If you’ve been sniffing your way through department store counters lately and feeling like every bottle smells vaguely the same — vanilla, sugar, a whisper of something warm — you’re not imagining it. The gourmand wave has saturated the shelves, and the people who make perfume for a living are quietly pivoting toward something stranger. What’s coming next isn’t about smelling polished. It’s about smelling like you have a point of view.
Below, a walk through the shift: what’s driving it, the notes leading the charge, and where the perfumers shaping this moment say it goes from here.
The Pivot Away From Pure Sweetness Is Already Underway
Gourmand fragrances — perfumes built on edible, dessert-like notes — are still everywhere. But perfumer Alberto Morillas predicts the trend is moving toward something more complex. “These notes are quite simple,” Morillas tells Refinery 29, “but a perfume with true depth features a slight bitterness to it.”
His shortlist for that bitterness: artichoke, herbs like thyme, grass such as vetiver and plants like cypriol. These aren’t notes designed to make you smell delicious. They’re designed to make you smell considered.
Contrast Is the New Signature
Once you accept that sweetness alone isn’t the goal, the next move is tension. Consumers are increasingly drawn to fragrances that pair opposing ideas inside the same bottle — sweet plus smoky, green plus floral, earthy plus clean, savory plus sweet, mineral plus woody.
The appeal isn’t smelling conventionally beautiful. It’s smelling memorable. A fragrance with contrast gives the nose something to work through, which is why these scents tend to linger in other people’s memory the way a flat sugary one doesn’t.
The Notes Doing the Heavy Lifting Right Now
If you want to understand where perfumery is heading, look at the ingredients showing up again and again in the briefs:
- Tomato leaf
- Wet soil and petrichor
- Matcha
- Ink
- Smoke
- Salt
- Fig leaf
- Mushroom and other earthy notes
- Tea
- Herbs and vegetables
Notice what’s missing. There’s no sugar, no caramel, no cotton candy. The list reads more like a walk through a damp garden than a trip to the bakery, and that’s the point.
Perfume Is Being Asked to Transport You Somewhere Specific
Beyond individual notes, there’s a shift in what a fragrance is supposed to do. Jasmina Aganovic, founder of Future Society, tells New Beauty: “Rather than smelling like a single ingredient or traditional fragrance family, people are increasingly drawn to fragrances that capture an ephemeral environment: clouds, fresh air after a storm, humidity-laden forests and more. There’s a growing appetite for scents that transport you somewhere or make you feel immersed in a different place.”
That reframes the whole project. A perfume isn’t a flavor profile anymore — it’s a location. Air after a thunderstorm. A fogged-in forest floor. The job is atmosphere, not accessory.
Salt Is the Breakout Note Bridging Old and New
One ingredient captures the shift better than any other: sea salt. It’s familiar enough to feel wearable, strange enough to signal that you’re paying attention. Mary Testa-Gough, associate vice president of product and fragrance development at Bath & Body Works, tells PureWow: “Over the last few years, we are seeing sea salt becoming a more fashion-forward fragrance trend. It creates a more faceted sensorial contrast.”
Her read on how it layers is a near-perfect map of where mainstream perfumery is drifting. Salt, she says, “pairs beautifully with blue aquatic watery notes, musk, creamy vertical woods and amber, sandalwood, cedar, oud, solar florals such as orange blossom. When combined with tropical fruits such as mango, passionfruit [and] pineapple, sea salt amplifies the juiciness while adding a savory mineral quality that feels both unexpected and addictive.”
Translation: the sweet notes aren’t disappearing. They’re being roughed up on purpose.
What This Means for the Bottle on Your Dresser
Put the pieces together and the direction is clear. Perfumery is edging away from flattery and toward distinction. The notes gaining ground — bitter herbs, wet earth, ink, smoke, salt — aren’t trying to charm anyone on first sniff. They’re trying to stick. If the last decade of fragrance rewarded the person who smelled richest, the next one looks like it will reward the person who smells most like themselves. Watch the launches rolling out through 2026, and expect fewer desserts, more weather.
