Scentmaxxing: GenZ's New Routine Routine

What even is scentmaxxing?

Of course you need a nightly 12-step scented routine after your 10-step perfume layering in the morning. Why do you ask?

Scentmaxxing isn't new by any means, but it's even more intense than ever. At its base, it's the process of layering fragrances to create your own scent that will last you from sun-up to sun-down, but it's truly become a movement in it of itself.

The term "scentmaxxing" came about around 2025, a fragrance term piggybacking off of the skyrocketing trend of "looksmaxxing". Looksmaxxing is a self-improvement term born out of mid-2010s chatrooms on platforms like 4chan. It tends to reference very extreme lifestyles that stop at nothing to achieve a "perfect" look, with creators like Braden Peters, known online as Clavicular, going as far as to inject himself with diy blends of medications and hormones and "bonesmashing" (aka creating small fractures so that your cheekbones heal back stronger and more aesthetically).

If you open TikTok at any given time, you're sure to stumble on creators with rooms filled to the brim with shelves of body scrubs, bodywashes, perfume bottles, body mists, lotions, etc. More product than 10 people can use in one lifetime.

And consumers aren't too far behind. Fragrance sales are projected to hit 64.01 billion dollars this year, 137.5% up from 2020's 46.54 billion.

Online shopping is now making up 6.5% of fragrance sales and is projected to make up 15.8% in 2030. This is compared to a measly 2.9% in 2018 and is especially shocking in an industry so based in experience and sense that can't be translated visually. Perfume ads are famous for being abstract and confusing. But influencers and brands have learned how to navigate how to sell without a smell.

So how are brands responding?

One way brands are leaning into the trend is launching lines as multi-product collections. The collection might contain 3 fragrances, but they're being launched as fine fragrance, body mist, lotion, bodywash, body scrub, laundry detergent, and the list goes on. The easiest way for consumers to break into a multi-step routine is for them to use the same scent from the same brand across all of their products.

The other think that's been coming out of the rise in multi-step routines is "single" or "two-note" fragrances. Shoppers are thinking about their products in the full picture. Maybe they layer a coconut body wash with a vanilla body scrub, a pineapple body lotion, and a cherry body mist to smell like a fresh pina colada. It's easier to layer and shop for different scents when you can easily imagine the end result and build them like a recipe. It's hard to know what body scrub and wash to mix with a incense violet rice perfume.

Another trend that brands are hopping onto are "skin-scents". These are scents that focus on sheer musks, delicate woods, and clean ambers. They're meant to be "your skin but better" and be smelled more in a hug than by a whole room of people. Scents that focus solely on these notes or with a "skin scent" base and more vibrant top notes are becoming more and more popular. It's a wide category, so brands are making their own claim on the trend. They're easily adaptable and easy to layer, making them perfect for the scentmaxxing trend.

So what's next?

As trending does, the pendulum will eventually swing back to the other extreme. Fragrance may take a turn for single-step routines and complex fine fragrance in a few years, but only time will tell. Scentmaxxing has definitely worked its way up to the extreme. All that we can do as an industry is adapt to consumer wants and figure out how we can adapt our offerings to a market that turns on its head about once a day.