This week, I checked in on how niche fragrance brands like Ex Nihilo are driving hype and creativity with limited-edition scents. Additionally, Bath & Body Works joins Ulta, and Sephora expands its quiet hours.
‘It has to generate positive frustration’: How niche perfume brands are playing with exclusive fragrance drops
When French fragrance house Ex Nihilo made its Scarlet Sands perfume available to online E.U. consumers in February, the brand originally intended to sell the scent for a week. Instead, the perfume, first launched in 2024 as a Dubai regional exclusive, sold out in under 10 minutes. Those who missed out on the drop or can’t get to Dubai, where the scent retails for 1,483 dirham, or roughly $400, can try their hand at secondhand sites like Mercari, where a bottle of Scarlet Sands has sold for as much as $850.
“It’s first come, first served. It has to generate positive frustration,” said Ex Nihilo co-founder Benoît Verdier of the brand’s strategy around limited scents like Scarlet Sands. While the fragrance was designed to appeal to the Dubai market with a sweet ambery scent and Arabic lettering on the bottle, online hype around the perfume inspired Ex Nihilo to temporarily release it to a wider market. Verdier declined to share exact numbers for how many bottles the brand produces for a limited drop like Scarlet Sands, but described it as being under 1,000 per run, with fans of the brand given a heads-up about the drop via an emailed newsletter or Instagram posts a few days in advance.
Ex Nihilo is well familiar with how to generate that level of “positive frustration.” Since launching the brand in 2013, Verdier and his co-founders have brought elements of the collector mentality in sneaker and watch culture to the perfume world through limited-edition drops and regional or store-exclusive scents for the likes of Harrods and Harvey Nichols — without tipping into the chaos some exclusive drops can inspire.
“We are not a Supreme store. I don’t want people to queue in the street and to fight,” said Verdier. “Niche is a bit of this — you want something that you can’t have or that is very scarce, or limited, or difficult to reach. And now, this is the meeting point between an evolution of the market, the rise of technology and the arrival of a new generation.”
A perfume launch has yet to lead to the public brawls seen at some sneaker or watch drops. For their part, Ex Nihilo and other niche fragrance brands are playing with exclusivity as a means of engaging with today’s perfume consumers, who are not only accustomed to navigating exclusive merch drops but also seeking more personalized, experiential scents in lieu of a single signature scent to re-up each year.
“[Fragrance] is a perfect vessel for a more experiential, story-driven approach,” said Ffern founder Owen Mears. “I think there’s been a realization that fragrance can mean those things for people and can therefore [facilitate] a willingness to let go of that, ‘I just need a signature scent that I can wear for the rest of my life.’”
Ffern is known for its seasonal, members-only model, in which subscribers receive a full-size Ffern perfume four times a year, with the option to keep or return the scent. The approach allowed Mears to embrace the volatility of using all-natural ingredients, whose availability and prices can fluctuate year-to-year depending on crop yields, he said, while avoiding overproduction. Mears declined to share how many members are currently on Ffern’s ledger, but as of publication, consumers can only sign up for a waitlist.
While Mears said he did not set out to make Ffern scents a limited commodity, the membership model has created a secondary market for the brand’s scents on sites like eBay and Mercari. Some fragrance buyers offer decants of Ffern scents or resell their Ffern bottles at roughly the retail price of $129, but full-sized bottles are also available on Mercari for over $200. And though Mears said Ffern does not want to encourage consumers to resell their scents, there is little the brand can do to curb the secondary market.
“For us, there is a big experiential side of Ffern, and I think you get that best when you are part of the ledger and you’re party to all the things that come with it,” he said. “If you buy a resale bottle that is virtually just the bottle, then you are missing out on a part of our experience, which I think is a shame.”
For D.S. & Durga, the Brooklyn perfume house founded by husband-and-wife team Kavi Ahuja Moltz and David Seth Moltz, offering “Studio Juices,” as the brand calls its limited-edition drops, is a way to exercise the creativity the brand is known for. Like Ex Nihilo, D.S. & Durga also works with major department stores like Liberty and Bergdorf Goodman on store-exclusive scents. Launching limited-edition products allows David Seth Moltz, the nose behind all of D.S. & Durga’s creations, to offer seasonal scents, like the Well Dressed Werewolf for Halloween 2025, or appeal to a local market, like the Western-inspired Cowgirl Grass made exclusively for Texas department store giant Neiman Marcus.
“The reason [Studio Juice] exists is Kavi and I can just do whatever we want. If you come out with a global launch, there’s only so weird and challenging it can be,” said Moltz. “The people who love D.S. & Durga are excited to try those things. It’s pretty much as simple as that.”
Given that the resources needed to design a perfume with a run of a few hundred bottles is roughly the same as creating a line for the permanent collection, making limited-run scents is not the most financially advantageous strategy, Moltz said. But ensuring the scents speak to seasonal moments, like its Halloween releases or the tennis-inspired Crush Balls that the brand brings back each summer, can help even the small run find an audience. Its most recent Studio Juice launch, Rose Pacific, is a summer-appropriate, West Coast-inspired flanker to the salty-floral Rose Atlantic, part of D.S. & Durga’s permanent line.
“We’re not thinking of the economy; it’s not a big money maker, it’s a lot of work. It’s just it’s about the love of fragrance and aromatic ideas,” said Moltz. “Another thing to say is that Studio Juices do provide a testing ground for us. If a scent resonates like crazy with a customer, then maybe it’s a good idea to bring it into the line.”
And some limited drops have inspired more long-lasting appeal — perhaps most famously Pistachio, the 2022 Studio Juice that sold out in just two hours and inspired a frenzy for all things Pistachio-scented. Pistachio joined the permanent collection in 2023 and can be purchased from D.S. & Durga and its retail partners for $225, but other nut-inspired scents are harder to come by: A bottle of Peanut, a 2024 Studio Juice drop, can be found on Mercari for $500.
Although limited-edition drops can inspire plenty of online buzz, that doesn’t always equate to real-life sales, Moltz noted. The brand’s third-best-selling fragrance is Radio Bombay, part of its main line and a steady favorite since 2016. “It goes in and out of fourth and third, but we don’t seem to talk about it all the time. It’s not everywhere,” he said.
Executive moves:
- Juliana Azevedo is named CEO of Procter & Gamble brand Gillette, effective July 1. Azevedo, who has been part of P&G since 1996, will replace Gary Coombe in the role. She has previously held roles in P&G brand management and oversaw its portfolio in Latin America.
- Derrick Booker is named CMO of Revision Skincare. The former P&G exec will oversee global marketing for both professional and consumer audiences at the medical-grade skin-care brand.
- Hair color brand Dphue names Bethenny Frankel as chief brand officer. The “Real Housewives of New York” star and Skinnygirl founder will be responsible for raising brand awareness and consumer engagement. Frankel has also taken an ownership stake in the hair brand, which was founded by entrepreneur Donna Pohlad.
News to know:
- Bath & Body Works will launch at Ulta Beauty on July 12. The expansion is part of the body-care company’s “Consumer First Formula” strategy to reach consumers where they are, which has included launches on Amazon and in college bookstores. Bath & Body Works will also relaunch the classic ’90s scent Juniper Breeze as an Ulta exclusive.
- Sephora is expanding its “quiet hours” program across the globe after a successful pilot program in 32 stores. The initiative will see Sephora offer dedicated shopping hours with quieter music and dimmer screens to create a calmer shopping experience.
- Kiehl’s joins Uber Eats. The L’Oréal-owned skin-care brand will now be available for on-demand delivery on the app, alongside consumer brands like Blick Art Materials and Choice Pet. Beauty retail giant Sephora launched on Uber Eats in September.
Stat of the week:
According to data from Adobe, U.S. retailers drove $8.3 billion in online spend on June 23, the first day of Amazon Prime Day deals, representing 5.3% year-over-year growth. The figure represents the single biggest e-commerce day of 2026 to date.
In the headlines:
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Listen in:
In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Nutrafol CEO Cindy Gustafson unpacks her secret sauce for growth, how the supplement consumer has evolved and much more.
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