How Bath & Body Works has remained ahead of the body mist craze for 3 decades

In creating its body splashes, Bath & Body Works collaborates with renowned perfumers from major fragrance houses like Blanc, whose portfolio also includes niche scents like Borntostandout’s Drunk Saffron and designer megahits such as Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium. “What I love about mist is you can take a lot of risk, because the consumer is ready for something very playful, but also with a lot of delicious addiction. And for me, Bath & Body Works were the pioneers in mist,” she said.

Bath & Body Works creates some 200 scents a year in formats ranging from candles to hand sanitizers. Fine fragrance mists, as the company calls its body splashes, have been a core part of its offering since its founding in 1990. But the under-$20 sprays have become an increasingly important driver for growth and customer acquisition in recent years: According to Bath & Body Works, the fine fragrance mist category has grown 45% since 2019 and has been the top selling product for the last six years. Bath & Body Works also called it its highest driver for new customers in body care, with 19% of new Bath & Body Works customers in 2024 shopping the fine fragrance mist category.

“[Bath & Body Works has] always appealed to the younger age groups. With how the store is set up, it’s a really engaging experience. It’s really bright and vibrant, and a lot of their partnerships and collaborations are with brands and products and themes that align with that younger demographic,” said Korinne Wolfmeyer, vp and sr. researcher at investment bank Piper Sandler. “Fragrance as a category is growing, and it’s certainly a growing category for young female teens. And Bath & Body Works is one of the rare brands that plays in that entry level price point category.”

According to Piper Sandler’s bi-annual Taking Stock With Teens Survey, Bath & Body Works has consistently remained the top fragrance brand among teen girls, claiming 24% of mindshare among the demographic in Fall 2024. 

The Ohio-based company’s growth in body splash reflects a widespread demand for the category and fragrance as a whole. Body mists have taken off in large part because of their affordability, giving consumers an accessible way to tap into trends like fragrance layering and building a “fragrance wardrobe.” According to market analysts Circana, U.S. sales of body splash grew 94% in 2024. 

But with that increased interest in body splash comes increased competition. The 35-year-old Bath & Body Works now faces a slew of new era fragrance brands looking for a piece of the body splash market. 

Phlur, the fragrance brand re-launched by influencer Chriselle Lim in 2022, launched hair and body mists in 2023 and now offers close to a dozen body mist scents. In 2023, Target launched Fine’ry, a line of fine fragrances and body mists made with beauty incubator Maesa. Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty included a body mist in her 2024 body care launch, while Clinique expanded its Happy fragrance franchise to a body spritz in October.

Few brands have made a play for body splash quite like the rising brand Sol de Janeiro. L’Occtaine acquired the Brazilian-inspired body-care brand in 2021, and it became the company’s highest profit contributor with 167% growth in 2024, thanks to viral products like the Cheirosa body mist line. Piper Sandler’s 2024 report found Sol de Janeiro climbed from the No. 3 fragrance brand for teen girls in 2023 to their second favorite brand, with 19% mindshare among teen girls, in Fall 2024. Among upper income teens girls — those with an annual household income of $83,000 and above — Sol de Janeiro took the No. 1 spot with 23% mindshare. 

Above all, remaining ahead of the competition requires delivering addictive scents. 

“The immediate spray — that first entry point where she smells it — that’s where it has to be the best,” said Mary Testa-Gough, associate vp of product and fragrance development at Bath & Body Works. “We have to make it that addictive, that visceral and that delicious to capture her.” 

Testa-Gough said Bath & Body Works looks to numerous sources for inspirations and trends, from Middle Eastern perfumery to new flavors in beverages. Champagne Toast is the company’s top-selling scent, with classics like Japanese Cherry Blossom also in its top 10. But the category has also kept pace with luxury fragrances with innovative gourmand notes like cherry and fig. In 2024, Bath & Body Works launched a line of “Everyday Luxuries” fine fragrance mists, which some TikTok and Reddit sleuths have compared to popular high-end perfumes like Tom Ford Lost Cherry and Prada Paradoxe.   

“When we think about the ‘Zalpha,’ the Gen Alpha and the Gen Z coming together, it’s a very important market we’re seeing basically blow up within our [Everyday Luxuries] category,” said Testa-Gough. “It’s bringing in a new customer, a younger customer. We’re giving her the quality and the inspiration from a luxury idea to make her feel so excited, but she can buy four or five of them.”

Bath & Body Works brings new fine fragrance mists in and out of stores throughout the year with roughly 35-45 fine fragrance mists available at the store at any time, including recent collaborations with the likes of Disney and “Emily in Paris.” But it’s also able to respond to customer demand if a new scent takes off. 

“With our agile supply chain, we can keep that scent going as long as we want,” said Betsy Schumacher, chief merchandising officer at Bath & Body Works. “When we launched [Everyday Luxuries], it was only [fine fragrance mists], and the No. 1 thing the customer wanted was other forms, especially a cleanser and a moisturizer. We launched [mists in all stores] in October, but we were able to bring the moisturizer and the shower products in in January. That’s how fast we can do that, once we know that the customer really wants it.”

That wide range of scent applications is key when today’s fragrance consumer is often looking to layer their scents through multiple products. Fragrance brands like Phlur have increasingly expanded to body care products like body oils and deodorants in recent years. “Our customer really loves a great routine, a ritual,” said Schumacher. “So [they want to] be able to use a cleanser in the shower, then, depending on their moisturization needs, they either buy the body cream or the body lotion. Then they finish with the fine fragrance mist. So there’s the fragrance layering.”

Beyond products, the company has opened new paths to give customers easy access to their favorite products: In the fall, Bath & Body Works joined TikTok Shop to reach that key “Zalpha” consumer and launched its “scent-scription” service, allowing customers to sign up for automatic refills of their fine fragrance mists.

While Bath & Body Works has historically catered to predominantly women, Schumacher said men’s products represent its fastest growing category since 2019. It expanded its men’s offerings with new colognes and body sprays in 2023, and in January, it added male-targeted scents to its Everyday Luxuries collection. While teen boy fragrance buyers have shown a preference for high-end perfume brands, mass market brands like Fine’ry have also expanded to male-targeted scents in recent months. 

But with new trends and competitors emerging, the work to find the new addiction never ends. 

“Competition is everywhere. And we have been in the fragrance business for over 30 years. We have the heritage of creating fragrances for the customer, but we’re also evolving with the customer,” said Testa-Gough. “[Trends are] trickle up, trickle down. That’s what’s happening right now. It’s prestige into mass. It’s mass into prestige.”

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