Fragrance is prestige beauty’s fastest growing category and men are leading the charge.

The category, which has posted 11 percent gains year-to-date as of August, per Circana, is reaping the rewards of heightened interest from male consumers. Men’s fragrances, which comprise a third of the business overall, grew 15 percent for that time period, driven by juices and higher-priced items.

— Read more in Why Men’s Fragrances Are Outpacing Growth in Women’s at Women's Wear Daily.

The next generation of fragrance consumers has increasingly refined tastes — and strong opinions about price point. "I think [a $400 perfume is] a waste of money," says 11-year-old Sienna Rose Gaviria, who counts Sol de Janeiro, Valentino, and Ariana Grande among her current favorite brands. "If it's expensive and I like the smell, I will get it, but it depends on the price. If it's, like, $78, that's enough." She notes that her mother, Jacqueline, typically allows her to shop for a new perfume roughly every month.

— Read more in The Rise of Gen Z (and Gen Alpha) Fragrance Fandom at PopSugar.

This appears to be a worldwide trend. Scent-doused Europe — which accounted for 28 per cent of the perfume market in 2023 according to Euromonitor — has managed double-digit sales growth every year since the pandemic. In the US, where perfume has less of a day-to-day tradition, penetration has doubled.

Better still, the more expensive end of the market has been outperforming cheaper perfumes. In the US, prestige fragrance grew by 12 per cent in 2023 compared to the mass market’s 4 per cent, on Circana data.

— Read more in Perfume offers a new ‘lipstick effect’ in the luxury slowdown at Financial Times.