Top Fragrance Trends to Watch in 2026

 Forecasting is always a question of insightful reading of what is going on in any given industry, as well as a good instinct on how the public responds to what is going on. Therefore to predict the top fragrance trends to watch in 2026, I need to point out what we noticed in 2025 first. And then give you my predictions. Let's see at the end of this year whether I was right or wrong. 

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What we saw in 2025

Brands are finally shaking off the depression spirit of the pandemic era, even though it was the one that increased the desire for perfume in the first place... as a test of Covid's loss of smell. The public is somewhat tired of the safe trend for sweet bases with thick and powerful amber-woods and oud bases (replicating agarwood resin) intended to denote luxury and are now turning to well-being and personal satisfaction effects. In 2025, many things were debunked about the purchase, manufacture and copying by Arabs (the prevalent culture of dupes). 

At the same time, we reached an oversaturation in fragrance launches, where hundreds of new releases smelled and looked like so many others, especially in the sweet confectionery olfactory profile. Fortunately, the perfume industry is working on new molecules, new ideas and a new style of presentation, so that perfume becomes mainly an experience and emotion for GenZ rather than an accessory to show off wealth or status. After all, this is no longer the case on a planet on precarious balance. 

Last but not least, it was the year that Givaudan perfumer Quentin Bisch became a mega-star on the perfume channels (taking over from the previous beloved of the perfume community, Francis Kurkdjian, who seems to have disappointed audiences since taking over as permanent perfumer at Dior). His use of Titan-strong molecules produced by Givaudan has changed the entire industry. 

Fragrance Trends to Watch in 2026 

1. Creamy, milky, and fruity scents 

 Whether expressed through fruity, woody, or coconut milk notes, lactones (a chemical class of molecules that evoke ripe fruit or summery woods like fig tree) were a defining trend in 2025 and will continue into 2026. Even consumers who aren’t technically familiar with the meaning of the adjective “lactone” have embraced this creamy aesthetic. The movement was sparked by the viral social media buzz that catapulted fragrances like Blanche Bête and Bianco Latte into the spotlight, and the industry has followed suit. This journey is far from over. Expect a steady stream of creamy sweet compositions throughout the year, often accented with nutty notes — the other big obsession as seen in the frenzy around pistachio and notes of “Dubai chocolate”.

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2. The trend for crunchy effects, in granola and cookies notes

 In the field of smell, the play of textures is starting to dominate, moving from the salty trend of last year and the year before to olfactory impressions reminiscent of crunchy cookies, baked oats and popcorn. I remind you that popcorn was an innovation introduced by the late Miss Dior Cherie two decades ago! 

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We saw at the same time a multifaceted spectrum of vanilla marrying with the crunchy textures: dark, amber or on the contrary woody with a delicate taste of nuts or milk that married with the style that dominates in candles, and all this surfacing in refined fruity-floral fragrances in posh brands. The crunchy effects are evident already in Crush Akro (which recreates in the form of a fragrance the delicacy of lychee macarons) and Miutine by Miu Miu (like sponge cake with pieces of strawberry interspaced).

 The nostalgia of childish desserts and olfactory effects recodes the low-priced and accessible style now at a high price, but more vexingly claims to be considered high culture. Niche has become as uniform and conformist as mainstream, at places, which will outdo its purpose and come at breaking point. 

 3. Freshness is back! 

Perhaps we are tired of the monothematic prevalence of so-called gourmand perfumes, sweet with references to desserts, or of boozy, alcoholic perfumes, with references to spirits, rum and aged cognacs and whiskeys. After wearing, with true mania of overspraying I might add and with a certain aspirational desire of belonging, well-known brands of the central luxury department stores (Kilian, Xerjoff, Marly, Tom Ford Private Line), the public has finally overcome the obsession. People are tentatively revisiting the fresher compositions that recall the 1990s. Or even earlier, the chic fresh colognes of the glorious 60s and 70s. Hereby we can cite the wonderful Acqua di Parma Buongiorno or Le Labo Eucalyptus 20 that resembles a living tree full of juices and aromatic woodies which remain lighter in feeling. 

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But freshness also takes on the shades of the earth after a storm, with fragrances that give the effect of petrichor and rainy morning: for example the wonderful and pioneering (from 2015), but with a tongue-twister name, Hermann à mes Côtés me Paraissait une Ombre from the previously iconoclastic French Etat Libre d’ Orange. Reminiscent of the city after a heavy rainstorm. We will see more such fragrances, often Asian (see trend #5) 

 4. The integration of Artificial Intelligence in the production and composition of fragrances 

 Perfumery has surpassed itself in the way it captures odors, moving away from the smell of a single object or plant to embrace fragrances that function as sensory translations of an entire field or to give effects that aspire to recreate space, time or completely abstract concepts. 

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The brand Paco Rabanne pioneered with Phantom but many are following in its footsteps, so we have not seen much yet. 

 5. The rise of Asian and especially Chinese brands 

 After perfumery hailing from or replicating the aura of the Middle East, we observe in the West a tsunami of new brands coming from Japan, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam with a minimalist profile: Zhufu, itā, ChuJian, cent.pm, to Define, Fukudo… 

Possibly as revenge for Trump’s infamous tariffs, the new Asian brands usually offer affordable prices on differentiated olfactory profiles that renew traditional elements. Like a tea ceremony, with notes of matcha but also calligraphy ink, rice and fine incense. They project the feeling of spa and tranquillity that we usually identify with Eastern philosophies, so it's fitting. Will they eventually displace the milky, thick creamy and sweet aromas of desserts? It remains to be seen.

Let's bookmark this post and review it anew at the end of the year. Marketeers, take note in the meantime if you want to promote your fragrance and mail me for more if interested in working together. 

Eau de Lancaster: fragrance review (1997 edition)

art by Antonio Mora via pinterest

Contrary to colognes that take their time to establish the synthetically enhanced citrus notes before sinking into an indelible loop of scrubbed musk, the depths of Eau de Lancaster seem to appear almost immediately under the effervescent affluence of soapy hesperides (no doubt thanks to aldehyde attributed to coriander in the pyramid). Like a lining that's beginning to show at the point of overstretched seams, it hints at what's beneath. 

 The third edition by Lancaster chronologically, which is circulating nowadays in online retailers, circles back and revisited Eau de Lancaster for men from 1977, with the same name and a much more architectural design for the bottle: subtly fluted, curvaceous, beautifully simple and diaphanous, highlighting the light green shade of its juice (the photo below is leaning a bit more blue-ish than green as is in reality). This Eau de Lancaster relaunched in 1997 with yet another different set of notes, but it's really a revisiting of the original theme: a starched white shirt of a scent. 

 The latest edition of the 1997 bottle also circulates as Lancaster Grace in eau de toilette concentration, 125ml / 4.2 fl.oz.size, and this time aimed at women only (though not quite, it's all about the name, really). Definitely an allusion to the princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly, the patron saint of Lancaster, but also not so amiss as a reference to the glorious, magnificent scent of the fragrance itself. A lovely, fresh, silky olfactory landscape that is clean and natural referencing, creating an aura of gentility and class. The truly rich do not draw attention via their fragrance of choice; they let it speak in murmurs. 

Those who like fragrances like Eau de Cartier, Pomelatto Artemisia 67, Eau de Rochas, Clarins Eau Dynamissante and the like, should try this out. 

 Notes by Fragrantica: Bergamot, coriander, basil, lavender, mandarin, palisander rosewood, lily, floral notes, jasmine, peach, oakmoss, amber, vanilla.

Perceptions of Freshness in Perfumes

No term is more brandished in perfume ad copy than "fresh", with the possible exception of "sexy". Quite often the two are intertwined in such memorable pop culture images as the "just out of the shower sexiness" in the advertorials for JLo's Glow. But fresh can mean a lot of things, when talking about fragrances, and not everyone agrees on quite what makes something smell "fresh". What IS fresh anyway?

via reinkingprojekte

One could argue that like other, more objective and qualitative perfumery terms, such as agrestic, aromatic, resinous or powdery, fresh denotes specific qualities, immediately recognizable, effortlessly translated into multiple cultures. Take dry citrus or mint, with its mental association of toothpaste and chewing gum. A fragrance like Eau d'Hadrien with its lemony tang or the minty coolness of Herba Fresca by Guerlain are undeniable "fresh" as opposed to "ripe", an adjective we'd reserve for things like Femme or Feminite du Bois with their prune and plum notes that evoke harvest, autumnal maturity, a delicious decline. But from then on freshness as related to smell descriptors takes on odd, unforeseen nuances.

Fresh is sometimes confused with "light", as in lacking heft, since freshness is so often related to the uplifting feeling of a spring renewal, when green and tangy scents fill the air with the promise of resurgence. Fresh can also sometimes mean "contemporary" and "modern", the opposite of old-fashioned, therefore gaining a cultural and time-sensitive connotation which is more complex than anticipated at first; this is where it gets really interesting. Cast your mind back to Chanel No.5. Coco Chanel -and perfumer Ernest Beaux for her- created it as a "fresh" scent, something totally modern, to break with the tradition of the Belle Epoque and its contemplative, demure and prim fragrances.

via theowlsare.fr

The link with modernity also hides another thought: apart from "fresh new", it can also mean "fresh" as opposed to "stale" or "musty". Since many of the classic chypres and grand florals are worn by older women because of the fond association they have with them from the time of their prime, the perception of staleness in regards to perfume gains a perverse but powerful mental image, that of the decay of old age associated with the decay of flowers, of leaves, of animal matter. No, eschew these depressing connotations in favor of an eternal spring, of budding rather than maturing, of awakening rather than somnambulant, bring on the "freshness", is what the industry is telling us to. And we heed to it, because we're defenseless before its guiles, as they're never consciously registered.

Chanel No.5 is also fresh in another sense: it smells of cleanliness, as Chanel wanted it to, appalled as she was of the ladies of high society who "smelled" of impropriety; well, at least it smells of cleanliness on the marquee, as the sexy with its musky and civet-rich backstage is another matter...And here to come to that other tangent on which freshness in fragrances works: the "clean", just out the shower, attribute.

After Chanel No.5 many aldehydic florals gained a fresh connotation, aided by the wide use of the main components in soap formulae, a connotation however that was sure to lose ground with younger generations as perfume fashion changed and aldehydics became the scent of a past generation. As one of my readers, Noetic Owl, put it in regards to Calandre by Paco Rabanne: "I kept sniffing my wrist all day-loving it, but also acknowledging that were my teenage daughters to sniff it on me they would probably say I smell like an 'old lady'. Funny how certain scents become dated -yet in my mother's mind (and mine as well) Calandre was a fresh and green scent."

Even incense can be related to freshness if you think about it. Frankincense in particular, a resin used for its meditative and cleansing properties since antiquity, has a dry, citric, refreshing smoky quality about it, which transports the spirit and creates the feeling of renewal, spiritual this time around.

During the decade of scent absolution, of olfactory catharsis from the heavy load of the carnality of the 1980s and its bombastic perfume powerhouses such as Giogio, Obsession and Opium, the 1990s saw fresh fragrances come to mean laundry detergent reminiscent scents, heavy on clean musks, and/or ozonic fragrances (with their Calone molecule, reminiscent of melon), often screechy and sharp. We're talking about fragrances such as L'Eau d'Issey, Light Blue, Aqua di Gio, Kenzo pour Homme...
Such is the cultural integration of the idea that if you ask people in their 40s today they still equate these scents with freshness; it's simply how they were brought up! You see, our olfactory imprint may be created during our childhood when our perception and emotional state is still virgin territory (and this is why the smells we came to love or despise at that period will remain with us), but it is our formative teenager and early 20s which cement our conscious associations with perfumes. This impressionable period accounts for a memorable data bank onto which we form ties and associations that will forever have a strong pull on us. Even if later on, with the vagaries of life and the wisdom of maturity we come to designate them to what is essentially true, peer pressure, the desire to fit in (or conversely for the rebels to stand out), the need to map out our olfactory identity. The 1990s perfumes were fresh all right; they turned a new page in perfumery's book, as the broke new ground and presented something -at the time- innovative and revolutionary

Similarly the strong pull of the fougere genre in regards to masculine fragrances, thanks to its inedible association with soap and grooming (think of Green Irish Tweed, Cool Water, Azarro Man, Paco Rabanne pour Homme or Drakkar Noir), has come to stand as fresh, further enhanced by its advertising. One look at the Cool Water glossy with the guy washed over by the splash of the ocean and you're sold.

Yet today freshness took a new spin, a yarn previously unthreaded. Nowadays "fresh" is often uttered in the same breath as fruity & sweet, often reminiscent of an odd combination between shampoo and candy. This is how ad copy has presented their case: Miss Dior (the revamped, contemporary version) is touted as the debutante scent that smells like a young girl discovering love and the pleasures of the flesh. Daisy Eau so Fresh (Marc Jacobs) even says so in the title!
It is funny indeed to contemplate how sweet by its very nature predisposes for an artificiality that requires some elaboration. After all we need to break some eggs, dust some sugar and whisk them together to come up with a dessert, needn't we? But the arbitrary, yet deliberate on the part of the industry, connection between contemporaneity and freshness means that fashion and vogues will dictate our perception of the latter in the passage of time.

Which are YOUR "fresh fragrances"? What do you consider "fresh"?

other pics buttercom.com, metrolic.com