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2025 Scent Trends

2025 Scent Trends

Welcome to 2025, a year that promises to offer some incredible surprises and delights for fragrance enthusiasts. There are a number of global trends emerging early in the year that promise to shape the industry and offer some unique scents.

Artificial Intelligence & Perfumery

AI is causing a seismic shift in the perfumery industry. It began with retailers using the technology to better manage inventory levels. Buyers were better able to allocate fragrances to stores based on past customer purchases, demographics, global trends and even scent styles. This increased the sell-through and made the retailers much more profitable and efficient. It also helped to predict which stores would sell new launches. In the past, this process was managed by veteran buyers and district managers who spent time in the stores and took recommendations for beauty managers. It’s mostly automated now.

Perfume ingredient houses have embraced AI as a way to analyze huge amounts of data on raw materials. Perfumers can now research hundreds of ingredients in a matter of hours that would have taken months and months only five years ago. What excites them most is that AI can suggest ingredient combinations that they might never have thought of. It also allows them to test possible formulas in global data bases to see if the proposed scent would appeal to consumers in various countries.

Now, here is where AI is causing some concern, particularly in France. Some fragrance houses are experimenting with using AI to formulate fragrances, effectively cutting out the perfumer completely. The AI algorithms are coming so sophisticated that the results are quite good. Understandably, perfumers are pushing back saying that you can’t replace the emotional component to any perfume.

The Year of Wood-Themed Scents

It’s no surprise to see woods taking center stage in 2025 considering it is the Lunar Year of the Wood Snake. In the Chinese zodiac, the wood element represents creative energy, the beginning of life and the urge to achieve. People born with a wood element believe in growth through communication, like trees that talk to each other through their roots. They are said to be patient, wise and reliable. The colour green is most commonly used to illustrate wood energy.

Woods have always played an important role in perfumery for several reasons. Raw materials like cedar, sandalwood, agarwood, guaiac wood and redwood provide longevity to any scent composition. These notes can last in excess of five hours and provide a stable base for the flowers, fruits and spices. What’s exciting in 2025 is perfumers are working with woods in new ways. Master perfumer Alberto Morillas utilized numerous parts of the tree in his Bvlgari Man Wood Essence formula including wood shavings, bark and resins that offered layered nuances to the scent. Others are formulating wood scents aimed at female consumers that are lighter and fresher in character. Expect to see Middle-Eastern woods such as oud become more popular this coming year. GenZ is discovering this smoky note.

2025 Scent Trends
2025 Scent Trends

Café-Inspired Milky Drinks

Get ready for Next-Level Vanillas in 2025. Vanilla was the star ingredient last year and promises to be equally popular this year. Did you know that vanilla was hugely popular in base notes in the 1980s? This was replaced by musks over time as fragrance tastes changed. Thanks to the popularity of Starbucks and cafés, vanilla is back stronger than ever. What’s exciting is how perfumers are processing and manipulating vanilla in new ways. While fragrances in the past would contain one sole vanilla note, the new scents often layer four or five different styles of vanilla giving the fragrance interesting textures, blends and complexity. You’ll also discover the overall quality of vanilla has increased dramatically, the best vanilla coming from Madagascar, a small island off the coast of Africa.

Social Media Scent Experts

With more than 5.2 billion views on TikTok of the hashtag #perfumetok, social media is fueling a global passion for fragrance. Once the domain of beauty magazine editors, you can now become a fragrance influencer overnight by launching your own TikTok, IG or Youtube channel. We are thrilled with this trend as is allows men and women of all ages and backgrounds the opportunity to share their passion, thoughts and research into fragrances of all styles and price points. Jeremy Fragrance continues to be the most influential men’s scent influencer. He has a new book out called “Power, Baby! The Jeremy Fragrance Story where he shares how he created an empire reviewing fragrances on social media.

A Healthy Industry

Sales of men’s and women’s fragrances in Canada grew at 12% year-over-year last year contributing significantly to the $3 billion Canadians spend annually on prestige beauty. Perfume concentrations grew at 132% and eaux de parfums increased by 38% according to industry research firm Circana.  Euromonitor, another global research firm,  predicts the worldwide fragrance category will grow to $68.9 billion in 2025.


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4 Comments

  • Reply
    Linda L
    January 19, 2025 at 11:58 am

    My love of nature goes hand in hand with the rise of wood-themed scents not only for men but especially for women’s fragrances.

  • Reply
    Liz Howard
    January 15, 2025 at 11:02 pm

    I have to admit AI is a little scary!

  • Reply
    September Dee
    January 15, 2025 at 10:13 am

    It’s going to be an exciting year on the fragrance front. I must admit I understand the concerns of the perfumers regarding the uae of AI. I prefer their hands-on blending expertise and emotional response in the creative process. Part of what makes a fragrance special is the story behind it and the attention to detail that only a perfumer can add.

  • Reply
    Sherri Gelbart
    January 15, 2025 at 7:46 am

    I can’t wait for those café inspired milky drinks. Some of the recent vanillas have not been that wonderful. I have also dreamed of milky tea scent like milky Oolong where it’s not so heavily Jasmine based…I hope those come too!

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