Essencional has dedicated the month of October to women in the fragrance industry. As we close the month, we catch up with Yosh Han, a real powerhouse in the sector who consults on perfume design, olfactive trends, and scent culture. She created the Scent Festival during the pandemic and has become a crusader behind the movement to decolonize scent. A frequent contributor to TikTok, she’s extremely savvy about all things digital and her industry connections are unparalleled. Not one to rest idle, she is also an open water scuba instructor, and she’s licensed to captain sail boats. A recent accident led to a broken ankle, which slowed her down enough so we could catch up.

Why don't you update me on some of your projects. What have you been up to lately?

At the beginning of the year, I was involved in an exhibition at the Institute for Art and Olfaction Gallery called Scents and Sonics of The Ocean, a project bringing together a perfumer, a sound artist, and a team of scientists to explore the sounds and scents of coastal Sapelo Island, Georgia. It was a multisensorial installation that allowed the public to learn from, and explore, the intersection of science, scent, and sound.

It has also been a prolific period for me to work on fragrance creation. I collaborated with Marie McCarthy of San Francisco-based Fiat Lux, an independent shop carrying hand-made jewelry, to create two fragrances celebrating our common love for the sea. Then there was a limited-edition scent, Hello Mes Amis, made for American Perfumer, the only retailer dedicated to American artisan perfume. This one was inspired by my South Pacific Odyssey when I sailed from Santa Barbara across the equator to Polynesia and back. As an advisor and evaluator for Amniens, we released two functional fragrances and have two more launching next year.

You remember Scent Trunk? I like to describe it as a perfume publishing house that commissions artisan perfumers to create Original Editions inspired by travel and provenance of focus ingredients according to an annual theme. Since we last spoke, we launched four fragrances in 2022 under the theme Land of Alchemy, and four in 2021 for Atmospheres. We’re getting ready to release candles and the new theme for 2025.

What else? Oh, I worked on a guided Smell Walk audio track for Ocean Memory Project, an organization that asks the question, does the ocean have a memory, and if so, what form does it take? It’s a cool way of engaging all of your senses while you’re out for a walk. In Summer 2025, I will have a multisensory residency designed to foster interdisciplinary exchange between the senses of touch, smell, and hearing, featuring composer Danny Clay, tactile artist Naomi Rosenberg, and myself.

So yes, I’ve been keeping busy!!

When we first spoke, the world was in the throes of the pandemic, which surprisingly has been a worldwide catalyst for fragrance. What are some of the most interesting developments you have seen that have impacted the interest and the sales of fragrance since that time?

Every brand must have discovery sets now and sampling programs as well as smaller travel sizes. At the same time though many brands have gone ultra deluxe with fragrances upwards of $700. I would say that AI has also entered the chat - so many companies are getting into digital olfaction in many areas - whether it's formulation, marketing or creating an experience.

Another huge change for the brand side is that suppliers aren’t asking for huge opening orders any more. I remember when I started my brand in 2024, many suppliers had 100,000 MOQ’s for bottles and caps separately, and then at some point they cut it to 50k, and now you can just order as little as 50 units! I handmade my boxes to do something more upscale because twenty years ago, packaging wasn’t as luxurious. Now you can manufacture something very high quality, especially since the Chinese manufacturers lowered their minimums, even with customization. The Institute for Art and Olfaction has partnered with various suppliers so independent perfumers can find resources through them. Students who want to do something independently, can make small batches – like 50 – and they call it a brand!

Decanting and swapping is another huge phenomenon. Even private individuals are buying fragrances at retail price, decanting and reselling to consumers because there’s a market for this - it’s all over the chat rooms, and at the prices they charge, they more than make back the amount of a full size fragrance. Swapping is the new Tupperware party, and there are even swap events that are sponsored by retailers.

Byredo, Frederic Malle, Killian, Le Labo all got purchased several years ago – and we ask, who’s next? Rather than go that route, certain niche brands are doing crowd equity funding so they give shares of the company in exchange for the investment. (Thomas de Monaco, Le Jardin Retrouvé) It’s an interesting concept that allows smaller brands to get funded.

In the early 2000's, when I was the buyer for Fragrance at Sephora based in San Francisco, there were numerous movements to make public spaces fragrance-free. Now everyone is looking for fragrances that are long lasting with projection. Do you think the current trend will continue or will there be an eventual backlash?

For a period, when I met people for the first time and introduced myself as a perfumer, people would back up, as if I had the plague. Now, people stick their body parts in my face and ask me to guess what they’re wearing! Now that I’m more involved in scent installations it’s lessened since the art world is now more curious about collaborating. I love the experience of creating with other talented minds, especially artists outside of the fragrance industry.

There was definitely a time during the fragrance-free movement where we thought, oh we’re not going to have jobs, and then COVID hit and it shifted things around. To say that fragrance has exploded is an understatement, even people in the industry are stunned.

People now understand the benefit of low projection fragrances vs going fragrance-free, though in medical and some professional spaces, fragrance free is the norm. Lots of younger people prefer an 'office friendly' scent meaning it's quiet rather than loud, and this includes airplanes, but in other public areas like the gym, it’s a must! As for concerts and restaurants - louder is acceptable! We’re having a return to the Obsession/Opium moment from the late 80’s, and people want their fragrance to announce their arrival. I think brands like Parfums de Marly, Xerjoff, Nishane, and Amouage have that projection and tenacity which is the trend now. People are obsessed with gourmands, including savory gourmands. The backlash is against the soapy clean musks – the feedback is, oh, it’s so sterile.

Let’s talk about social media as I know you’re quite active. What’s happening and what power does it have on fragrance today.

I post a lot on TikTok. One of my videos got 130k views! Many GenZ follow me, they consider me to be their fairy godmother and their go-to source for scent intel. Many of my mutals are TikTok superstars! My videos on decolonizing scent are the ones that get the most traction. I seem to be ageless on TikTok although this seems to be a younger person’s party. Fashion and Beauty are agist industries but PerfumeTok seems to be more forgiving and inclusive than the fragrance industry at large.

You can’t deny the power of social media especially when messages go viral. We've seen MANY brands canceled for a variety of reasons...especially bad attitude, bad customer service, racism, etc. There’s a huge Anti Dupe movement going on now as well. It’s largely Gen Z that’s leading the charge. Brands have to listen and react when they get it wrong, often by apologizing on public threads. People are asserting themselves; they’ll comment that they won’t buy from a brand anymore when the values don’t match their own. Sometimes, however, bad PR can spark an interest, so even if an influencer posts a negative review, it could have a positive effect on the brand, especially if they make an effort to change.

Aside from TikTok I see perfume lovers gathering on Discord, Reddit and Substack with some moving on to paid subscriptions whereas Gen X and older are more active on Facebook groups and Instagram. YouTube videos still have traction.

People want to see the brands in social media but it has to be honest – it can’t be the brand intern acting as a content creator. And if you work for a brand, be yourself, just don’t always talk about the brand otherwise it would be too obvious that you work for them!

One other thing I’ve noticed is that there’s a backlash against “gatekeeping”, when people won’t reveal what fragrance they’re wearing because they want to control access. Gatekeepers aren’t allowed on TikTok.

What are your thoughts on #PerfumeTok? Is it here for the long term?

It's here FOREVER! There are so many videos with multi-million views. Perfume Tok is like a cult , says Emily Jensen for Glossy magazine. Many brands are flying PerfumeTok creators on international for trips for their new launches and putting them up in luxury hotels. They’re being wooed and treated like glossy magazine editors of yesteryear!

French Girl perfume - Oh You Pretty Things spontaneously asked a stylish woman what perfume she was wearing. She pulled out a full bottle of Narcisco Rodriguez For Her Musc Noir Rose and it’s currently sitting at 18.4 million views.

Perfumerism’s post about Bianco Latte garnered 11 million views with subsequent posts by thousands of other TikTokers whose videos racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

If you do a Google search for what’s a popular fragrance you get one answer but if you add what’s popular on TikTok, you get a different answer. If you add #PerfumeTok, you get even more articles to read. TikTokers are the ones setting the trends and you even see magazines quoting them as experts now and fragrance brands launching new perfumes with them as creative directors or collaborations like Professor Perfume’s second fragrance, Honey Suite with Snif, Coterie of Creators with three TikTokers for Le Monde Gourmand (Jade Bodely, Ethan Gaskill, Caroline Stern) available on Amazon and Ulta Beauty and Funmi Monet’s Exalté with Bella Aura.

Take someone like Scout Dixon West. She has a particular style and a rock-star vibe, and she talks about fragrance intelligently with a charming cadence. She called out to the teenage boys, and asked, ‘why are you wearing Xerjoff and Parfums de Marly, why are you wearing a fragrance that costs $500 – you’re a teenager! ‘ That video went 2.4 million views viral, and once a creator becomes viral, people find your other videos, and you become an authority. Scout Dixon West was able to launch her own fragrance line at Ministry of Scent and Lucky Scent, selling out her discovery sets in a matter of days.

What we’re finding is that people are watching videos on TikTok and directly buying on mobile apps through their phone as opposed to going on their pc. TikTok now has a shop function so we’ll likely see brands selling direct.

Any closing thoughts?

There is so much going on now, so many in-person smelling events. The Perfume Room Podcast has a regular monthly smelling club with Lucky Scent for instance. It’s kind of like, “I smell therefore I am.”

In terms of fragrance, TikTok says chypres and fougères are coming back in style. We continue to see interest in Middle Eastern brands where the assortment is way beyond oud. Lattafa is huge right now. Search “My Arabian Haul” and you’ll see what I mean. Consumers are also keen to learn about brands from other parts of the world. We’re seeing incredible new talent and brands from other parts of Asia like Documents from China, Born to Stand Out from Korea, and other artisan brands from Latin America. African Beauty is projected to be a 5 billion dollar industry in the next several years and fragrance will be part of that pie.

Lastly I want to point out the whimsigoth trend. It’s dark and fanciful; we’ll continue to see more “noir”, dark fragrances with dark themes, but not necessarily dark heavy fragrances. Aesthetics will continue to drive trends. We haven’t seen the end of cottagecore or witchcore.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Yosh is truly a passionate woman driving change for the fragrance industry in both the digital and real world. It’s always an enlightening and elucidating conversation, a lively discussion and a enjoyable moment for two like minds to come together.

For more information:

https://fiatluxsf.com/pages/perfume

https://american-perfumer.com/

https://www.amniens.com/

https://scenttrunk.com/collections/original-editions

https://oceanmemoryaudiosessions.bandcamp.com/track/smell-walk

https://www.instagram.com/scent_festival/

https://eaudeyosh.com/

__________________________________________________________________________