As we continue to look forward to next year, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 20 fragrance brand founders and executives the following questions: What fragrance trends do you think will rise in 2024? What fragrance trends do you think will be over in 2024?
ANNA WEATHERLAKE
Co-Founder, Váhy
Therapy In A Bottle/Functional Fragrance: The aromatherapy aspect of fragrance notes hasn’t been at the forefront historically. However, with more focus than ever before on mood and mental health, we think the functionality of fragrance is going to be a big trend in 2024.
Picking beautiful organic natural notes that provide aromatherapy benefits will be important. For example, citrus notes to uplift and inspire, sandalwood to calm and release anxiety.
Dupes: We think the dupe culture is dying off. Just like you don’t want to be spotted sporting fake designer wear, we think that fragrance dupes are on their way out as people don’t want to smell like a cheaper version of something original.
We also think that people are now more than ever wanting to smell unique and head turning, not just like everyone else in mass made scents. We love how people are now layering their scents to create blends that are truly unique to them, so creative and some of the combinations are truly stunning.
KATE MACDONALD
Co-Founder, Váhy
Ingredient Transparency And Authenticity: In every other area of beauty people are demanding to know what they put in and on their bodies so they can ensure it is only the highest quality ingredients and no known harmful chemicals. We see this trend continuing to grow and to spread into fragrance.
Brands can currently use terms like “fragrance” that have no defined meaning and can shield thousands of different chemicals. However, just because they can hide their ingredients doesn’t mean ethically they should. We think that the public will the force the long overdue change by putting social pressure on these big companies to disclose what’s actually in their products.
It’s already starting to happen, and we’re so excited for this change! We think it’ll prompt a lot of big fragrance houses to finally stop using ingredients associated with harmful health outcomes and be a huge step forward for public health and wellness.
Sustainable Sourcing: This ties into ingredient transparency, but we think 2024 will have an increased focus on ensuring ingredients are sourced sustainably from certified, traceable sources. Innovative sourcing will be absolutely key like our orange oil, which is sourced from upcycled orange peel from the organic orange juice trade creating a zero-waste environment.
We think that people will lean into these sustainable raw ingredients over their lab-made petrochemical counterparts. We also think that all aspects of packaging will be focused on from a sustainability perspective with a big push towards plastic neutrality.
Greenwashing: With all the big class actions against greenwashing in the past year, we think that retailers are now taking a close look at “clean” claims. Customers and retailers alike are becoming more savvy and asking questions behind claims of “clean” or “natural” formulations. They want to know the actual makeup of the formulations, and there are a plethora of apps now that can help by scanning products and advising if they are actually clean.