Fragrance segment spotlight: naturals and wellbeing defining the market

We caught up with Creezy Courtoy, Founder and Chairman of The Perfume Foundation​, a non-profit that describes itself as committed to increasing the positive awareness of issues related to the industry of perfume.

In this three-part guest article series, Courtoy takes us through the latest trends, challenges and opportunities for beauty and personal care fragrance. This is the first part of the series.

Exciting new fragrance consumer behaviours & trends​

Consumers are changing and asking more questions about what they buy. They are looking for new perfumers, custom perfumes, and natural perfumes.  

The perfume world is changing: they used to have around 10 perfume house making perfumes for hundreds of brands.

Today there are thousands of perfumers, and you can discover a new perfumer every day.

Impact of changes in consumer purchasing behaviour​

Changes in consumer purchasing behaviour  will have a profound effect on the fragrance industry in the near future worldwide.

Perfume retailing is also changing. The term most often seen that reflects some of these changes is “Retail Ice Age” which refers to US consumers abandoning their visits to suburban shopping malls and department store chains.

These chains have closed thousands of stores already and many hundreds more are scheduled for closing.

Department stores represent the vast majority of fragrance purchases, so each time a store closes, thousands of consumers who purchased fragrances in that store now have to look for another source for their perfume.

This presents new perfumers a perfect opportunity to convince consumers to try new perfumes.

Naturals and wellbeing defining the market​

The need for natural products to fit consumers’ healthier lifestyles as hugely impacted the food, beverage and many other consumer industries.

Consumers want to know what is in their perfumes, just like they want to know about other products they buy. A list of molecules written on the packaging has a really negative effect and will change consumer behaviour. They are looking for natural products.

If you buy a rose at a flower shop or a lemon at the grocery store, you know what you are buying and you can also choose a “bio” lemon or a certain type of rose.  

Consumers are asking for more transparency in their perfume purchase, if they want natural perfume, they will not accept the “image of natural”.

Natural perfumes is not a trend like the oud trend or a pink colored perfume. Natural perfume has standards and respect the New Luxury Code, therefore IPF is certifying the perfumers respecting these standards and the code.