“It’s only just getting started,” declared Eauso Vert co-founder Faye Harris of the fragrance boom during a recent Beauty Independent In Conversation webinar on the fragrance category.
Harris’s optimism about fragrance comes after a 2024 in which, according to market research firm Circana, it was the fastest-growing beauty category in both prestige and mass, where dollars were up 12% and 9%, respectively. In prestige, it became the second-largest category after makeup, accounting for 28% of sales. Following the “fraghead” movement on TikTok, where fragrance-related terms have been viewed billions and billions of times, boys buying expensive colognes entered the fragrance chat last year.
Andrea Lisbona, founder and CEO of Touchland, a brand that’s become a status symbol for teens that saw its revenues skyrocket from $15.9 million in 2022 to over $100 million in 2024, suggests young “smellmaxxers” aren’t abandoning their adoration of scents anytime soon. Lisbona was joined by Harris’s Eauso Vert co-founder Tanya Gonzalez and Maesa chief brand officer Oshiya Savur for the webinar.
“We’re discovering fragrance earlier and earlier on. I don’t think I was an expert as I see nowadays younger generations being so enthusiastic about learning about fragrance, so it is here to stay,” says Lisbona. “Every industry will go in cycles because it is expected, but there is that real connection, emotion and self-expression, and people now have access to more information, and there’s a lot of brands and opportunities.”
But to retain fickle consumers in a fragrance arena that’s experienced a lot of new fragrances from brands as different as luxury skincare brand U Beauty and in-demand fashion brand LoveShackFancy, fragrance companies have to stay ahead of the curve—they’re doing it by experimenting with artificial intelligence, pushing into various product formats, from oils to solid perfumes, striking compelling collaborations and cultivating close ties to their communities.
The Business Of Fragrance
Fragrance is particularly seasonal and occasion-oriented. Savur mentioned that nearly 40% of fragrance sales occur in the fourth quarter. She also divulged that, for the most part, fragrance brand sales follow the 80/20 rule, meaning that approximately 80% of their sales are driven by 20% of their products.
The fragrance category has been transformed by e-commerce, which not too long ago was considered merely a vehicle for replenishments in a category rooted in smell for discovery. TikTok, the pandemic’s e-commerce explosion and the rise of cheaper perfume formats—in January, Fine’ry released mini body mists priced at $8.99—has changed the online game for perfume. Still, with e-commerce representing just about 15% of the market, according to market research firm Statista, fragrance remains under penetrated in e-commerce in a beauty industry where about 40% of sales are conducted online.
“Fragrance had less than 10% digital penetration [before COVID],” said Savur. “You could not get the retailers to invest and TikTok was not a thing, but then you had this undercurrent of affordable price points and formats starting to emerge. Body mists have always been there, but the whole notion of TikTok creating this impulse behavior…led to this amazing boom in fragrances.”
Per Circana data in 2023, gen Z consumers wear fragrance at least three times a week and are more likely than consumers from other generations to purchase fragrance for themselves multiple times per year. The buying habits conform to their tendency to have a wardrobe of scents that they switch between rather than sticking to a signature scent for a prolonged period.
“Back in the day, people might have chosen their signature fragrance, and that was their identity,” said Harris. “People are building out their scent wardrobes now and wearing different fragrances based on moods. PerfumeTok has gone wild with people sharing their ideas and combinations together.”
Fragrance Disruptors
Fragrance-loving communities have been powering Eauso Vert’s awareness online. The brand, which Harris and Gonzalez, both former influencer marketers at Too Faced, launched in 2022 and landed at Bergdorf Goodman after online buzz for it caught the retailer’s attention. Additionally, it’s now available at Moda Operandi, FWRD and about 15 boutiques around the country. The brand is being selective about the retailers it works with moving forward.
“We sit in a very specific space that we would consider niche independent perfumery,” said Gonzalez. “So, for us, we don’t want to be everywhere. I think we’re really trying to build something that we feel is authentic to us.”
In the mass market, Savur describes a perfume category that was stale and riddled with retail fear due to theft prior to the latest fragrance surge. Today, mass-market retailers are getting into it with brands like Fine’ry and Dossier that offer affordable points of entry into fragrance for shoppers who may not be able to pay for fancy fragrances at niche fragrance boutiques or department stores.
Started in 2023, Fine’ry has rocked the fragrance category at mass retail with its savvy marketing and digital expertise. The brand is a Target exclusive comprised of perfumes, body mists and scented candles priced from $10.99 to $36.99.
Timed with the launch of a men’s line last year, it partnered with Roblox to reach gamers, and it taps generative AI for its branded content at a fraction of the cost of traditional photography. “We’ve cracked open the category in mass market,” said Savur of Fine’ry, adding, “We want this brand to be a disruptor, and so we went into all the places where disruption and fragrances hadn’t happened. Online shopping, for instance, social media, for instance, content…We said digital experiences is how we are going to build the superpower of this brand as it’s coming to life.”
Discussing Roblox, she continued, “Fragrances haven’t quite tapped into gaming in a big way. So for us, doing the experiments on Roblox and bringing that tech-first mentality into fragrances has been a very interesting way to go to market. Tens of thousands of users jump right into it and we are barely a 2-year-old brand.”
Touchland knows a thing or two about challenging the status quo. Launched in the United States in 2018, the brand took hand sanitizers premium by marrying scents developed with perfume ingredient supplier Givaudan, skincare ingredients like niacinamide and hyaluronic acid, and sleek packaging inspired by Apple. Instead of pharmacies and supermarkets, it opted for prestige distribution by targeting prestige retailers like Sephora, Bloomingdale’s and Ulta Beauty.
Touchland focuses on three areas when assessing whether it should embark on a new product category: design, skincare ingredients and fragrance. Last month, it expanded its selection to $20 hair and body fragrance mists incorporating scent technologies intended to eliminate odors and lift a user’s mood.
“Fragrance drives usage,” said Lisbona. “It is very important if you want to be successful in the fragrance world to have a fragrance DNA that makes you unique. In the case of Touchland, it’s fragrance for people that do not like fragrance.”
