This fragrance CEO says perfume’s popularity is the new ‘lipstick effect’

Many categories in US retail have been challenged in recent years, but fragrance isn’t one of them.

The segment has continued to pass the smell test with consumers, seeing positive dollar and unit sales across both mass and luxury in the first half of 2026, according to Circana. Retailers and brands are taking note: Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman last month highlighted the category as a “growth driver,” while Gap and Victoria’s Secret and labels like Tommy Hilfiger and Valentino have doubled down on fragrance this year.

Fragrance giant Interparfums has seen this demand firsthand, particularly in the US. The company, which develops fragrances for fashion brands like Coach, Lacoste, DKNY, GUESS, and Kate Spade, and retailers like Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, reported last month its US sales soared 18% in the second quarter. And it’s heading into a major year in 2027, with six of its largest brands, including Coach, Montblanc, and Jimmy Choo, planning “blockbuster” launches, along with its first launches from new licenses with Longchamp and Off-White, CEO and Chair Jean Madar told Retail Brew.

Madar, who co-founded Interparfums in 1992, has seen the segment evolve rapidly in the US in recent years: The company’s e-commerce business grew 30%–40% in the first half of the year, signaling a major shift in how consumers are shopping for scents. Madar shared how the company is adjusting to the changing landscape.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Q2 sales were pretty notable in the US. What’s driving the US business right now?

The momentum for the fragrance category is really high. We have seen it coming for a couple of years, but right now, I will say that it’s at its max.

In the US in particular, we’ve seen really a change in who is buying, how they are buying. Consumers increasingly view fragrance as part of self-expression and their lifestyle. And the same way that they have more than one shirt and they have more than one pant and they have more than one bag, so they have more than one fragrance. And I will say on the top of that, remember what used to be called the “lipstick effect”?...I think today the “lipstick effect” has become the “fragrance effect.” Why? Because by wearing a fragrance, it delivers a very strong emotional experience.

How are consumers shopping for fragrance now and thinking about price?

Fragrance remains the most accessible way to enter the luxury brand. We have a license with Van Cleef & Arpels. What can you get for $200 that is branded like Van Cleef & Arpels? Only a fragrance, of course. So people are reacting to that.

How are you as a company adjusting to the change in who’s buying perfumes?

dfaGen Z…were not part of our consumer, so we have to really take care of this target in terms of advertising, in terms of smell, in terms of bottles, so they are an important part. But the large part of our consumer is a classic consumer that has been buying fragrance before, but is buying more than before, more than one, more than two bottles, more than three bottles. Look at the success of Amazon and TikTok. On TikTok, you cannot smell. On Amazon, you cannot smell. People buy things that they cannot smell just because we’re going to tell them about an ingredient story. We’re going to tell them that gourmand is the trend, and they have to have this new gourmand thing, and we’re going to have maybe influencers talking about it. But this is very new, where you don’t need to smell a fragrance to buy. We have been spending millions, tens of millions of dollars in sampling and in testers, and now we see people that are willing to buy without smelling. It may be the same consumer, but there is a new way to buy.

Has Interparfums’s strategy changed at all for online shopping?

What we found out, No. 1, is we were the first one to go on TikTok Shop and to go on Amazon, where everybody was worried. We were worried [about] the reaction of department stores—Sephora, Ulta, etc. But today, when you talk to Ulta and when you talk to Sephora, they tell you, “We want you to launch on TikTok. We want you to be strong on TikTok because when eventually you come to our brick-and-mortar store, you bring traffic.” So we can today have a strategy where we launch exclusively on e-commerce and we go to stores after.

As fragrance, especially in the US, has exploded in popularity, have you found that there are more fashion brands, retailers, etc. that are interested in launching a fragrance that hadn’t before?

Definitely. In the last 18 months, we have been contacted almost every week by people who didn’t think that they could have a fragrance, but they tell you, “Look, I have X millions of followers. Do you think I can translate that to a demand for a fragrance?” So we analyze carefully…We say no many times, but we take the time to analyze. It’s not because you have 10 million followers on Instagram that you can launch a fragrance. You also need to understand the kind of desirability [and] attraction for a new fragrance.