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Sometimes a product or trend reaches such wild levels of obsession and pandemonium that even attempting to introduce it as popular feels borderline embarrassing. But just for fun, let’s give it a go. The fragrance category is enjoying quite the boom of late. Perfume and cologne are leading the entire beauty category in terms of market growth—ahead of makeup, hair care and skincare. By 2030, the global fragrance market is expected to hit nearly $102 billion in revenue, a 17.7 percent growth from the $86.5 billion it’s projected to bring in this year. Last year alone, over 3,000 new fragrances entered the global market. On TikTok, there are over three million videos tagged #PerfumeTikTok. [tik-tok-video url=”https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSSkdNoEo/” /] Like I said, fragrance is really popular right now. Fashion brands are entering (or re-entering) the category at record rates, too. Fendi, Balmain and Bottega Veneta all launched collections of scents last year. COS’s first foray into perfumery came just this past April, and Jil Sander’s Olfactory Series launched in January. The list goes on and on. Even beauty brands that don’t typically dabble in fragrance are getting in on the fun. This year, skincare brands like U Beauty launched their first-ever scents, as did hair-care giant Moroccanoil and beloved hand-sanitizer brand Touchland. And considering beauty consumers’ insatiable appetite for perfumes, colognes and mists—why not? Fan requests to make Moroccanoil’s iconic Treatment Original scent into a perfume have “just been constant” since the product was introduced in 2008, says the brand’s co-founder Carmen Tal at the fragrance launch in NYC. One of those IYKYK scents, Moroccanoil’s new L’Originale Eau de Parfum is a familiar blend of citrus, violet, camellia, velvet woods, vanilla, white sandalwood and spicy amber. It’s inspired by the Mediterranean and, of course, smells just like the argan-oil-infused hair treatment that put the brand on the map. “This innovation was sparked by listening to our biggest, most fervent fans around the globe through word of mouth and on social media,” says Tal. “It was a challenge, because we wanted to mimic the original fragrance as much as possible, but because an eau de parfum’s formula is different from that of a hair oil, with alcohol and other ingredients involved, we needed to work really closely with the perfume makers. We had a couple of different perfumers present their interpretations, and then we started playing and going back and forth. One was too strong; another was too spicy.” [instagram-oembed url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/DGTyrLryVFi/?igsh=OTVjYjdsd2lpbXJh” /] After all, bottling up a scent that is so recognizable comes with its own unique challenges. How does a brand stay true to its roots and give loyal fans what they’ve long wanted while simultaneously inviting in new consumers who may be interested in a perfume but not necessarily in the hair treatment that inspired it? “It took us four years to get it right,” says Tal. “I’d start to get insecure and think, ‘Maybe I’m just too used to the original smell.’ But I followed my intuition about what was the ‘right’ one.” And so L’Originale Eau de Parfum was born. For U Beauty founder Tina Chen Craig, launching a perfume has been in the plans for some time. When the luxury skincare brand launched in 2019, the idea to one day create a perfume was there, but Chen Craig had some other priorities to check off first, like making U Beauty a leader in luxury science-based skincare. “I launch what feels ready,” she says over a video call.
Photography COURTESY OF U BEAUTY
The brand’s first foray into scent came this year via Proem, a sparkling powerhouse of a fragrance—a blending of centifolia rose, Chinese magnolia, pink peppercorn, vetiver, rhubarb and lychee. It’s decidedly bold and feminine and unlike anything else in your fragrance wardrobe. “As this is U Beauty’s first venture into fine fragrance, it was important for the brand to do something completely different from what everyone else is doing—to establish a signature scent,” says Jérôme Epinette, the nose behind Proem. “The goal was to create a fragrance that stands out. I focused on bringing to life a sense of confidence, where the norm starts to feel boring and mundane.”
Photography COURTESY OF U BEAUTY
Indeed, rather than quietly enter the fragrance world with a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, U Beauty’s approach has been to confidently barge into the category with something that defies current trends and expectations. With Proem, Epinette and Chen Craig rejected mega-popular notes like santal and vanilla and proclaimed that Proem is a feminine (not genderless) scent, isn’t minimal or second-skin-like and isn’t meant to be layered, thanks to its complex composition of notes. In fact, it’s an entire scent wardrobe in one bottle. “I wanted Proem to be powerful while also unique enough to stand alone and still provide a scent experience that feels new,” says Epinette. “It’s like when we launched U Beauty’s Resurfacing Compound,” says Chen Craig of the brand’s first-ever product release back in 2019. “I wanted it to be everything in one bottle.” And did the brand ever deliver: The formula features retinol, vitamin C, vitamin E, AHAs and antioxidants. “Everyone was like, ‘Science doesn’t work like that,’” she laughs. (As it turns out, it can and does. The multi-tasking formula is the brand’s bestseller.) The same can be said for Proem. “We went through over 100 different iterations of this scent,” says Chen Craig. “We approached many different fragrance houses who would ask me ‘Do you want something floral? Earthy? Gourmand? Smoky? You have to decide.’ But I said I wanted my entire life in a bottle. We’re doing away with this idea that fragrance has to be made of a hierarchical structure of top, heart and base notes. Instead, we want to be unpredictable.”
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Thanks to the subjectivity of fragrance, these beauty brands are proving that scent is really anyone’s game. [content_module id=”1″] This article first appeared in FASHION’s Summer 2025 issue. Find out more here. Continue Reading
