The summer of scents

Fragrance is having its biggest year in a decade, and it's happening for two reasons at once. Brands have realized scent builds loyalty, so everyone from Bottega to Rare Beauty is racing to own a signature scent. And a handful of newer brands are solving the actual hard problem underneath all of it: how do you sell something online when the whole point of it is a sense a screen can't carry. 

Let’s get into it.

Loyalty, bottled

The personal care fragrance market hit $58.9 billion in 2025. Unilever put €100 million behind scent innovation. Scent loyalty is emotional in a way performance loyalty never gets to be. Reformulate a serum and nobody notices but change a signature scent and you lose the whole relationship.

In recent news:

• Estée Lauder launches Glimmer on August 6. 

• Zendaya just became the face of Prada's Paradoxe. 

• Kylie Cosmetics leads with mood in her new perfume launch.

• Rare Beauty perfume launching August 7. 

• Bottega’s first fragrance collection takes inspiration from its Venetian origins.

• Byredo launched a car diffuser.

Selling scent without the smell

Fragrance is among the hardest categories to sell online for an obvious reason: the sense it depends on doesn't travel through a screen. Most fragrance sites compensate with static bottle shots and copy like "notes of rose, oud, amber," which means nothing to a first-time shopper. Lore is building around video and sound instead, using them as a stand-in for scent memory.

A persistent "Now Playing" module sits in the corner of the site, borrowing music-player language on purpose, signaling this is an ongoing experience rather than a static page.

Cereal milk is the clearest proof of concept. A notes list can't convey "soft, milky, addictive," but a spoon clinking against a bowl can. The ASMR audio on the PDP is what does the translating.

One scent. One world. Every season.

Ffern sells a fully realized world, built with astonishing care around a single bottle and only released four times a year. The mechanics look almost restrictive on paper: join a waitlist called "the ledger," hand over your card before you've smelled a single note, then wait for the season to turn. That's the opposite of every conversion playbook in ecommerce, where the whole budget goes toward removing friction.

Worldbuilding is the actual differentiation. Short documentaries, a podcast called "As the Season Turns," collaborations with artists, all folded into a single seasonal mythology. 

Summer '26 is "Green Knight," and the next release is in 54 days (with a full waitlist).

What if you could smell a color

Sunniesface is running its own version of the same bet, just through color instead of video or worldbuilding. Each shade is tied to a feeling rather than an ingredient list: red as the confidence of putting on lipstick, green as nature in a bottle, blue as ocean calm. Wear whichever one matches the mood you're in, not the season or the occasion.

Color is a faster shortcut to a feeling than a paragraph of ingredients ever was.
Sunniesface perfume launches August 8.

Nostalgia as strategy

Gap Beauty's first launch is a straight 90’s revival with Dream, Grass, Heaven, and Om. The campaign, "Wear What You Feel," fronted by Victoria Pedretti, treats each scent as its own distinct feeling.

Gap's own reasoning for the relaunch is that shoppers used to pick one signature scent and stay loyal to it. Now they build a fragrance wardrobe instead, reaching for a different scent depending on mood, energy, or occasion. That's the same insight Sunniesface is selling through color, just run through nostalgia instead.

What we’re watching

• Sacheu built its name on a viral lip liner and a "life proof" pitch that fits the summer heat perfectly. Its move from digitally native into Target is becoming the reference case for creator-led virality turning into durable retail distribution.

• Merit x Ritz-Carlton launched July 14, pairing a limited edition travel kit with a Ritz-Carlton keychain. A smart hospitality play, and one more reminder that Merit has quietly become the standard for gifts with purchase that feel intentional. Oh, and they have a signature perfume too, of course.

• Nomohaus makes a machine washable pet cooling mat. Pet ecommerce keeps climbing, and this is as clean an example as any of a human wellness trend translating straight into a pet product.

• Drizzy is bringing a Graza-style squeezable peanut butter bottle to the US. Simple packaging innovation, obvious appeal.

• Somewhere in the Kardashian ecosystem, a "smarter energy" drink is launching without caffeine.

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