When It Comes to Fragrance, Boys, Too, Just Want to Have Fun

TikTok isn’t the only place where burgeoning fragrance communities are showing up and sharing thoughts in full force.

Fragrantica — the 2007-founded online fragrance forum (and encyclopedia of sorts) — has long been a hub for enthusiasts, and recently, the community has welcomed an influx of exploration-oriented men’s shoppers, too.

Indeed, while fragrance as a whole has continued to grow (and grow) in recent years, the boom in men’s — which comprises a third of the prestige fragrance business overall — has been outpacing that of the total category by several percentage points of late, according to Circana.

This momentum can be attributed to a few factors, among them the niche fragrance wave; an uptick in overall launches as the category swells, and an aging-down of the category’s youngest consumers as more teen and tween boys get into fragrance. (Last year, The Estée Lauder Cos. chief executive officer Stéphane de La Faverie told WWD that teen boys in recent years “have driven 26 percent” of the group’s fragrance growth).

There’s also the surge in men’s fragrance influencers: While Daniel Sredzinski, more commonly known as “Jeremy Fragrance” to his 10.1 million TikTok followers, is the most prominent example, countless others have emerged — and grown their audiences fast. There’s Evan Hall (@fragranceknowledge) with 1.1 million TikTok followers; Steven Gavrielatos (@redolessence), with 600,000-plus followers; Noel Thomas (@thenoelthomas), who counts 773,000-plus followers, and others, many of them teenagers.

On Fragrantica, the 10 most engaged with men’s fragrances during the month of March reflect this increasingly knowledgeable and experimental consumer. A limited-edition holiday flanker of Valentino Beauty‘s signature Uomo Born in Roma cologne continued to garner buzz for its spicy-gourmand blend even after its discontinuation; positive reviews for Dior’s recent Sauvage Eau Forte continue to roll in (“a banger,” reads the latest; “great hoodie scent,” reads another), and so on.