The future is fluid and ever-changing. An “accurate” prediction made one day based on available information may become completely irrelevant shortly after when new information becomes available. However, some things, like trending perfumes, are easier to predict based on trends and the predictions tend to stay accurate and reliable. With that said, 2024 is upon us and it’s time to look into the crystal ball-shaped perfume bottle to see what year’s biggest women’s perfume and men’s aftershave trends are going to be. 

Rihanna Who?

Every celebrity and their mum releases a fragrance these days. If you’ve seen them in a movie or listened to their songs, chances are they will release a fragrance sooner rather than later. To be fair, some of those fragrances were quite good (we are still obsessed with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely Eau De Parfum and we are still hoping for a re-release of Lady Gaga’s innovative Fame Eau De Parfum), but the market is becoming flooded and having a famous personality on a perfume box won’t be enough to sell a product anymore. People want good-quality perfumes at more affordable price points (which, except for a few rare instances, has not been the case for celebrity perfumes in a few years).   

Hidden Gems Becoming Mainstream

To the chagrin of many dedicated perfume enthusiasts, 2024 will mark the year where niche fragrances will become more mainstream and effectively lose their niche status. This trend will be driven by increased consumer demand for unique and personalised scents, leading larger fragrance houses to acquire smaller, independent brands. As a result, once-exclusive scents will become more widely available, blurring the lines between high-end and mass-market offerings. The traditional appeal of niche fragrances, rooted in their exclusivity and artisanal quality, may diminish as they become more accessible. However, this shift could also spark innovation within the industry, as new niche brands emerge to fill the gap left by those joining the mainstream market.

Scent Psychology and Scent Layering

There is wisdom (and hard science) behind why we associate certain scents with certain emotions. This wisdom has been passed down for centuries and has been ever-present in the creation of perfumes, but 2024 will represent the culmination (or at least the first major peak) of this knowledge in the industry. Instead of going with conventional notes and perfume structure, people will seek more personalised scents that resonate with their individual emotional and psychological profiles. 

The scent psychology trend will see the rise of customised fragrances, tailored not just to personal tastes but also to specific emotional states and memories. As a result, scent psychology will play a pivotal role in product development, with brands leveraging this to create deeper, more meaningful connections with consumers. An extension of this scent is scent layering, a concept that has been advocated by Perfume Direct for the past year. The idea is that there is no single perfume that is best for a single purpose, and that you can instead mix and match a variety of different fragrances to create something unique to you.

A Year Of Self-Exploration

Predicting which perfume will become a hit or what trend will take over isn't as straightforward as you might think. We can make educated guesses based on what sells the most and on what our clients tell us, but that doesn't mean we have some secret insider knowledge on what will and won’t be popular in 2024. That being said, the predictions above are based on hard trends we noticed at the tail-end of 2023, which means they are only set to evolve and expand in 2024.

2024 will be a year of self-exploration and experimentation. Outward trends are giving way to inward reflection, setting the stage for you to find what you like independent of what others may like or enjoy.