Beauty giants target Gen Z and women in scent surge

Fragrance has solidified itself as a lucrative market in the personal care industry, with a plethora of brands expanding into the sector with targeted scent launches. 

According to Reuters, NYX Professional Makeup made its foray into fragrance with four hair and body mist products. Parent company L’Oréal positions the new products as an affordable, TikTok-native entry into the fast-growing mass scent market. The launch is a deliberate play for Gen Z consumers. 

In another effort to target the digital-first generation, Diesel has entered the women’s fragrance category for the first time with Only Desire, a L’Oréal-licensed Eau de Parfum. The release was inaugurated with Gen Z actress and singer Dove Cameron as global ambassador.

Meanwhile, also squaring in on women’s fragrance, Coty has debuted the first female scent in the Boss Bottled line. The fragrance is meant to function as an equal counterpart to the men’s franchise rather than a spin-off. The release also leverages celebrity influence, fronted by a trio featuring an actress, a musician, and an Olympic athlete. 

NYX enters mass fragrance targeting Gen Z 

L’Oréal is pushing NYX Professional Makeup into fragrance. The strategy was set out by Fabrice Mégarbane, president of L’Oréal’s consumer products unit, in remarks to Reuters on the sidelines of the Consumer Goods Forum in Vienna on June 29. 

He described it as the brand’s “first attempt to go to fragrance in a more accessible way, a more fun way,” and framed the body-care expansion as a means of diversifying NYX’s portfolio while makeup demand stagnates.

The “lipstick effect,” also known as treatonomics, is an economic indicator describing how consumers cut back on major purchases while increasing spending on small indulgences, such as cosmetics, during periods of economic uncertainty. However, this go-around fragrance has emerged as the new “lipstick effect,” with consumers reaching for scents as their pick-me-up. 

“Over the past years, we have seen a clear evolution of the traditional lipstick effect into a fragrance effect: people choosing scents as their go-to emotional lift. Fragrance delivers the strongest return on mood for a manageable spend,” Amaury de Vallois, Coty’s executive VP for the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, previously told Personal Care Insights.

The new mists sit within NYX’s Fat Oil Body collection, which the brand launched in April 2026 as an extension of its Fat Oil lip-oil franchise. At its release, the Fat Oil Body collection signaled the company’s strategic evolution toward full-body beauty and consumers using cosmetics as self-expression.Diesel enters women’s fragrance for the first time with Only Desire, fronted by Dove Cameron. 

The hair and body fragrances come in playful, social-forward scent names — Suga Baddie (vanilla and whipped cream), Caramelt Mami (caramel and pistachio), Coconut Cutie (coconut and peach), and Juicy Boo (clementine and mango). They are packaged in colorful pill-shaped bottles. 

The formulas are marketed as vegan and designed to layer with matching Fat Oil body oils, butters, and lotions. They’re sold on NYX’s website, TikTok Shop, Target, and Ulta. 

Diesel debuts women’s fragrance

Diesel has tapped actress and singer Dove Cameron as global ambassador for its first-ever women’s fragrance. The denim brand describes her as “a trusted voice among Gen Z” with over 74 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. 

The launch is designed to mark a new Diesel era, captured in the manifesto: “My Desire. My Power.” The brand says it celebrates feminine desire not as an impulse to be suppressed, but as a transformative, definitive energy for the contemporary woman.

For the scent, Diesel and L’Oréal’s Luxe division are leaning on novelty. The “metallic vanilla” fragrance pairs Madagascar Bourbon vanilla with metallic aldehydes, plus a proprietary “Desire-Trigger Accord,” composed by perfumers Nelly Hachem-Ruiz and Paul Guerlain. 

Boss extends Bottled franchise to women 

Coty’s Boss has expanded its Boss Bottled fragrance franchise into women’s scent for the first time with Boss Bottled Beyond for Her. The product was announced under the brand’s “Boss Recognize Boss” platform. 

The launch follows the 2025 debut of the men’s Boss Bottled Beyond, the brand’s first premium leather-ginger Eau de Parfum, and directly mirrors its campaign structure.

Three global ambassadors front the scent as female counterparts to the men’s line-up of Bradley Cooper, Maluma, and Vinícius Júnior. The women include Academy Award-winning actress Jessica Chastain, multi-platinum singer Becky G, and Olympic long-jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall. Coty told Glossy it picked them for credibility in their respective fields rather than to target a specific age group or market. 

Davis-Woodhall’s casting signals the growing crossover between sport and beauty as brands reach beyond traditional actors and musicians.

Boss Bottled Beyond for Her is a peony–maple syrup Eau de Parfum designed to be a dialogue between floral radiance and warm sweetness. The scent was developed over three years with Givaudan perfumers. It comes in 30ml, 50ml, and 100ml, all refillable via a 150ml refill, plus a 10ml pen spray and a perfumed body lotion. 

Coty is merchandising the men’s and women’s fragrances together, framing Boss Bottled as a masterbrand — “a couple of equals,” in the words of a Coty executive. Coty expands its Boss Bottled franchise into women’s scent with a trio of celebrity ambassadors. 

Beauty giants pile into scent 

The new launches build on other brands such as Olaplex and Eos, and E.L.F Cosmetics, making their entrances into fragrances. 

Last week, Olaplex, the hair care brand specializing in bond repair treatments, expanded into the fragrance category with the launch of its limited edition Signature Hair and Body mist. The mist’s scent profile draws directly from the brand’s hero products, including its No.3 Hair Protector and No.7 Bonding Oil.

Also in mists, Eos launched a range of body mists at the end of last year, marking its entrance into the US fragrance market. The personal care brand said the range responds to popular consumer demand for an Eos fragrance line amid the success of its body care collection. 

In January this year, Swedish fashion retailer H&M and E.L.F. Cosmetics entered the fragrance market together.

Beyond brands stepping into scent, beauty companies have also been investing in new fragrance technologies and adjusting their portfolios for the sector. 

Last month, it was rumored that Estée Lauder Companies was assembling a North American Fragrance Cluster to unify its US perfume brand portfolio within one initiative. The move was said to strengthen and streamline the beauty conglomerate’s fragrance portfolio, leveraging the segment’s growing market momentum.

At the same time, Unilever announced the opening of a fragrance hub in Mumbai, India, strengthening its footprint in the burgeoning Indian beauty market. The lab will leverage consumer insights, neuroscience technology, and AI feedback to produce fragrances that drive growth as part of the company’s Desire at Scale marketing strategy.

Lastly, Givaudan revealed it will acquire a majority stake in Eurofragance to bolster its fine fragrance position. The deal aligns with Givaudan’s 2030 strategy, aiming to expand its presence and capabilities across local and regional markets to drive sustained business growth.