The Niche Fragrance Brands Set to Break Through in 2025

Investors, retailers and would-be acquirers are laser-focused on fragrance, trying to surface the next crop of breakout stars who can hold their own against the incumbent mega-brands.

The category accounted for 15 percent of overall spending on prestige beauty in 2024 per retail analytics firm Daash, and shows no signs of slowing down. Last year, perfume sales rose 12 percent to $9.5 billion in the US alone according to consumer insights firm Circana.

Part of this growth is due to the fact that Gen-Z, Gen Alpha and Millennial shoppers in the see fragrance as a collectable must-have, not an occasional purchase, and are building up “wardrobes” of multiple luxury and premium scents, even as they pull back on spending on other categories.

Benefitting from this interest is not just conglomerate-backed luxury brands, but a crop of indies-turned-powerhouse labels, such as Byredo, Le Labo and D.S. & Durga, which all started as small independent makers with esoteric scents and guerrilla marketing tactics. Those brands, minted in the mid-aughts, have created a clear playbook for success and a template for a frothy exit, increasing investor interest.

But to replicate their success, the next cohort of indie fragrance brands must contend with a market that has changed. Viral hits like the mass body care line Sol de Janiero’s body sprays or the French perfumer Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540 have created a new cadence of trends. Now, shoppers want personality, offbeat notes, levity and modern sensuality.

“Fragrance feels more approachable now … a lot of people don’t know how to even pronounce a lot of the [prestige] brand names,” said Funmi Monet, a content creator who specialises in fragrance. “People before who would only wear something from Bath & Body Works are now less intimidated [by prestige makers] because there’s all these younger, fresher brands.”

The hot new brands favoured by early adopters are still nascent, with smaller social media followings, placement in niche retailers and offline cachet in trendy fashion circles. Spotting which ones are breaking ahead of the pack could mean tapping the next Byredo.

The New Cult Classics

While many mainstream brands reference themes like falling in love, and mysterious, stylish Parisienne women as inspiration, a newer crop of brands are edgier, grittier and more subversive.

Niche line Marissa Zappas is rapidly gaining momentum, said Tynan Sinks, a beauty editor and co-host of the fragrance podcast Smell Ya Later. With bow-bedecked bottles, branding that evokes both gothic and ethereal elements (perfume names include Maggie The Cat Is Alive, I’m Alive! and Tragedy of Souls), the brand has built up a cult following amongst New York’s It girls, according to Sinks. “Her vision is just aligned with the zeitgeist,” he said.

Launched in 2021 and available via its e-commerce site, and in niche US retailers Ministry of Scent and Stéle, Zappas said best-sellers are Annabel’s Birthday Cake (with notes of “balloons” and lemon sugar) and Dream Sequence (which smells like vanilla, soil and tonka bean), both $175.

Also gaining speed amongst tastemakers is Noyz. Spun out of the incubator Beach House Group, which also makes the actress Tracee Ellis Ross’ hair care line Pattern, Noyz launched in Ulta Beauty in June 2024 with four scents such as Love Club and Sh**ty Day, both $85. Marta Mae Freedman, founder of the influencer gifting suite Air Milkshake, said the brand was an instant hit with her crop of trendsetters.

“When you’re giving 100 people a fragrance, it’s really rare that it’s going to be popular with all of them, but I’m blown away by how much people seem to love them,” she said, adding that the brand Future Society, which says its perfumes are made from sequencing the DNA of extinct flowers to create singular scents, has also been popular with her attendees. (She previously gifted attendees with perfumes from D.S Durga and Boy Smells.)

Also on Sinks’ radar is Clue, a fragrance house from Chicago. Its best-seller is Warm Bulb, which is meant to smell like the dust on a lamp when it’s switched on; another, called “With The Candlestick” is reminiscent of communion wine and melted wax (the brand describes it as “The Blood of Christ pours as wax spills down hot iron.”)

“‘[Clue] is telling this story from the Midwest that is often overlooked by French perfumery or marketing departments out of New York, or influencers out of LA,” said Sinks.

Launched in 2023, the brand has four scents, which start at $140, and is found in a handful of niche retailers, though it plans to broaden its wholesale partners to include around 15 more throughout Europe, Asia and Canada in 2025.

Other brands Sinks and Monet mentioned as gaining speed amongst fragrance buffs were Universal Flowering, Nette and Born to Stand Out. Universal Flowering launched in 2016 and has grown its revenues around 25 percent every year since 2021, said founder Courtney Rafuse, while Nette, which makes candles and fine fragrances, has been steadily gaining speed since launching in Sephora in 2023.

The New Gourmands

One kind of fragrance has stood out from the pack in recent years: gourmands. These sweeter-smeller, food-inspired scents are popular with young shoppers in body mists and sprays (the defining note in Sol de Janiero’s Cheirosa ‘62 Body Spray is salted caramel) but are also becoming increasingly sophisticated, with upmarket niche scents like D.S. Durga’s Pistachio becoming top sellers.

Monet named Brown Sugar Babe, a US-based brand with gourmand scents starting as low as $15, as one that’s gaining speed. With cheekily named fragrances like Kris P. Kreem (stylised with a shot of glazed doughnuts) the brand reportedly projected $10 million in sales for 2024.

“They have some really unique scents, but overall it’s all just really fun,” she said. Monet added that the brand’s investment in small community events were also a boon. “I went to their pop-up in Miami, and oh my gosh, the excitement … People brought their friends, it was really giving community. You don’t see that much in fragrance.”

Sinks highlighted D’Annam as a fragrance brand that excels in gourmands, and also on heritage: inspired by founder Nick Hoang’s Vietnamese background and travels throughout Asia, top sellers include Vietnamese Coffee, Matcha Soft Serve and White Rice. Launched in 2023, Hoang said that the business, which he bootstrapped, has a revenue run rate of around $4 million a year, with a 70 percent EBITDA margin.

The New Luxury

Shoppers are more than happy to spend over $200 on brands with a strong value proposition and luxury image. Top fashion house brands will always have a stronghold in this category, but emerging indies with a robust founder story or connection to non-Western geographies or the cultural zeitgeist are edging in.

Sinks named the Chris Collins line, which is carried in the likes of Sephora, Nordstrom and Saks as one to watch. top sellers include Harlem Nights, $175, with rum, amber and musk and Lust Oud Delice, which smells of dark chocolate, hazelnut and walnut, $225.

“It’s contemporary takes on classics. It’s not weird … but truly approachable perfumes that get people excited,” said Sinks, describing the scents as “incredible”. According to the brand, which was founded in 2018, a pivotal moment was launching in Sephora’s Harlem location where it consistently outranks global brands, and overall sales are also growing double digits.

The Omani perfume house Amouage’s star is also rising. In 2020, the brand hired Renaud Salmon, a former Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs executive to helm its creative output, and has since added body lotions and hair perfumes. Carried in upmarket retailers like Harrods and Bloomingdale’s, the brand also has 14 standalone boutiques in the countries including China, the UAE and the US. Founded in 1983, the brand places emphasis on craftsmanship and manufacturing in its home country of Oman. Top sellers include Guidance, from $380, with notes of amber, vanilla and hazelnut.

Uniting all the brands that strike a chord with fragrance fanatics, aside from quality, is having strong roots in an unexpected community or provenance, a cohesive brand universe and narrative, and a sense of fun, playfulness and even whimsy.

While fragrances are usually purchased to please the nose, Monet and Sinks said being easy on the eyes doesn’t hurt. “When they have a really cool bottle with a cool lid, that sticks in your mind,” said Monet.

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