot for now, but rest assured that we've got plenty more in the pipeline! If you're looking to add to your collection you can visit our shop, and keep an eye on the website and social channels for upcoming promotions and special designs. If you've got a special AF collection we'd also love to see it - so hit us up on Facebook and Instagram.
