Selling a perfume on TikTok is like trying to describe the color blue on the phone. And yet, it is working spectacularly. This platform already represents 45% of all fragrance purchases driven by social networks in the United States, a phenomenon that defies all traditional marketing logic. Content creators have developed a new sensory lexicon: they do not talk about molecules but “vibrations,” they do not describe chords but “auras.” It is a kinesthetic language where colors have smells and emotions have top notes. Brands have responded with strategies that border on the absurd, but they work. Glossier sent locked boxes to influencers, releasing the code only on launch day. Noyz created anonymous phone lines where customers could leave emotional messages. TikTok has allowed more people to try different perfumes, introducing the world of perfumery and its knowledge to much broader audiences and encouraging new ways of perceiving aromas. This is a novel digital promotion strategy for a product whose essence, curiously, cannot be experienced through a screen. The phenomenon has generated an unusual practice: the blind buy or blind purchase of fragrances. Buy for 200 euros a product that you are not going to try beforehand and that, to make matters worse, you cannot return if you don’t like it. What began as a necessity during the pandemic—when store closures forced consumers to buy fragrances without smelling them first—has become a normalized practice for Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012). The behavior is based on the trust placed in scent twins (olfactory twins), influencers whose olfactory taste coincides with that of the buyer, and in this new synesthetic language that describes perfumes through emotions instead of technical notes. We are facing a fascinating paradox: the most digital generation in history has chosen to become obsessed with the only luxury product that cannot be experienced through a screen. The hashtag #PerfumeTok has accumulated 2.3 billion views, while #perfume reaches 12 billion. Thousands of creators describe the indescribable with an emotional vocabulary: they do not speak of “notes of bergamot”, but of “energy of a mysterious girl in a Parisian library”; They don’t mention vetiver, but rather «the vibe of a CEO meditating at dawn.» They have transformed perfume from a sensory product into viral content. The global market responds with dizzying numbers. Niche perfumery will reach $10.67 billion in 2035, growing at a rate of 14.52% annually, more than double that of traditional luxury. With 9,191 fragrances launched in 2024 compared to 705 in 2000, we are facing an unprecedented creative explosion. Spain is no stranger to this revolution. Puig acquired the Swedish Byredo for $1 billion in 2023, while traditional perfume shops in Barcelona and Madrid see young people who previously ignored their shop windows now asking about Nasomatto or Orange Free State. Spanish Generation Z looks for beast mode fragrances—intense, long-lasting, impossible to ignore—with notes of leather, balms, oud and oriental woods. It is not a generational whim; It is a total reconfiguration of how we understand luxury, identity and youth purchasing power. But perhaps the most surprising fact is this: annual spending on fragrances among teenage boys grew by 44% in 2024. Especially boys who previously settled for deodorant as perfume are now debating the top notes of Tom Ford’s latest elixir. 73% of Gen Z wear fragrance at least three times a week, and this includes a young male segment that was previously completely left out of the market. Male influencers on TikTok—many of them specialists in beast mode fragrances—have democratized a territory that traditionally belonged to the female sphere. This is, without a doubt, one of the most innovative changes in the phenomenon. Unlike previous generations that maintained a “signature fragrance,” generation Z builds “fragrance wardrobes,” selecting different perfumes depending on the occasion, mood or outfit. It is no coincidence that brands like Byredo see how Mojave Ghost contributes significantly to that 45% of fragrance sales on social networks. Perfume has ceased to be a static element of identity and has become a fluid tool of personal expression. Meanwhile, luxury conglomerates have seen the figures and have taken out their checkbooks. Kering acquired Creed for €3.5 billion in 2023. LVMH publishes that fragrances represent a “bright spot,” with €8.4 billion in revenue from the perfume and cosmetics segment in 2024. But here arises the paradox of the niche: how do you maintain exclusivity when your owner is a corporate giant? Le Labo, owned by Estée Lauder since 2014, has seen the price of Santal 33 rise from $280 to $335 per 100 milliliters. The strategy is clear: if you cannot maintain real scarcity, at least maintain the scarcity price. The market response has been overwhelming with the product formulas: elixirs, with concentrations of 20%-40% of perfume oils compared to 15%-20% for traditional eau de parfum. Brands like Amouage don’t mess around: their Exceptional Extrait collection ranges from 40% to 56% concentration. As Amouage’s Renaud Salmon explains: «Fragrance has become very expensive. The last thing people want is to wear an expensive fragrance and not receive compliments.» Longevity and projection have become values in themselves, justifying prices that range between 300 and 600 euros. With 9,191 new fragrances launched in 2024, the market faces its own creative saturation. Differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult, prices continue to rise—with a 30% increase from pre-pandemic levels—and fakes and dupes proliferate, questioning the ethical issue of olfactory appropriation. However, 60% of consumers in developed markets prefer to invest in a high-quality fragrance rather than multiple affordable alternatives. We are facing a structural change in consumption. The most fascinating thing about this phenomenon is how this generation has transformed perfume from a product to a platform for personal expression. They don’t buy fragrances; They buy memberships to olfactory tribes, codes of liquid identity—literally—, tools for constructing the self. This generation is willing to invest in niche and luxury brands that allow them to express their authenticity and personality. In a world where authenticity has become the most valuable social currency, what can be more authentic than your own smell? Young people have understood it perfectly: in the attention economy, perfume is the last territory not colonized by the screens. It is paradoxical, yes, that a generation born with a smartphone in its hand has found its new identity battlefield in the olfactory—the most analogical, the most impossible to digitize. But perhaps that is precisely where its power lies: in being the only luxury that cannot be reduced to pixels, the only status that requires physical, sensory presence and proximity. For now, at least. Pedro Mir. Expert professor in Consumer Behavior. ISEM Fashion Business School (University of Navarra).
