What's Going on With Fragrance So Far in 2024?
I thought I’d do something a bit different this week (and it’s not what I originally planned, but expect that soon), but let’s do a little check in on what’s going on with perfume so far this year. If this is something that readers would want more of, lemme know. Also, for the time being, I’ve decided to keep Middle Notes free, but a lot of time does go into getting it together so if you are so inclined to subscribe monetarily, I’d really appreciate it.
Let’s Check in on Fragrance in 2024
On a December Longform podcast episode, Daisy Alito, the very cool co-founder of the very cool site Dirt, mentions that the site might be launching a perfume specific vertical at some point. She talks about how there’s a lot of great perfume writing happening on Fragrantica but also that writing about and experiencing perfume is kinda the antithesis of the digital world we currently live in which is why we might be seeing more interest in it. It makes sense because everyone is so burnt out from being online, to be able to experience something that can evoke all of our senses feels refreshing.
And that could really explain why Gen Z has become perfume obsessed. In February, Bloomberg did a report about how perfume sales went up in 2023 and even just in the first fiscal 2024 quarter, Coty saw its luxury fragrance (which include Marni, Marc Jacobs, and Gucci) revenue grow 25%. Circana’s 2023 Fragrance Consumer report found that buyers from 13-26 were driving an increase in sales across beauty and fragrance. CEO of InterParfums Inc., Jean Madar told Bloomberg that Gen Z sees perfume as part of their identity, not just something to appeal to other people. Personally, I think that it’s exciting that there’s this swell of interest in fragrance from a younger generation because I could almost see it as a trickle up effect on the industry, and like Alito said, more opportunities for interesting fragrance coverage.
As always, the celebrities are launching fragrances and sigh Kylie Jenner has finally put her hat into the ring. Today, Jenner launched her new fragrance Cosmic, which is described as a “sweet, warm floral, elevated scent” and has notes of jasmine, vanilla musk, red peony, cedarwood. She’s been making it for years apparently and prices start at $48. I haven’t smelled it but TikTok fragrance influencer ProfessorPerfume wasn’t impressed saying that the bottle looks like a potato (true) and as for the smell, she describes it as “nothing new.” Her review led to this artful Daily Mail headline, “Kylie Jenner's new perfume Cosmic is SAVAGED by top fragrance influencer on TikTok who calls the scent 'boring and generic' - and even compares the glass bottle to a POTATO.”
Let’s hope Bella Hadid has something more interesting in her nostrils (lol I’m sorry). She’s been teasing the launch of a beauty line Orebella with grainy videos of herself looking gorgeous and snippets of nature with the tagline “reveal your alchemy.” The line releases on May 2nd, but a trademark filing said that the line is scent focused including fragrance, hair products, candles, and other body products. I have no idea what a Bella Hadid scent would smell like but since she’s our foremost Horse Girl, I’m hoping there’s a hay note in it.
The most intriguing of recent celebrity perfumes is RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon’s foray with Hera, a collaboration with OSM Perfume. In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Monsoon described what made them want to create one. “In my own trans identity and my own gender journey, I’m constantly self-manifesting and constantly finding ways to be more myself, to find new ways to present myself to the rest of the world so that they see me and smell me the way I want them to know me,” they said. Hera, named after the “queen of gods” in Greek mythology has notes of bulgarian rose, cedarwood, dark cherry, myrrh. The first shipping which releases on March 11th is already sold out. I’m desperate to smell this. Also I want more fragrances from people with actual points of view—it’s a gorgeous story to hear how Monsoon’s trans identity inspired their fragrance.
Finally, in celeb fragrance news, I’d just like to thank YSL for bringing on Charles Melton for MYSLF.
Something I’ve become recently intrigued by that I want to try is perfume primers. Yep, exactly what you think it is. Much like a primer you use before putting foundation on your face, a perfume primer you spray on before your fragrance because it prepares your skin for the fragrance but also enhances the scent. The ones I’ve been hearing the most about are BO Nourishing Parfum Primer and Optimal Habitat Fragrance Enhancing Primer which says that it extends wear time for up to 24 hours. It’s not surprising that D.S. and Durga has had a primer for years called I Don’t Know What. If anyone is reading this who wants to send me fragrance primer to try, hit me up.
Speaking of D.S. and Durga, they just launched a new fragrance, Black Magenta, which is very intriguing with notes of pink pineapple, balkan tobacco, magenta dianthus. It sounds like it could be a lush summer scent like my Andrea Maack Solstice which I’ll be wearing all summer. They recently hosted a very chic looking party at Nine Orchard in New York for the release and many beauty writers I follow on Instagram were in attendance. Everything was appropriately color-coordinated.
Black Magenta’s pink pineapple note is even more of a fruit forward trend that we’ll be seeing moving forward into this year. I’m not sure if it’s an outgrowth of last year’s “tomato girl, strawberry girl, [whatever new fruit and/or vegetable here] girl” trend but fruit forward scents like ones with cherry, strawberry, and lychee are having a moment. Juicy fruit girl summer?
Gourmands are also big right now and have been for the last year or two. High Snobiety is doing some great perfume writing at the moment wrote a piece about why. Smelling like your favorite baked goods but elevated is something that the perfume girlies are searching for but something with a twist, like my beloved BOHO Sea Salt Caramel which has seaweed notes in it. This also might explain the interest in complex vanilla scents at the moment too which I’ve previously mentioned with Matiere Premiere’s Vanilla Powder.
Now this “trend” has no basis in research or anything, just my own instincts. When I went to the opening night of Elizabeth Renstrom’s Basenote Bitch, which runs through the end of March for any New Yorkers wanting to check it out, I was fully expecting nostalgia. When I smelled a FULL bottle of Gap Dream, I was transported back to 7th grade with frizzy hair and braces hoping that one puff from that tiny metal bottle would transform me into someone worth looking at. What I didn’t expect is for some (not all) of these fragrances to hold up as well as they did. Of course, there was excitement from the fragrance fan heavy crowd about getting to revisit some of these, but there was also excitement about wanting to rewear them in 2024 like when one woman took out from her purse a rare pink and purple combination orb of Britney Spears’ Fantasy and Midnight the oohs and awes about the treasure didn’t just extend to the packaging. Another case in point, my dear friend who came to visit went to the exhibit and met up later doused in Jessica McClintock, which smelled lovely on her, and with a light layer of the Billie Eilish fragrance underneath delectable. As we smelled her wrists over cocktails, she was determined to later buy a bottle online. Maybe we’re all still just teenagers at heart, I know I am.
Perfume Ad of the Week
Not sure about anyone else but this winter has been neverending feeling. For this week’s ad, I wanted to find something beachy, but I found something even better: Malibu Musk. It’s a fragrance that shows up in Basenote Bitch and might be finding a 2024 audience. But this 1991 commercial is perfect, palm trees, suntan lotion on noses, neon animations, glazed muscles. Yeah, the ocean appears only briefly but who cares. This ad feels like it may have influenced Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.