While fragrance as a whole has been on a hot streak since 2020, one demographic has especially taken to the category as of late: teen boys. Spurred on by influencers like Jeremy Fragrance (10 million TikTok followers), young men in 2024 are snapping up fragrances with the same collector mentality they’ve typically applied to sneakers and watches. And for the holidays, many will likely be putting even more fragrances on their wishlists.
According to Piper Sandler’s 2024 Taking Stock With Teens survey, teen boys’ spending on fragrance is up 26% year-over-year. In data shared with Glossy, beauty trend analysts at Spate found that the top demographic-related search on Google alongside “personal fragrance” is “men,” with 1.4 million average monthly searches. On TikTok, the top demographic hashtag alongside “personal fragrance” is #men, with 23.6 million average weekly views and 116.2% year-over-year growth compared to last year.
According to Circana’s U.S. Holiday Purchase Intentions Report, 18% of consumers plan to gift perfume or cologne this holiday shopping season. For their holiday shopping, expect to see those teen boy and young male consumers sticking to the same tenets that drive many of their fragrance purchases throughout the year: power and performance, both inside and outside the bottle.
“The purchasing behavior always comes down to the price, projection, longevity and display-worthy packaging,” said Olya Bar, head of digital strategy and communications at niche fragrance retailer Twisted Lily. “Those are really important things for this consumer.”
While there are many brands and scents that those consumers gravitate toward all year long, Bar said that, like most fragrance shoppers, young men are switching to deeper, warmer scents for the fall and winter.
“We’re seeing a strong pull towards warm, spicy, woody fragrance families. Aromatic, tobacco-centric scents are leading the pack,” she said. “Masculine vanillas are also having a moment.”
Scents don’t need to be new to capture that seasonal trend. Bar said Twisted Lily is seeing young male shoppers purchase scents like Mancera Red Tobacco, a 2017 release, and 2016’s tobacco-laden Side Effect from Initio Parfums. The flashy bottles of niche brands like Xerjoff and Roja Parfums are also popular among young men looking to expand their collections.
But more mainstream designer brands are also driving that demographic. Bar cites the spicy vanilla Yves Saint Laurent Tuxedo as trending on social media in recent weeks, but noted that some classic scents have remained perennial favorites. According to Spate, Jean Paul Gaultier is a top fragrance brand among young men, with its 1995 scent Le Male seeing 47,600 average monthly searches on Google and a 382.2% year-over-year growth in search volume on the platform.
Maria Salcedo, svp of merchandising at Ulta Beauty, is also seeing more teen boys drawn to powerhouse designer scents.
“Recently, we have seen a rise in teen boys shopping our assortment, especially our prestige offerings of cologne. A few notable stand outs include Dior Sauvage, Valentino Uomo Born In Roma, Jean Paul Gautier Le Male Elixir and Armani Stronger Than You, Rabanne Phantom, among others,” said Salcedo. “We are seeing these guests shop in store where they are able to discover and trial scents they’ve been curious about, especially ones that have gone viral on #fragrancetok and ones that have some of their favorite celebrities like Charlie Heaton from ‘Stranger Things’ and NBA athlete Jalen Green, with more woody notes leading in popularity with this demographic.”
Capturing a demand for powerful, room-filling scents, fragrance brands from niche to designer are increasingly releasing more potent versions of some of their most popular scents, including many male-targeted releases. In October, Essential Parfums launched Bois Imperial Extrait, a more concentrated version of the brand’s spicy, woody Bois Imperial. Also this year, Armani released Acqua di Giò Profondo Parfum, a deeper iteration of its classic ’90s scent Acqua di Gio. And this fall, Creed issued a rerelease of the limited-edition Absolu Aventus, a stronger take on the classic Aventus — at the tune of $565 a bottle.
For the holidays, sample and discovery sets are also key for many fragrance fans. Retailers from Sephora to Ulta to Dillard’s are releasing their own curated sample sets targeted to men for the season. Elijah Yeroushalmi, a TikTok fragrance reviewer with more than 500,000 followers, recommended that fragrance beginners opt for the Sephora sample set, which includes largely designer hits like Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb and Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male. For more advanced collectors, he recommended Bloomingdale’s luxury collection with niche samples from the likes of Roja and Parfums de Marly.
There are many young male fragrance collectors who would be attracted to such a set.
“Fifty [bottles] is no longer a crazy number for these boys to have,” said Bar. “But I do think that they are price conscious, so many are waiting for the holiday time [to shop] when there are promotions and gifts with purchase.”
