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When Carina Chazanas, better known as Carina Chaz, launched the fragrance brand Dedcool in 2016, she hoped to make perfume a less precious category without sacrificing luxury. Taunt, Dedcool’s first scent, launched at $90 and remains at the same price point today — in fact, all the brand’s scents are $90. When Dedcool launched, Chaz was 21 years old and had put $10,000 into the brand.
“From the inception of the brand, it was about price point,” Chaz said, “[it was about] being a young [founder] wanting to create something accessible, but wearable. I priced it at a more attainable MSRP so that all people could enjoy fragrance,” Chaz said. Before Dedcool launched at Sephora in 2022, it was sold at Barneys, where it was far less expensive than the luxury retailer’s other offerings. At the time, Chaz said, “They weren’t quite sure it would work, but ultimately, it resulted in people buying multiple fragrances.”
Nine years later, the fragrance market has exploded. Fragrance customers are also more open to experimenting and discovery. According to Circana, fragrance brands that launched in the first half of 2025 saw 44% higher sales revenue than last year’s innovations during the same time period.
And it’s been a busy year for innovation and new-to-market brands — specifically those playing in the under $100 space. When it launched in June 2024, Noyz entered Ulta Beauty with four scents priced at $85 each. It now has seven. It was created by Shaun Neff of Beach House Group, which is also behind celebrity-co-founded brands including Tracee Ellis Ross’s Pattern Beauty and Shay Mitchell’s Beis.
Noyz and Dedcool belong to a new group of brands seeking to offer alternatives to traditional luxury. For example, when Noyz launched, Neff and his team specifically wanted to offer a counterpoint to the over-the-top marketing they felt fragrance was infamous for. “To break down some of the classic expectations in this industry is fun for us,” said Malena Higuera, CEO of Noyz.
Other brands in this burgeoning class include Snif, Phlur, Boy Smells and the newest entrant, Lore. The aesthetics of these brands are appealing, cool and on-trend. They’re taking a social-first approach, and they’re not backed by a conglomerate — plus, they allow for avid fans of fragrance to get scents created by top perfumers at approachable price points. These brands paint a new picture of what a fragrance brand can be, and who it can be built for.
“The type of highly unique, expressive scents we create are often at a price point that is double or even triple our price point. Our goal is to meet our consumer where they’re at and say, ‘We can bring you scents that don’t smell like everyone else in ways where you can actually experiment with and have some fun with them,” said Higuera The brand also offers $42 solid fragrances, which have also allowed younger consumers with limited budgets to experiment and layer.
Lore debuted in September with its Loewe-esque bottles. The brand is the brainchild of former Rhode CEO Melanie Bender, Youth To The People co-founders Greg Gonzalez and Joe Cloyes, and Milk Makeup co-founder Mazdeck Rassi. Like Noyz before it, all of its scents were developed by Jérôme Epinette. Epinette is also known for his work on scents like Byredo Gypsy Water ($235 for 50 milliliters), Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 ($39 for the standard 8-ounce hair and body perfume mist) and Victoria Beckham’s perfumes ($200 for 50 milliliters). Lore’s full-sized bottles are $88 each. It launched with four scents. The brand declined to comment on its price point.
Phlur, which relaunched in 2022 and was acquired by TSG Consumer Partners in July, also sits within the growing under-$100 category with its eau de parfums, which cost $99 each. In the last three years, that collection has grown to include 13 fragrances.
Other notable members of this growing club include Rare Beauty, which launched its first, $75 perfume in August, and Boy Smells, which, amid its controversial April rebrand, lowered its prices from $98 for a 65-milliliter bottle to $78 for 50 milliliters — its scents now also come in more Gen-Z-friendly, colorful packaging. Finally, and also available at Sephora, is Glossier, which offered only a single hero scent, “You,” for seven years before expanding with flankers of the scent in October 2024. A 1.7-ounce bottle of You is $82. With the three flankers, the brand now offers four perfumes.
At Ulta Beauty, there’s also Snif, which plays in what co-founder Bryan Edwards calls the “very bottom of the masstige segment.” Snif’s fragrances are eau de toilettes, meaning they have a lower concentration of fragrance oil — an eau de parfum typically contains a 15-20% concentration, while an eau de toilette generally sits at 5-15%. Snif’s bottles are $65 each.
“We like $65. We feel like it’s proven to be a very approachable and chewable [price], especially for a consumer who is more price sensitive than they’ve ever been,” Edwards said. It also allows the brand to be particularly playful — for example, its scents include Hot Cakes, a pancake-inspired gourmand that’s an Ulta Beauty bestseller. “For us, it’s all about value. … When we ask our customers why they buy from Snif, the No. 1 reason, other than us being fine fragrance, is value. They know they’re getting insanely high-quality juice at a really accessible price point,” Edwards said.
Price sensitivity is a key driver for brands, but Chaz also noted that the role of fragrance in consumers’ lives has changed. “Wearing fragrance is a self-expression tool — to use as a part of your everyday wardrobe, not just special occasions,” she said, noting that the concept is core to Dedcool’s identity. “It shouldn’t be this super precious item that you don’t want to wear because it’s expensive.”
“PerfumeTok has educated so many people and helped people get so incisive with their perfume taste,” said Emma Vernon, host of the podcast Perfume Room. Vernon called out a recent pendulum swing where, at first, super-high-cost fragrances became normalized on TikTok — think: a $500 bottle of Baccarat Rouge. Then, people realized they could find similar scents, including dupes, for far more accessible prices.
“People are going back to what is a normal price to spend on a luxurious, unnecessary beauty good,” Vernon said. “Regardless of inflation or the economy, a lot of people are maxing out in this price point.”
Week in review
NYC ballerinas take the spotlight in Inn Beauty Project’s new campaign
Soccer, basketball and tennis stars have recently scored brand deals. But, for its latest marketing campaign, Inn Beauty Project, known for its hero Extreme Cream, is partnering with The New York City Ballet’s India Bradley and Unity Phelan. The campaign is focused on Extreme Cream and the brand’s more recent launch, Recharge Gel Cream.
“[Skin-care] formulation is equal parts science and art: the rigor of clinical testing meets the creativity of texture and ingredient combinations,” said co-founder and head of innovation Jen Shane. “Like ballet, it’s a discipline built on both precision and beauty. With Inn Beauty and our ballerina partners, the goal is always the same: Perform at the highest level, every time.”
Collabs of the week
Alexa Leigh x Parke
Parke, known for its logo-sweatshirts and jeans, has teamed with jewelry brand Alexa Leigh on a four-piece capsule collection that includes two pairs of earrings, one necklace and a ring with a heart-shaped stone. Prices range from $175-$395.
“The goal of this collaboration is to showcase Alexa’s timeless jewelry designs through my personal style lens,” said Parke founder Chelsea Parke Goles. “Together, we created pieces that are versatile enough for everyday wear while also elevating any dressy occasion, bridging classic pieces with a more modern design.” The collection has special significance because Goles began her career working at Leigh’s company, she noted.
“We’ll be announcing the collection with a video that takes a comedic look at both Alexa’s and my creative processes, giving audiences a fun, behind-the-scenes glimpse into how the collection came to life,” Goles said. The collection will also be promoted across the collaborators’ social media channels — through posts, Stories and Reels that highlight key pieces, styling ideas and the story behind the collaboration.
Spanx x La Ligne
2025 has been the year Spanx has delved into collaborations. In August, the brand partnered with Bala on a fitness-forward capsule collection. And now, it’s going in a different direction, working with La Ligne to introduce a collection of high-end cashmere sweaters. The collection was timed to the release of Spanx’s new Authentic 360 corduroy and denim collections, so “she can feel incredible from top to bottom,” said Katie Weeks, Spanx vp of brand marketing. Tracee Ellis Ross stars in the campaign — Weeks called her “the perfect muse” for the collaboration. Prices range from $350-$450.
Bliss x Gilmore Girls
Nostalgia remains hot in beauty, and fall is famously “Gilmore Girls” season — even 25 years later the show’s fanbase is wildly loyal. Bliss has smartly combined the two with a “Gilmore Girls”-themed collection. But, according to Sara Mitzner, vp of brand marketing at Bliss parent company AS Beauty, nostalgia is not just a shtick for Bliss.
“A lot of brands are focused on nostalgic marketing, but use it as a trend or a novelty,” Mitzner said. “As a 29-year-old heritage brand, Bliss isn’t referencing nostalgia performatively, but instead authentically — our customer remembers the brand, or has been shopping Bliss, since their early 20s. It was important that we connected with them on a collection and collaboration that spoke to them on an emotional level.”
She added, “We are focused on selling out this limited-edition collection, engaging with our followers on social media and having our extensive social content be shared widely.” The collaboration is being promoted across social media, earned media, IRL events, email and SMS, as well as by influencers and stars of “Gilmore Girls,” including Kelly Bishop, Keiko Agena and Vanessa Marano.
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