Beauty

These Are The 21 Best New Perfumes To Shop Now

And the five biggest fragrance trends to know this season.

by Sam Neibart
We may receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

If the wild popularity of #FragranceTok is any indication (the hashtag currently has 2.2 billion views), beauty lovers are more obsessed with perfumes than ever before. The days of testing fragrances only with the idea of honing in on a signature scent seem to be a left in the past. And who wouldn’t want to explore the options of having a robust scent wardrobe? With all kinds of brands ranging from designer to niche constantly coming out with new fragrances, there are endless promises of new personalities you can slip in and out of with just a spritz.

In the hopes of increasing your fragrance collection, it might be hard to know what to buy that will not only expand your fragrance horizons, but also satisfy your sensibilities (especially when shopping almost exclusively online). So, we asked some of the top perfume creators about the types of scents everyone is going to be loving this season, from the nostalgic to the unexpected. Read on for the five biggest upcoming fragrance trends and the new perfumes you’ll be lusting over this season.

1. Going Nuts

Tasty gourmand scents including notes of vanilla, chocolate, and caramel have been increasingly popular over the past few years and the trend shows no sign of slowing down. But now, the next evolution of delectable perfumes is here: buttery and sweet nut-inspired scents. “We're nuts for nuts,” says Bee Shapiro, founder of Ellis Brooklyn. “The nutty aspect [of gourmands] lends an even more addictive quality when done right,” she says. If you like fragrances that smell like dessert, scents with pistachio, pecan, and even peanut notes are just the right topping.

Peanut
DS & Durga

As a follow up to their extremely popular Pistachio fragrance. D.S. & Durga has created their next sure-to-sell out, limited-edition Studio Juice, Peanut. It’s somehow lightly sugary and warmly earthy at the same time, if you prefer to smell yummy, but not like a cupcake.

2. Fruit Salad Scents

“Fruits are all the rage right now,” says Shapiro, and the combinations of produce that make up these new scents are more abundant than a smoothie bar. Of course orange and pear are classics, but we’re also seeing cherry, apple, lychee, peach, and even more flavors. “Juiciness can convey a range of emotions,” says Shapiro, so depending on the final recipe, fruity scents convey playful youthfulness or come-hither sensuality, she says. You can take your pick.

3. Garden Fresh Fragrances

On the other side of the farmer’s market, green vegetable scents are also on the rise. “Fresh, earthy fragrances with unique vegetable notes offer a more interesting scent experience from traditional floral and fruit notes,” says Maison Margiela fragrances’s master perfumer Olivier Cresp. Vegetable scents, he says evoke simplicity and peaceful memories of connecting with nature. Think of smelling like a healthy snack as the counterbalance to the hyper-feminine fragrance trends — these fragrances are light, uplifting, and totally genderless.

4. Even Better Ambergis

If you actually prefer not to smell like something edible, the category of woody and musky “skin scents,” called ambergris, might be more appealing. This season however, these fragrances are getting upgraded from super subtle to more striking, when used in conjunction with other notes that give them a little more oomph. D.S. & Durga perfumer David Moltz particularly thinks people will be loving ambergris when mixed with ozone notes (the notes responsible for airy, fresh fragrances) that make the ocean-like and earthy elements smell even more realistic.

5. Classics With A Twist

Nostalgia has been a driving force in fragrance shopping for so long, but Moltz believes people are finally getting more experimental with their fragrances choices again, post-pandemic. But bridging that gap is easier when you mix something you know and love in with the new. “We like well-made things of old but want them new and fresh,” he says. These are certainly not your mother’s fragrances, even if they might remind you of them.