Guerlain is 198 years old and has created over 1,100 perfumes. Today, it sells around 100. And it is currently embarking on its first-ever paid influencer campaign to promote one of those fragrances — a $660 extrait, dubbed Vanille Planifolia.
The scent isn’t overabundant in supply and wasn’t one the brand initially planned to heavily market. It is an intense vanilla, made with a tincture from hand-pollinated, hand-harvested Madagascan vanilla, cold-soaked for 21 days.
But last fall, the product started to pick up on TikTok.
In a video from October 2025, for example, Aysha Harun (602,000 TikTok followers) said, “OK, so I don’t love talking about this fragrance all the time because it is so damn expensive, but I just got home from a beauty event, and I’m not even kidding, every single person, every single person that I interacted with today complimented this perfume and like, literally, was like, ‘What are you wearing?’ Like, … they didn’t just tell me I smelled good. They’re like, ‘You smell good. What are you wearing? I need to know.'”
Paul Fino (@paulreactss, 2.8 million TikTok followers) organically posted about the scent in January 2025, and Mona Kattan, founder of her own Kayali fragrance brand, posted with the nose behind the scent in January of this year.
According to Guerlain, Vanille Planifolia has now been the No. 1 best-selling product on its website for five months straight. The fragrance sold out on Guerlain’s e-commerce site and generated over 1,500 back-in-stock signups. In the past year, sales of the scent have tripled, notable for a nearly $700 perfume.
“It came extremely organically; we were not really pushing it or supporting it because, first and foremost, [it has such] limited distribution, and second, because it is a very expensive product. It is one of the most, if not the most, precious products we have in our catalog,” said Bertrand Pochet, gm of Guerlain USA.
“It’s surprising, but understandable,” said Ally McPartland, manager of beauty and luxury in the consumer practice at Kearney, when asked about the perfume’s price point and its success on social media.
“We know that beauty is one of the most resilient categories, even amid inflation and economic uncertainty, given the strong emotional reward consumers can achieve with beauty products, particularly fragrance,” she said. She added that fragrance has become one of the most important entry points into luxury, particularly for Gen Z, “because it allows for personal expression without the same financial barrier as categories like fashion or accessories.”
Furthermore, McPartland said, the scent hits on two powerful dynamics currently at play: “the continued rise of gourmand fragrances, particularly vanilla, and the broader shift toward ‘treat yourself’ luxury among younger consumers.” Kearney, she said, has consistently found that younger consumers see fragrance as self-care and an emotional purchase, used for emotional comfort amid a chaotic world.
“Vanilla is highly familiar, nostalgic and emotionally comforting, which lowers the barrier to trial. But Guerlain elevates it through craftsmanship, ingredient sourcing and heritage,” she said. “That combination makes it feel both accessible and aspirational, so what we’re seeing is less about a single scent and more about a ‘safe luxury splurge’ that resonates culturally right now.”
But, of course, as the scent began to gain traction on TikTok, people started to search for a dupe. In the comments on his post, Fino replied to one of the seekers, simply saying, “I’ve never found one.”
The brand was aware of these conversations, but never participated, Pochet said. But, he said, “The vast majority of [people], maybe 95% of them, came to the conclusion that it’s not possible to dupe Vanille Planifolia.” Pochet owes this to Guerlain’s history, the fact that Vanille Planifolia is a highly concentrated extrait and the fact that the brand sources its own ingredients for the scent.
It was, however, the dupe debate that crystallized the brand’s decision to change its tune about promoting the product.
Now, the brand is embarking on its first-ever paid campaign to support its fragrance category, dedicated entirely to Vanille Planifolia. It has previously done paid partnerships for its skin-care category.
The campaign is currently rolling out, with content from Jena Frumes (5 million Instagram followers, 10.9 million TikTok followers) and Devorah Ezagui (@classofpalmbeach, 1 million Instagram followers, 1 million TikTok followers) going live earlier this week. The brand has tapped 10 additional creators to post throughout May, including Sophia Culpo (257,000 Instagram followers), Emma Rose Leger (655,000 Instagram followers; 200,000 TikTok followers) and Jourdan Sloane Childress (773,000 Instagram followers; 369,000 TikTok followers).
“We’re bringing Vanille Planifolia from a limited audience of fragrance aficionados to a broader audience of more mainstream people, more lifestyle people,” Pochet said.
The goal, he said, is more about brand awareness than increasing sales: “If there is one goal that we gave ourselves, it’s to expose our name, our know-how and what we stand for at Guerlain — and it just so happens that Vanille Planifolia is the perfect [product] to embody what we stand for and what we do. So, no matter what, it’s a good thing for the brand’s equity building in America.”
Luxury, heritage brands McPartland said, are “increasingly recognizing that cultural relevance today requires active participation in modern platforms like TikTok.”
“The opportunity here isn’t just about driving awareness, but it’s about translating the brand’s legacy into formats that resonate with a new generation,” she said. “The key will be balancing reach with restraint and maintaining a sense of prestige while engaging in a more democratized, creator-led environment.”
Given the existing organic love for Vanille Planifolia on social, McPartland believes the brand’s challenge will be to bring “greater intentionality” to the conversation about the scent through its new campaign. This can be done, she said, “through curated creator selection, stronger visual and narrative consistency, and deeper storytelling around the fragrance’s provenance and craft.”
The campaign is off to a good start, she said, though it’s still just the beginning. “Early [content] suggests an effort in that direction, but the long-term impact will depend on whether the campaign can shift the conversation from price-driven curiosity to emotion-driven desire.”
Week in review
- Dr. Diamond’s Metacine launched its first eye product, the $225 Eyelift Bioremodeling Peptide Multiplex. The brand’s Instafacial Plasma and Instafacial Emulsion already have a cult following.
- Violette FR introduced the $32 Plume Eyeshadow, which comes in eight matte shades and eight shimmery shades, each housed in a blue, pebble-like compact.
- Mikayla Nogueira’s brand, POV Beauty, launched a lightweight water cream, the $38 Chill It Plumping Water Gel. Like the brand’s existing skin-care offerings, the product is meant to optimize skin before makeup application.
- Warby Parker tapped creator and runner Victoria Paris, creator and runner Victoria Bennie, and creator and golfer Roger Steele to star in the campaign for its new Sport collection, which includes nine $195 SKUs, including styles with different-colored lenses for different purposes. The gray lenses offer true color and glare reduction, and are said to be ideal for water and road; the rosewood lenses offer enhanced contrast and reduced fatigue, ideal for trails and snow; and the brown lenses offer enhanced contrast and depth, ideal for field and fishing.
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