“You Smell Good”
Graphic by Seth Skiles
“It-girl perfumes”
“My most complimented perfumes”
“Compliment Magnet perfumes”
“The crowd pleasing fragrance that is going to get compliments for days”
“Girlies DON’T gatekeep - what's a perfume you wear that people ALWAYS compliment??”
“Top 10 beast mode compliment-getter perfumes in my collection”
Etc, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.
These are the titles of the top few TikTok videos that come up with a simple search for the word “perfume.” Most of these videos spawn from a subculture community on TikTok of fragrance enthusiasts, often called fragrance or perfume-tok, and I have been lucky (unlucky?) enough to have these videos permanently pushed on my for you page for the past year or so. As a fragrance lover myself, I thoroughly enjoy much of perfume-tok. Sensual videos in asmr-like fashions intricately describing the vibe an incredibly niche perfume gives off: sign me up! These videos, however, are not the content the general public sees of the fragrance community. Instead, videos titled like the above are pushed to the forefront by the algorithm. The algorithm boosts these videos as they are often paid promotional content, sometimes directly linked to TikTok shop. Moreover, many, if not the majority, of these videos are all promoting the same brands and fragrances: the Arabian brand, Lattafa, the ultra-cheap discount brand, Le Monde Gourmand, the Designer-knock off brand, Oakcha, or even slightly more expensive knock off brands, like Dossier. However, recently even Lush products have had their fair share of this overexposed content which always seems to center compliment-nabbing at the crux of perfume-buying. So, why is the commodified version of this community so obsessed with what others think of your smell?
Don’t get me wrong, I love being told I smell good—it’s my favorite compliment. But when we start selecting fragrance solely chasing after that elusive compliment, what do we lose? Individuality? Romanticism? If everyone starts smelling like a heavy edible vanilla-caramel-mocha-sugar cookie gourmand bomb, what is there to compliment? Perfume shouldn’t be ubiquitous, nor should it be gatekept. Instead, it should be a genuine extension of yourself. A reflection of your disposition. Your outfit. The weather. A personalized compliment to you and your day. And if you aren’t someone who owns multiple, the one or few you do own should be scents you genuinely love, not something you chose because a paid influencer on TikTok said it would garner compliments.
Let’s dig into these fragrance-tok influencers: why are there so many of them? And why do they all typically promote the same thing? Oftentimes the reasoning is simple: they’re getting the product for free, and in excess.
Recently, Glossier launched two new perfumes (which I do personally enjoy), but every single one of these influencers seemed to receive the same PR package which included the complete Glossier perfume line with a note of when they could legally talk about it on the internet. In this instance, I do not believe anyone was paid, but often paid promotion is involved. And it’s gotten to the point where some of these influencers are receiving so much PR that they have entire rooms dedicated to perfume. I fully understand the desire to collect, but I believe promoting overconsumption of a dispensable good is questionable. After all, perfume does go bad. And that's coming from someone with a sizable perfume collection that’s way more than the average person could ever need! When these “influencers” are consistently shoving the product down our throats, at the behest of the brands sending it to them, telling us it's so incredible, how are you ever supposed to know their true opinions? How can you ever trust that they are telling the truth? I myself even fell victim to this guerilla-warfare style marketing.
This extends to a larger issue across social media as a whole. With the explosion of micro-influencers and paid promotion, influencer credibility has gone down the drain. It’s impossible to know what is real anymore, and you shouldn’t model your life or your preferences after what any one of these influencers thinks. In the wise words of Fiona Apple: “This world is bullshit. Go with yourself.”
Now, if that popular TikTok-hyped fragrance is one you genuinely love, then wear the hell out of it! Who am I to tell you what perfume to like. I take no issue with the individual participating in a widespread trend, whether that be the Frye Campus boots or a bottle of the mega-hyped Burberry Goddess fragrance, as long as they truly enjoy it. Where I falter, however, is in the loss of lifestyle representation (hence individuality) through the monumental pervasiveness of trend cycles and overexposure of influencer promoted consumption. The best perfume, the best clothes, the best shoes, etc., are the ones that work for you. The ones that function for your life. The ones you love. There is not one ultimate “compliment-getter” perfume. Everyone’s olfactory senses differ, and what smells good on your skin might smell like gasoline on mine. The surest way to get compliments, and to fill the fragrance-sized hole in your heart, is to look like your perfume belongs on your skin, embody the vibe it brings, and have it be a true reflection of what you like and who you are.
Strike out,
Strike St. Louis
Written by: Seth Skiles
Edited by: Emily Bekesh and Liora Raimondi