#PerfumeTok and the Future of Fragrance: Notes from the CEW x Spate x DSM-Firmenich Panel
Last Wednesday, I joined a panel of distinguished fragrance enthusiasts and professionals for a discussion of fragrance trends and community as part of CEW’s monthly member meetup, hosted by trend forecasting company Spate.
Aside from myself, the panelists included Justin Welch and Alexandra Monet from DSM-Firmenich, Emma Vernon from The Perfume Room, and Alexandra Pauly, beauty editor at HighSnobiety and founder of pet care company, Biche. The discussion was moderated by Addison Cain, who works for Spate and writes at Inconsistent Beauty Updates.
It was my first time participating in something like this and I was definitely feeling some impostor syndrome ahead of the event (I don’t work in the fragrance industry or consider myself an “influencer”—I just write for the love of the game). It turns out the pre-performance anxiety was unwarranted; my responses were well-received. I guess if you’re obsessed with something and spend hours thinking about it every day, you can come up with something interesting to say about it!
We were given the questions for the discussion ahead of time, so I took pretty copious notes on the ones I was most keen to respond to. Here’s a recap of my remarks during the discussion:
How has #PerfumeTok changed the way people approach discovering and purchasing fragrances? What is it about the fragrance community that made it translate so well to TikTok despite fragrances being invisible (unlike makeup and skincare, whose effects you can see)?
I answered this question by describing how I’ve seen the influence of TikTok beyond the platform itself and on Substack in particular.
There are two broad areas where I think we really see TikTok’s influence on other forms of fragrance media:
Nomenclature—thinking of fragrance in terms of “compliment getting”, obsession with “performance,” especially the preoccupation with “beastmode” fragrances, etc. are downstream of TikTok. Even if you don't want to describe or engage with fragrance in those terms, it's still something that you end up addressing just because it's such a big part of the dominant narrative of how to experience scent and which fragrances are worthwhile or not.
Norms and attitudes—generosity and openness, I think, are part of the TikTok fragrance community (certainly it's less insular than earlier forms of fragrance-related social media). Concerns about, and reluctance to, “gatekeeping” are definitely part of #PerfumeTok culture that spills out into other areas. This can overstep and contribute to the death of criticism (which is a wider societal trend that definitely isn't limited to, or because of, TikTok). A lot of the sentiment about discussing fragrance critically from influencers seems to boil down to a version of “let people enjoy things” which I guess is fine if you just think of fragrance as a mode of self expression rather than a form of artistry that necessarily has criteria for assessing it.
I think TikTok has helped open up fragrance in terms of who has a voice that people pay attention to—most early fragrance bloggers were middle aged-ish women and gay men and that’s changed a lot—I don’t think we’d be seeing such exploding interest in fragrance from teen and preteen boys if they weren’t seeing people like them talking about fragrance on TikTok.
For Substack in particular, we’re seeing crossover in terms of content (people suggest fragrances to review based on what they see on TikTok, particularly on fragrance-related Substacks that have larger audiences, such as Luca Turin’s) and I think people who have a large following on TikTok are starting to use Substack as an extension of their platform (Emma Vernon for example, or Jen from Immortal Perfumes).
Substack now has a short video feature, so we’ll see what happens with that and if they’re able to eat some of TikTok’s lunch. Substack and TikTok inherently support different forms of content though—Substack is focused on long form writing so it's geared towards going deep into a topic, and usually has less immediacy than TikTok.
…and here’s what I actually said. I trimmed this down to just my remarks so I’m not posting video of the other panelists without their permission. Not sure who took this vid!
In your experience, what do niche brands offer that mainstream brands often miss?
It's interesting to examine this question in the historical context in which niche perfumery arose:
Mainstream fragrance companies used to set the parameters for innovation and creativity, but that changed in the 90s due to a number of factors (changing consumer behavior, macroeconomic trends caused by the Gulf War, the rise of focus groups and increased expenditures on marketing rather than the fragrance itself). This led to a decline in fragrance sales and a subsequent opening of space in the market, both literally and figuratively.
Since products weren't moving, the big designers looked to discounters to sell their products and suddenly there was more space in the luxury fragrance market. When this vacuum emerged in the United States, niche brands were poised to fill it. American niche brands took cues from European brands such as L'Artisan, Annick Goutal, Diptyque, Jo Malone, etc. in the early 2000s.
Since they aren’t bogged down by the massive infrastructure and need to sell at the same volume as mainstream brands, niche brands can be more nimble. The niche ideal is not looking to fill a hole in the market or chase a particular trend—generally the perception is that niche brands can be more experimental, less mass-appealing, and more focused on artistry than mainstream perfumery. Note: much of the above is cribbed from Michael Edwards’s book American Legends: The Evolution of American Fragrance.
In the present day, the conventional wisdom that there's a dividing line between niche and mainstream breaks down and I reject the notion that there is a necessary distinction between the two. The traditional view of niche is that a niche brand is defined by its market position: it only makes fragrance and its distribution is usually limited to specialty marketplaces. But, niche can include brands that are owned by big mainstream companies, or have massive private equity backing, and there is often overlap between mainstream and niche (for example, Le Labo and Frederic Malle—two brands considered stalwarts of “niche” are owned by Estée Lauder—perhaps the epitome of mainstream).
Mainstream brands are taking cues from niche perfumery now (e.g. a new YSL fragrance inspired by ink that my friend Jessica Murphy recently wrote about). But niche brands also take cues from the mainstream (e.g. Papillon's fragrances often have clear predecessors from classic mainstream fragrances—Dryad is very similar to Estée Lauder's Aliage; Salome is similar to Rochas Femme. Creed released two fragrances last year purportedly inspired by Estée Lauder’s Youth-Dew).
Many people don’t realize this, but the same perfumers work on both niche and mainstream brands (e.g. Dominique Ropion created Portrait of a Lady and Carnal Flower for Frederic Malle, but he also created Alien for Mugler and Amor Amor for Cacharel). A perfumer’s style can/will be inflected across their œuvre regardless of where a particular fragrance sits in the marketplace.
Unfortunately, the ideal that niche brands aspired to is muddled—we increasingly see trend chasing and formulas that aren't particularly innovative (how many same-y vanilla perfumes came out last year from niche brands?).
I think that the role of experimentation and personality that people expect from niche is being taken over by artisan or independent brands. With perfumery training becoming more accessible, more people are entering the space and they're unbound by briefs and marketing concerns in a way that not even most niche brands can be—indie perfumers have sort of taken up the ideal of perfume-as-art at its most pure.
What trends do you foresee shaping fragrance conversations in the next year?
The macroeconomic situation (tariffs and uncertainty about supply chains, job stability, etc). is leading to a shift in the dominant mode for engaging with fragrance and signaling status within the community. I think this is exemplified by a term that I’ve seen popping up—“denting”. Though I’m not certain, I assume this term comes from TikTok.
The typical visual associated with fragrance communities on social media is based on consumption and novelty-seeking (think: big white shelves stuffed with 100+ bottles of perfume that each have, like, 1 spray taken out of them). This type of influencer experience is often projected as the ideal to aspire to for someone who is into fragrance as a hobby.
I've started to see a lot of people talking about “denting” a favorite bottle of perfume (i.e. using a measurable amount of the fragrance and sort of showing off the empty space). As we move into more uncertain economic times, I think that this mode of engagement will grow and we'll see a shift in what conveys status in the fragrance community. “Denting” can indicate long-term engagement with a fragrance, and as such it imparts experience or expertise in a way that hyperconsumption can't. This will naturally lead to a bit longer turn around time for attention on a given fragrance or brand.
I think we'll also see a shift towards fragrances that are in the midrange price point—especially if fragrances get markedly more expensive because of tariffs, etc. There could be a bit of backlash to writers and influencers hawking $500+ fragrances if people are struggling financially.
Perhaps there will also be a push towards buying from local/indie brands—supporting local artisans rather than big foreign conglomerates. These perfume brands won't be immune from price surges in raw materials, so I don’t think they will necessarily be able to avoid raising their prices, but I think there will be more of a drive to support them from consumers.
On a separate note, I think physical locations will continue to shape the fragrance community and conversations around it. This started with articles about fragrance swaps, and brands are surely starting to take note and want to piggy back and own spaces for people to gather offline. The “perfume alley” a few blocks up Elizabeth Street is still expanding. Dossier is opening their first store, conveniently located next to Scent Bar (I've joked about this being a sign of gentrification).
There’s also lots of hype right now about the Prada cafe and many hipper/younger fashion brands are including a cafe or news stand or some other non-clothier component to their space. Fugazzi down on Canal street has a cafe now, for example. I think that unless the economy completely implodes this will spread to fragrance shops as well. Bigger niche brands are probably the most likely to adopt this model (I could totally see an Amouage cafe adjacent to its new store in Soho).
The last question for the panel was about the evolution of the “signature scent.” I have a full article about this in the works, so I will refrain from including my comments about it here. HOWEVER, I am looking to speak to people who still engage with the concept of a signature scent for my article! Do you still have a signature scent? Do you incorporate the idea of a signature scent in a non-conventional way (e.g. tying a particular scent to important events, making one major buy for the year or for a season, etc.)? Please reach out! You can DM me on Substack or email me at quinn@smellworld.net.
Overall, this was a great discussion and every panelist had interesting, poignant remarks. I encourage all my readers to seek them out. I’d love to participate in something like this again.
More soon <3
I just wrote about my scent journey today based on last week's event. I am back to a classic, L'Eau d'Issey, that reminds me of NYC in the '90s!