Last month, Fendi dipped its toe back into the fragrance world. The Italian fashion house and LVMH property released seven fragrances created by renowned perfumers like Quentin Bisch and Anne Flipo, available exclusively at Fendi stores for $330 apiece.
A few hundred dollars is a bargain for a Fendi product — a mini Fendi baguette in the brand’s signature monogram will run you $2,390. But for a designer perfume, it’s a steep point of entry. The last time Fendi released a new fragrance — Furiosa in 2014 — it sold for just just over $100.
That increase is indicative not merely of a decade of steep inflation, but of changing fragrance strategies from designer and mainstream brands. The niche perfume market has only been heating up over the past few years — former indie pioneer Byredo sold to Puig for a reported $1 billion in 2022. The likes of LVMH and Estée Lauder are looking to compete with those formerly indie darlings through scents that mimic niche perfume’s appeal, namely the promise of high-quality ingredients and more limited availability. And the prices are rising to match.
“I have the feeling that we’ve crossed a little bit of a mental barrier when it comes to the price of fragrances,” said Renaud Salmon, creative director of Oman-based luxury perfumer Amouage. “Creating exceptional products with high concentration, expensive ingredients and proper aging times can now resonate with a significant audience. In the past, it was maybe for just a few.”
The increasing popularity of high-end brands like LVMH-owned Maison Francis Kurkdjian, whose scents like Amyris Femme and Baccarat Rouge 540 have become TikTok sensations in recent years, has made $300-and-up perfumes more desirable to mainstream consumers. According to data from Statista, Baccarat Rouge 540, a 70ml bottle of which sells for $325, was the third-most searched for perfume on Google in 2022. Creed Aventus, which retails for $495 for 100ml, climbed in at number four.
Rather than releasing $150 scents found at every airport in the world, newer designer fragrance lines from the likes of Celine and Dries van Noten, which launched fragrances in 2019 and 2022, respectively, are targeting higher-end consumers with fragrances priced at $250 and up. Estée Lauder, known for scents like the under-$100 White Linen, released the higher-end Legacy Collection earlier this spring. It was made up of $280 fragrances created in collaboration with Frederic Malle, who sold his namesake fragrance brand to the conglomerate in 2014. In June, Lancôme launched the Absolue Les Parfums line with 11 scents built around Grasse-harvested roses that retail for €280 ($303), more than double the price of La Vie est Belle, one of Lancôme’s flagship scents.
The price of a bottle of perfume is determined by numerous factors, said Johanna Monange, founder of bespoke perfume house Maison 21G. That includes the costs of raw materials, packaging and the numerous intermediaries, like distributors, that a bottle must pass through before arriving in stores. But rising prices are not always indicative of a rise in quality materials, she cautioned.
“There is no transparency. We never tell you, ‘Oh I have 3% of orris oil,’” said Monange. Fragrance brands are not required to disclose their full ingredient list or the actual amount of each high-priced ingredient, like orris oil or oud, that they may name in their marketing. But positioning a fragrance at the higher end of the market can make it more desirable, whether the juice matches the price or not.
“In marketing, we say that it’s always better to be on the top or on the bottom,” she said. “It’s why the trends are pushing everybody to elevate.”
It’s not just new releases — existing fragrances on the market have also climbed in price. According to Glossy research, Tom Ford’s Tobacco Oud Wood fragrance has climbed 31% percent in price since 2019. Byredo’s Mojave Ghost has increased from $180 for a 50-milliliter bottle in 2019 to $250 in 2024, representing a 25% increase.
As designer and mainstream brands climb into the $200 and up range, niche brands, as well, are pushing the ceiling when it comes to pricing. In June, Amouage launched Guidance 46, an intensified version of its popular Guidance perfume. A 100-milliliter bottle of Guidance 46 retails for $520, compared to $380 for the original. And higher prices are not deterring consumers: Amouage saw an annual growth of 24% in 2023, with retail sales surpassing $200 million.
Salmon said that Middle Eastern consumers have long been accustomed to higher-priced fragrances, but he is seeing new audiences like U.S. perfumer buyers and even teenagers taking an interest in fragrances priced $500 and up.
“It’s a major shift from buying those fragrances only for special occasions. That doesn’t seem to be the case [anymore],” he said. “It’s more like, ‘OK, I want a very special fragrance for everyday use.’”
But it’s not enough to simply slap a high price tag on a perfume to attract a niche fragrance clientele, Monange said. She believes educated salespeople on the floor are still crucial to communicating the value of those products, and designer brands that haven’t cultivated a niche audience over the years may struggle to connect.
“There is the problem of training, because their staff are not used to selling niche fragrances,” she said of the issues larger brands face at the store level. “Niche is one-to-one, it’s personalization and it’s understanding your customer.”
But even if the big brands fail to get a piece of the niche fragrance audience, their parent companies can simply buy up the competition. Kering, the conglomerate behind the likes of Gucci and Balenciaga, took a minority stake in French niche fragrance brand Matiere Premiere earlier this year, following its acquisition of British perfumer Creed for $3.8 billion in 2023.
Salmon said the ceiling can go yet even higher, provided fragrance makers deliver on quality. He plans to experiment with aging Amouage fragrances over a longer period of time — a costly endeavor that will be reflected in the price point. But he doesn’t believe prices can rise indefinitely if consumers don’t trust the quality is there.
“If we just see [rising prices] as a commercial opportunity, then it might just be a bubble that is going to explode at some point,” said Salmon.
