This week: Fragrance has spent years moving away from the idea that certain smells belong to men and others to women. Now, online communities are assigning perfumes a whole new set of identities.
From queer fragrance stereotypes to a perfumer exploring religion, cruising and emotional wounds, two recent Dazed stories offer different perspectives on the relationship between scent, sexuality and self-expression.
One asks what our fragrance choices might reveal to other people. The other explores what we choose to communicate through perfume.
Elsewhere this week, three pop stars are putting their names to fragrance, a London perfume shop is disappearing with every purchase, and we're rounding up the scent experiences happening across the capital and further afield.
what’s in the air
The fragrance stories worth knowing this week →
Pop stars are having a fragrance moment
Madonna translates Like a Prayer and Confessions into candles with Boy Smells, Drake marks his 40th birthday with Dosayado, and Britney Spears adds Goddess Fantasy, a mango, floral and vanilla-buttercream scent, to her perfume collection. Three different ways of turning musical identity into something fans can smell.
The perfume shop selling itself
London fragrance house 12_things packages each perfume inside a reclaimed bank-vault drawer taken directly from its Hackney Road store. Every purchase removes another part of the interior until the shop eventually disappears.
An advent calendar that starts at Christmas
Maison Francis Kurkdjian's £965 Countdown Calendar opens between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, with seven gifts including Grand Soir, Oud Satin Mood and Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait.
Two new fragrance edits arrive
Liberty's The Gift of a Signature Scent brings together 11 fragrances, including Fugazzi Purple, Ex Nihilo Demon Dancer and Vilhelm Parfumerie Morning Chess, for £110 (worth £384). Meanwhile, Selfridges has released The Ultimate Fragrance Edit, featuring ten niche scents from houses including Ormonde Jayne, Matière Première, Mind Games and Nishane.
Estée Lauder searches for a new signature
With Glimmer, an amber floral created by Dominique Ropion, Anne Flipo and Jean-Marc Chaillan, Estée Lauder is seeking a contemporary fragrance identity. The composition combines rose, patchouli, amber and gourmand notes, with Hailee Steinfeld fronting the campaign.
Eredi Zucca arrives at Selfridges
Italian fragrance house Eredi Zucca joins Selfridges with ten eaux de parfum, including Santo, Cuoio, Narciso and Ultima Cena. The collection is listed as exclusive to the retailer, with prices starting at £250 for 100ml.
Florentine fragrance at Liberty
Dr. Vranjes Firenze's distinctive glass diffusers and Italian home-fragrance compositions are part of Liberty's fragrance offering. The house draws on Florence's artistic heritage, treating scent as part of interior design.
scent about town
Where fragrance is happening in London (and in Windsor) →
Darbar: Indian Bazaar
The Barbican's Indian bazaar brings together independent makers across fragrance, fashion, jewellery and craft, including EsQue Perfume. Explore scent alongside traditional and contemporary Indian design.
Saturday 31 October–Sunday 1 November, 11am–8pm · Barbican Centre, Silk Street · Free · Details
Behind the Scenes of Diptyque
Explore Diptyque's heritage and creative process in a guided fragrance workshop. The ticket price is redeemable against purchases made on the day.
Saturday 31 October, 11am–12.30pm · Maison Diptyque, 107 New Bond Street · £63 · Details
Build a Scent That's Uniquely Yours
Explore fragrance combining with Jo Malone London, learning how to layer colognes and scented body products to create different scent profiles. Tickets are redeemable against qualifying purchases.
Saturday 31 October & Saturday 7 November, 12pm · John Lewis, 300 Oxford Street · £10 + fees · Tickets
Scent Alchemy: Perfume Making
Work with essential oils and carrier oils to create two personalised aromatic compositions in a practical workshop.
Saturday 31 October & Saturday 7 November, 1–3pm · Red Glasses Workshops, New Covent Garden Market · £55 · Tickets
Create Your Own Bespoke Fragrance with Maya Njie
Explore fragrance materials, from citrus and spices to woods and resins, before developing your own formula with independent perfumer Maya Njie. Take take home a bespoke fragrance and a record of your composition.
Sunday 1 November, 10am–12pm · LF Markey, 50 Dalston Lane · Tickets
The Art of Scent: When Fragrance Becomes an Artistic Medium
Hosted by Maya Armon as part of CLIQ's Art Through Unexpected Lenses series, this evening explores fragrance as an artistic medium. In collaboration with PUDRIG, a perfume house centred on art and community, the event examines connections between scent, creativity and personal expression.
Tuesday 3 November, 6–8pm · The Bridge, London · £10 · Tickets
Botanical Perfume Masterclass
Explore the history of botanical perfumery, from aromatic plants to contemporary fragrance composition. Participants learn about essential oils, absolutes and perfume structure before creating a natural perfume rollerball. Currently sold out but keep an eye out for waitlist openings.
Tuesday 3 November, 6–8pm · Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Road · £40 · Details
Unveil the Art of Fragrance with Guerlain
Discover the history and composition of L'Heure Bleue with Guerlain beauty expert Holly Ellis, followed by a personalised fragrance consultation. Tickets are redeemable against qualifying purchases.
Wednesday 4 November, 4–5.30pm · John Lewis, 300 Oxford Street · £15 · Tickets
Trudon Home & Perfume Masterclass
Explore the French house's home fragrances and perfumes with guidance from its team. The evening includes refreshments and an exclusive gift with purchase, with tickets redeemable against purchases during the event.
Wednesday 4 November, 6.30–8.30pm · Barnbury, 114–116 Fulham Road · £25 · Tickets
Find the Perfect Gift with Floral Street
A festive ScentSchool session introducing Floral Street's fragrances, perfume mists and discovery sets. Guests receive a complimentary drink and goodie bag, with tickets redeemable against purchases on the day.
Thursday 5 November, 5.30–6.15pm · John Lewis, Westfield London, White City · £10 · Tickets
Christmas Lights and Fragrance at Molton Brown
Celebrate Regent Street's Christmas lights switch-on with fragrance consultations, personalised gifting and bottle engraving at Molton Brown. A live illustrator will also create complimentary portraits with purchases.
Thursday 5 November, 4–8pm · Molton Brown, 227 Regent Street · Free · Tickets
Maison Margiela Replica Fragrance Discovery
Join fragrance expert Cristian Angelino for a guided introduction to the Replica collection, exploring the memories behind the scents and how to combine them through layering.
Thursday 5 November, 12.30–1.30pm · John Lewis, Wood Street, Kingston upon Thames · £15 · Tickets
Meet the Founder: Told London
Meet a co-founder of British home-fragrance house Told London and hear the stories and influences behind its candles and diffusers.
Thursday 5 November, 6.30–8pm · Dot Perfume Gallery, Windsor · Tickets
in rotation
What’s on our Christmas wishlist →
The Opulent — Arabic Calligraphy Diffusers
The Opulent incorporates Arabic calligraphy into sculptural concrete reed diffusers and bakhoor burners, turning written language into the physical structure of a fragrance object.
The collection also includes Yemeni bakhoor, connecting contemporary home fragrance design with traditional incense rituals.
Le Labo — Concrete Home Diffuser
Le Labo turns its Santal 26 home fragrance into a piece of industrial design.
A hand-cast concrete casing, exposed Edison-style bulb and nebulising mechanism make the diffuser as much a lighting object as a fragrance accessory. The concrete is designed to develop a patina over time.
Houseplant × Droplet — Scent Burner
Houseplant and British fragrance company Droplet return with a third collaboration, this time built around an amber-glass fragrance burner.
Inspired by laboratory equipment, the hand-blown glass vessel hangs inside a solid brass frame, with a tealight gently warming the fragrance.
The design makes the process of scenting a room visible, turning a functional object into part of the ritual.
OUAI — St. Barts Solid Fragrance
OUAI has translated its St. Barts fragrance into a limited-edition solid perfume presented as a festive ornament.
The compact format carries the original composition's tropical floral character, with dragon fruit, orange blossom, tuberose and amber, offering an alternative to a conventional spray.
The seasonal packaging turns personal fragrance into something designed to be displayed or given as a gift.
Meadow Farm × Olfactive O — New Earth Candle
British makers Meadow Farm and Olfactive O have collaborated on a limited-edition candle translating Olivia da Costa's New Earth fragrance into home scent.
Hand-poured by Meadow Farm founder Rachel Scott, the 180g candle brings together green leaves, aromatic herbs and warm earth, capturing the original perfume's connection to the natural environment.
Priced at £35, the candle was created in support of Beauty Banks, the charity tackling hygiene poverty across the UK. The full £15 profit from each sale is donated to its work.
The small-batch release connects two independent makers through a shared interest in scent, craft and everyday wellbeing.
the air we wear
How fragrance moves through everyday life →
Can you smell someone's sexuality?
From queer perfume stereotypes to the Pope's tailor, scent is becoming a language of identity and desire.
A bottle of Dior Sauvage apparently says something very different from a bottle of Le Labo Santal 33.
At least that's the premise behind a growing fascination with what someone's perfume choices might reveal about their sexuality.
Beauty editor Derek Deng has collected more than 25,000 responses about fragrance preferences and identity, gathering information through online questionnaires and personal encounters.
His research has become part of a wider conversation about queer fragrance preferences and the stereotypes associated with particular scents.
In a recent Dazed feature, Jude Jones examines why certain perfumes become associated with different sexual identities, and why the internet is so interested in classifying their wearers.
The fascination is understandable.
Fragrance is intimate. We notice it at close range, often when someone enters our personal space. We associate particular smells with previous relationships, attraction and people we've known.
But there's a contradiction in the way we talk about it.
As fragrance marketing increasingly moves away from traditional categories of men's and women's perfume, online communities are busy assigning scents new identities of their own.
A perfume might be described as masculine, feminine, queer or associated with a particular dating archetype, sometimes based on little more than cultural assumptions about its wearers.
Elsewhere in Dazed, another story explores what happens when sexuality becomes part of the perfume itself.
Filippo Sorcinelli is an Italian artist who designs liturgical garments for Catholic clergy, including popes. He's also the founder of UNUM, a perfume house whose work explores religion, intimacy, desire, pain and memory.
His fragrance Vulnus takes its name from the Latin word for wound.
The bottle evokes bruised skin, complete with a bite mark. Inside, metallic, leather and gourmand accords explore the relationship between physical injury, vulnerability and desire.
Other fragrances in Sorcinelli's collection reference cruising and fleeting sexual encounters, placing experiences often considered taboo alongside the religious imagery that informs much of his work.
For Sorcinelli, perfume becomes a means of expressing emotional and physical experiences that don't fit comfortably into conventional descriptions of beauty.
These two stories reveal different sides of the same relationship between fragrance and identity.
Deng's research explores the meanings people attach to the fragrances worn by others.
Sorcinelli uses fragrance to communicate meanings of his own.
One is about being interpreted. The other is about expressing something.
And that raises a more interesting question than whether a particular perfume makes someone smell gay, straight, masculine or feminine.
When we choose a fragrance, are we trying to tell people something about ourselves, or are we simply wearing something we love?
Perhaps the answer changes depending on who's doing the smelling.
Further reading
notes to self
Perfume is the invisible, unforgettable, fashionable accessory that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.
