Although there’s certainly a subset of people who have worn the same signature scent for decades, it would be remiss to suggest the fragrance industry wasn’t influenced by trends. In fact, the fragrance world is equally as trend driven as the beauty and fashion realms. While the previous year was dominated by a resurgence of classic sweet gourmand notes like vanilla and cherry, milky and lactonic notes, neo-nostalgia that saw a 1990s scents make a comeback among Gen Z, long-lasting #beastmode fragrances courtesy of TikTok and Reddit, and—conversely—the continued popularity of clean, fresh fragrances, the top fragrance trends of 2025 are looking a little different.
The fragrance industry is thriving; it’s currently the fastest-growing sector within the beauty industry with the global fragrance market projected to grow from USD$59.4 billion in 2023 to USD$101.3 billion in 2033. According to data collated by Statista, the fragrance industry within Australia is projected to experience a growth rate of around 9.75% year-on-year from 2025 to 2029.
Bolstering that growth is an exciting slew of fragrance trends for 2025. Unlike style trends which can often seem almost unavoidable, the best thing about fragrance trends is that you can adapt them to suit your own tastes and leave the ones that don’t resonate with you behind. From the olfactory notes travelling straight from the kitchen into bottles to overarching industry moves, these are the fragrance trends we’ll be spraying straight to skin in 2025.
The 11 top fragrance trends of 2025
From reimagined classics to scent notes from the kitchen, these are the top fragrance trends to look out for in 2025.
1. Tea time
Tea notes in fragrances are far from a novel concept, with some of the most iconic fragrances spotlighting black and green tea. Bulgari Eau Parfumée Au Thé Vert and Elizabeth Arden Green Tea have been pioneering green tea in fragrances since the 1990s, while black tea can be found in scents like Creed Silver Mountain Water, L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two, Le Labo Thé Noir 29, and Jo Malone Earl Grey & Cucumber.
This year, we’re expecting to see tea notes take centre stage, with this year already seeing designer Jil Sander Black Tea take a minimalist approach to tea notes. In addition to black and green tea notes, fragrances will showcase the diversity of tea in formulations that nod to tea culture across the globe. Think Indian masala chai, Moroccan mint tea, and perhaps even smoky Russian caravan and Japanese hojicha teas.
Of course, matcha has enjoyed its time in the spotlight for some time now (Le Labo Thé Matcha 26, Maison Margiela Replica Matcha Meditation et al.; we expect to see more matcha fragrances, both as sweeter gourmand takes on matcha lattes and more pure interpretations of unadulterated matcha tea.
2. Coffee break
Joining tea in the breakroom are coffee fragrances. Rather than bitter, espresso notes, we’re expecting to see coffee scents that translate the comforting feel of the milky and lactonic fragrance trend of last year into something a little more grown up. Kayali Cafe Oud 19, which launched in 2023, is a beautiful creamy cappuccino scent while Maison Margiela Replica Coffee Break offers a cosy, slightly romanticised take on a coffee shop thanks to coffee, frothed milk, lavender, and vanilla.
For something stronger, Kilian Intoxicated ditches the milk in favour of a strong Turkish coffee spiked with spices and finished with caramelised sugar, while Montale Intense Cafe is a rose lover’s dream.
3. Smell your five a day
Gourmands were a key trend last year, with the fragrance category primarily dominated by sweeter variants like Kayali Vanilla 28, Sabrina Carpenter Cherry Baby, By Rosie Jane Dulce, and Kilian Paris Angels Share. However, there was an emerging trend of vegetal fragrances—we first covered this in 2023—with the likes of Officine Buly, D.S. & Durga, and Maison Francis Kurkdjian exploring notes like tomatoes (yes yes, technically a fruit), basil, parsley, coriander, cucumber, and beetroot.
A key fragrance trend for 2025, we expect to see more brands delve into vegetal gourmands this year, incorporating and heroing notes like rosemary, olives, fennel, capsicum, and ginger in their releases.
4. Round out the meal with some rice
If vegetables alone aren’t satiating your olfactory appetite, rice fragrances are also on the menu. Rice notes emerged a couple of years ago in fragrances like Diptyque Le Papier and D’Annam White Rice, both of which utilise white rice to create soft, comforting scents.
A primary component in the traditional diets of several cultures, steamed white rice is a familiar scent in many households, tapping into the elements of nostalgia and memories that makes fragrance so powerful. White rice accords have a clean, purity that lends them to skin scents, working well when combined with musks, white florals, sandalwood, and blonde woods. They cater to those with a penchant for clean skin scents while offering a welcome alternative to the typical musk and iris notes that dominate the category.
5. …(stone) fruit for dessert, anyone?
Cherry perfumes dominated 2024 in a big way, with releases like The 7 Virtues Cherry Ambition, BDK Parfums Rouge Smoking Extrait, and Tom Ford Lost Cherry among the most talked about scents of the year. In 2025, stone fruits are staying in the limelight (plumlight?), with the focus shifting from cherry to fruits like peaches, nectarines, apricots, and plums. Glossier You Rêve sees plum butter hold court alongside toasted almond and buttercream, making for a scent that’s undeniably sweet without being overly saccharine or syrupy. Elsewhere, Victoria Beckham Reverie 21:50 offers a mature take on plum, pairing the stone fruit with tobacco leaves, vanilla, and cedarwood in a dark, sexy date night fragrance.
Tom Ford Bitter Peach is one of the most popular sweet yet sensual boozy peach fragrances, however Dries Van Noten Fleur du Mal offers a unique take on the stone fruit, thanks to its suede note that lends it a vintage feel.
6. Rose, by its own name
Moving out of the kitchen and into the garden, rose fragrances are set to make a comeback. While florals never exited the fragrance realm, it’s been a while since we’ve had a hit where they were the main event. However, 2024 saw rose fragrances like Parfums de Marly Delina and Penhaligon’s Elisabethan Rose enjoy renewed popularity across Reddit and TikTok.
Historically, rose fragrances have been dismissed as powdery and too ‘mature’. However, just a month into 2025 and we’ve already seen two key launches with rose as the star of the show; Jo Malone London Taif Rose and Tom Ford Rose Exposed. Both interpret rose in new, fresh ways. Taif Rose opts for a rich, sensual interpretation of the classic floral, pairing a rose native to Saudi Arabia with coffee, amber, and oud. Meanwhile, Tom Ford teams a bright, slightly soapy rose (courtesy of a rose-on-rose distillation of rose absolute and rose water extract) with pink pepper and leather. This year, fragrances will explore the multifaceted nature of rose, playing into the nuances of its green stems and lush leaves while pairing it with unexpected notes like leather and tobacco.
7. Bye bye #beastmode, hello nuance
If you’ve walked past an adolescent male and been knocked out by a lethal cloud of cologne, you’ve experienced #beastmode and may be entitled to financial compensation. Kidding. However, across both Reddit and TikTok, the notion that the further a fragrance projects and the longer it lasts, the better it is continues to prevail. For that reason, fragrances like Dior Sauvage Elixir, Matiere Premiere Crystal Saffron, Mancera Red Tobacco, and Amouage Interlude Man have gained recognition for their ‘nuclear’ projection (no doubt bolstered by the liberal approach many Redditors and TikTokers seem to take to spraying).
This year, the fragrance industry will simultaneously be moving beyond #beastmode and leaning into it. While most eau de parfums have a perfume oil concentration 15% to 20%, extrait de parfums take things a step further with a concentration of 20% to 40%. We’ll likely be seeing fragrance lovers graduate from eau de parfums to extrait de parfums in pursuit of the highest sillage and longevity; hopefully, they’ll learn to take it down a notch when it comes to application. Maison Crivelli, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, and Byredo all have extrait de parfums in their lineup (the latter’s Tobacco Mandarin has long been a favourite of ours).
On the other hand (or wrist, as the case may be), we’ll likely be seeing consumers take a more nuanced approach to fragrance application in the form of scent layering. Brands and fragrance houses will respond to this by releasing their most popular scents in the form of body lotions, hand creams, and hair fragrance mists (these will be huge), allowing wearers to maximise the longevity of their fragrance without literally dousing themselves in eau—or extrait—de parfum. Body products, hair mist, and body mists also come at a lower price point than conventional eau de parfums (and even eau de toilettes), making for a more accessible price point for younger consumers to enter the market.
8. Gen Alpha enters the chat
Speaking of younger consumers, we’ve all seen (and smelt) the influx of body sprays and mists that have entered the market, with teens and tweens alike rapidly embracing Sol De Janeiro’s range of sweet, gourmand scents. For millennials and Gen Zs, it’s a nostalgic throwback to ye ole Impulse and Lynx days, however for Gen Alpha it marks their first foray into the fragrance world. The beauty industry has already seen a rise in skincare brands specifically catering to teens and tweens, with the fragrance industry poised to experience the same. Expect to see pastel packaging with neotenous silhouettes hitting shelves this year.
9. Fashion brands will enter the fine fragrance conversation
Fashion houses coming out with designer fragrances is nothing new. After all, for most luxury fashion houses the fragrance category represents the most accessible one to consumers. However, in 2025 the difference is that fashion houses will be focused on establishing themselves as purveyors of fine fragrance. Here, the goal is not to sell as many mass market scents as possible, but establish themselves as viable competitors in the niche fragrance arena.
Rabanne (formerly Paco Rabanne) might be best known for its bestselling One Million fragrance, however last year the French luxury fashion house released an octet of fine fragrances. It wasn’t the only major fashion house to do so, with Balmain, Bottega Veneta, and Fendi all launching fine fragrance collections. This year, Jil Sander has done the same, with the designer’s Olfactory Series 1 collection featuring six scents that translate her minimalist aesthetic into fragrance form with scents that centre around a single note.
10. Neo-vintage revival
Last year saw Gen Z ‘discover’ fragrances from the 1990s, resulting in a resurgence of scents like Joop! Homme and Calvin Klein Eternity for Men among younger consumers. This year, Gen Z will continue to look to the past, delving further into the olfactory archives to new (old) classics. Formerly dismissed as “old lady perfumes,” vintage fragrances such as Yves Saint Laurent Paris, Chanel No. 5, and even Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds will be on the radar of young people.
Fragrance brands will respond by offering neo-vintage scents; a modern take on classic fragrances. Coty’s Infiniment collection makes use of molecular aura, a patent-pending technology that controls the release of a formula to improve the longevity of olfactory notes on the skin. Coty uses this technology in Aristo Chypre, a fragrance that references Chypre de Coty, a vintage scent released in 1917 which became the first modern chypre.
It’s not only heritage brands that are referencing vintage fragrances, with contemporary fragrance houses proving you don’t need a hefty olfactory archive to make a good neo-vintage scent. London niche perfume Thameen Not Telling references notable fragrances from the 1980s, while beauty brand Merit’s first foray into fragrance, Retrospect, pays homage to the beauty and depth of vintage fragrance in both its notes and approach to composition. Merit Retrospect uses classic notes like aldehydes and iris, with a dry down of musk, ambrette, and moss that’s reminiscent of classic fragrances. It’s designed to mirror the complex evolution of old-school fragrances rather than the linear scent profile of many contemporary scents.
11. Functional fragrances will evolve into mood-altering and notalgia-inducing fragrances
The inextricable connection between scent and our memories and emotions has long been recognised, with much of this attributed to the unique way our brain processes smell. Differing from the other senses—sight, touch, hearing, and taste—scent enters the brain through the frontal cortex and bypasses the thalamus, making a beeline for the brain’s olfactory bulbs; with this part of the brain directly connected to the limbic system, which is responsible for processing memories and emotions.
The somewhat iffy functional fragrance space has been exploring this connection by marketing fragrances as wellness products, using the principles of aromachology to cultivate a desired emotional state. While evidence-based scientific research is lacking in this space, it hasn’t stopped brands from entering the game. Supplement brand The Nue Co was one of the first to pioneer functional fragrances, while Vyrao has made waves with its ‘high vibration’ approach to fragrance, incorporating plant and flower essences into its formulas.
Charlotte Tilbury also entered the chat last year with its ‘emotion-enhancing’ fragrance collection, which the brand’s eponymous founder claims to have “bottled the frequencies of love, happiness, seduction, serenity, energy and empowerment so that everyone, everywhere can spray on their dreams.”
Mood-boosting scents will continue to be a key fragrance trend for 2025, however the marketing gaff surrounding them will be toned down. Major fragrance development companies Givaudan and International Flavor & Fragrances (IFF) have both invested in technologies that determine whether a fragrance is likely to cultivate the mood it’s trying to create.
The functional fragrance category may take on a different form for older consumers. Research has shown that odour-induced memories can be beneficial in lowering stress and improving the psychological and physiological state of older consumers, with fragrance brands able to target Baby Boomers and the oft-neglected Gen X through scents that recall specific memories. Givaudan’s charitable division distributed Smell & Tell board games to care homes in the UK, with the game designed to promote connection and conservation through the memories evoked by different scents.
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Words by Theo Rosen & T. Angel
