Our most delicious colour has arrived!
She's the twelfth colour to join the Mustard rainbow, bringing us to the perfect baker's dozen – and what baker would be caught without Butter?
In our last blog, we shared some insights into the process of making this perfectly mellow yellow shade. But, you may be wondering, what about the step before that? How do we actually decide on Butter? We're only too happy to dish.
Team Mustard ready for a Buttery bash at Sean's Bondi
On a rainy Monday afternoon last week, we made our way to the iconic Sean's in Bondi to give Butter the warm welcome she deserved. In an omen that felt too good to be true, as we arrived, the clouds parted to give our newest colour a perfectly sunny celebration! Over a decadent Butter-inspired menu, we gave our guests some insights into the making of Butter.
call us colour crazy
We are lucky that the Mustard community is just as passionate about colour as we are. They care, they fall head over heels for a colour or an aesthetic or, as our Gen Z team members love to say, a 'vibe.' So, we've had some very vocal requests over the years, everything from hot pink to neons, dark purple, metallics, or even for Mustard to match the Pantone colour of the year. (Spoiler alert – creating a new locker colour is a long, complex process, by the time we brought out this year's Pantone colour, next year's would already have been revealed!)
trend-spotting
Becca put it best at our Butter launch event when she said "Over the years we've seen the trends emerge and somehow have been able to find the perfect shade at just the right time. In the early days Blush, our take on millennial pink, became our stand-out best seller. Then Sage absolutely shone and has gone from strength to strength, Lilac has been a lovely addition as pastels washed over our feeds and then we went bold with our beautiful Poppy red named after Jess's daughter, bringing an unexpected pop of red to our rainbow."
"So here we are, placing our bets on the colour that will be flowing from drink bottles to handbags and onto bedroom walls and into living rooms this year. Trends, however, are only one part of our decision-making process."
baking Butter
Becca told our launch party guests, "We needed a dirty, pastel yellow that sits just right next to Mustard, giving the two yellows room to shine. But also a yellow that works gorgeously with each of our existing range of pastels, and also a yellow that looks good in a kid's room but is elegant and deep enough to work in a grown-up dining room. And also a yellow that can compete with our bright and bold Poppy and Navy. And also a yellow that feels beautiful and warm but doesn't feel weird next our cooler tones. So you see, it was going to be easy!"
Carlotta + Gee linens, September Studio florals, Nata Concept Store salted Butter candles and a beautifully Buttery Sean's menu, what a treat!
getting it just right
It may have been a tall order, but we were up for the challenge. After visiting our powder-coating factory (Becca said, "Picture Charlie in Willy Wonka's factory and times the excitement levels by 10!"), we had narrowed it down to one swatch. It was close, but not quite there yet.
"We watched the team measure out spoonfuls of colourful ingredients," Becca explained, "tiny bits of red, a touch of black and plenty of scarily bright yellow. They whizz up the powder, send it through a machine that squeezes out a tube of yellow, like toothpaste. It dries, is pressed into a flat crispy sheet, then crumbled up before being ground into powder form again. Then the mixture is sprayed onto a small swatch in a mini booth by hand, it's baked in an oven then finally, once cool enough to touch, the colour is revealed. We rush it outside into the light, compare it with all our other swatches and our hearts sink when we realise we will have to ask them to do it all again but a teeny tiny bit darker!"
But like all things Mustard, it was worth perfecting our baby Butter. "By the end of the week we had our Butter. We vowed never to look back at the old swatches again, she was just right!"
Just like Goldilocks said.
