When Sol de Janeiro announced it would be discontinuing its Cheirosa 39 scent in 2023, fans did not hide their disappointment. Devotees of the scent, which was originally launched in 2019 as Coco Cabana along with an accompanying body cream, started Change.org petitions. A jumbo-sized bottle of the body mist sold on eBay for $349.99 in April. Two years after it was first discontinued, the Cheirosa 39 scent is back. For now.
“The ‘39 club’ was a slow build. But it got to the point where, every day, my social team would be like, ‘There are more comments.’ And then we saw petitions,” said Tamera Ferro, CMO at Sol de Janeiro. “We just felt like, ‘OK, we’re getting so many people asking for it, and really there is a gap there. So let’s bring it back. Let’s give the people what they want.’”
The relaunched Cheirosa 39 scent will be available at Ulta and Sol de Janeiro’s DTC platforms for a limited time beginning June 15. Fans can snag a bottle for just $25, rather than bidding $300 and up. As of Friday, there were already 48,000 people on the waitlist for the official launch. Ferro stated the rerelease has not reformulated on the original scent, which was inspired by the debut of Brazilian icon Carmen Miranda’s fruit headpiece in 1939.
According to Sol de Janeiro, the scent has seen numerous social media callouts since it was discontinued. At its peak, Cheirosa 39 garnered an average of over 11,000 social media mentions per month between December 2023 and January 2024, when Sol de Janeiro offered the scent as a reward to DTC consumers. According to the brand, there were four petitions and over 40 fan accounts asking it to bring back the Cheirosa 39 mist and Coco Cabana franchise.
“For us, it was like, ‘We have X amount of space. We know we want to bring some new scents to the market. Let’s make space,’” Ferro said of the original decision to discontinue the scent. “I think because you started seeing this collector mentality, you started seeing this idea of this mythical mist.”
Sol de Janeiro has more shelf space than it did in 2019 when it was still a rising brand. Now celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Sol de Janeiro has risen to become the No. 1 brand at Sephora. Despite launching with the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream as its hero product, Sol de Janeiro’s fragrances have since become its No. 1 category. 2024 data from Sol de Janeiro found the brand sold one perfume mist every second globally.
Sol de Janeiro’s devoted fan base has grown as beauty has seen a wider explosion in body mists and all things gourmand. Ferro believes the key to Cheirosa 39’s success is its creamy, coconutty profile, which fits the ongoing demand for milky scents. The limited-edition relaunch is part of a newer strategy from Sol de Janeiro to experiment with seasonal releases, like the limited-edition body-mist trio the brand launched in March.
“We’re looking at, ‘What does it mean to have more of a seasonal strategy?’” said Ferro. “Our [limited-edition] mist strategy has always been about testing new scent profiles and bringing more of that storytelling. … Now we have this collection of, like, 10 mists that people remember and want back. So we’re starting to think about, ‘How do we start tapping back into those favorites?’ And this is really our first exploration into that.”
Sol de Janeiro may lean more into those audience favorites in the future, as Ferro said the Cheirosa 39 relaunch is a way for the brand to test a “co-creation” strategy with its consumers. Many Redditors and fragrance fans offered up dupes or possible replacements for Cheirosa 39 when it was still absent from shelves, but Ferro finds the devotion to the “39 club” is indicative of dedication to more than just a scent.
“You do have all of these dupes, and you do have all of these gourmand profiles coming up from other brands. There are a lot of options in the coconut-scented space. But I think it says a lot about our brand and a lot about our community that they want this one. They want 39. They don’t want to go find a different one,” said Ferro. “That, to me, is really compelling about our consumer and our community, and how we co-create with them.”
