🌸👃🌸 you STINK 🌼🐽🌼

Exploring why scent has been trending for so long (and where this trend will go), along with a peek at a few breakout trends from the French capital.

Mar 15, 2026

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🤔 Tucker Carlson merch? Ridiculous, if you asked me — and someone did! I chatted with Grace Weinstein on the subject for Who Broke It / The Recount over on Instagram. Check it out!
🦿HIP REPLACEMENT🦿 this week features Jenny Chang who chats with Ben Dietz and I about the rise and fall of Labubu and why Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Kim Kardashian have more in common than you think. Listen on Substack, YouTube, and Spotify!

These are the casualties and cost of the war
How Iran war could become more costly
As war rages, Gulf neighbors worry

This deeply unpopular conflict continues to be terrible for everyone on this planet, while pushing antisemitic attacks even further in the process. (Speaking of planets, here’s a war update for my astrology girlies.)

Entering a Completely Different World
“the ramifications are mind-boggling”
“Not many options here”
War threatens food supply everywhere
Oil Shock Fears Rippling Through Fashion

A fascinating (And fucked up!) lesson in the 2020s is that everyone must understand supply chain mechanics. We saw this with Covid and the whole “Toilet paper??” hysteria, we saw this with the end of the de minimis exemption/tariffs last year, and are here once again given the current conflict — which is going to wreck an already fragile economy, driving prices up while furthering food insecurity. A silver lining? It’s a reminder that clean energy is a key to self-reliance: look to China (or even Spain), whose investment in renewables is dodging a few oily bullets.

FBI: Iran aspired to attack CA with drones
CA governor says no imminent threat

Another stupid storyline, which sparked fears and conspiracies. Wake me up when ~~September~~ March ends.

DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on Humanities
Staffer flagged ‘DEI’ struggles with definition

I’m suprised more stories of failed DOGE shit like this haven’t emerged, one year post-”that.” This one is pretty egregious though! And the video? Oof.

US: 2nd warmest winter on record
El Niño set to take this summer
Heat dome is about to hit the West

You have no idea how loudly I sighed when looking at these stories. No, there isn’t an end to any of our suffering.

Colon cancer leading cancer deaths under 50

In the US. This will surprise none of you, and is another reminder to become very aware of what you eat and how your hole, et al, functions. Have a doctor check those parts annually too: take care of yourself! This is…maybe one of my top five modern fears, that you “have this” but didn’t realize it is as you call yourself an IBS girlie or lactose intolerant. Quit them clogs!!

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Padma Lakshmi makes her own perfumes — and she can teach you how to do that too. Michelle Visage has a cult following for sharing her cult following of scents, which eventually yielded a collab between her and Arielle Shoshana. “I’m very, very smell sensitive,” Nicole Kidman explained on Las Culturistas this week. “You wanna know who smells the best ever? Rihanna.” This is a well documented truism: Rihanna smells really, really good, a scent that — ironically — isn’t her own. As you likely know, the market of celebrity fragrances has cracked open so wide that influencers are hawking fragrances too. This all may sound very girly and of-the-woman’s world but no, no: everyone is into scents right now, to the point that movies even have their own scents in a more literal way than Smell-O-Vision or Odorama.

Unless you’ve been sleepwalking through the 2020s, scents are so in, an interest and category that I’d define as definitive of the now. Thanks to #perfumetok and things like smellmaxxing, interest has been thrust forward by Gen Z who turned a specialty interest into a capitalist hellscape of concepts like layering and niche perfuming, illustrating that smells can take on a fast fashion mindset too as fragrances take up a quarter of a multi-billion dollar beauty industry. How did we get here? Outside of the TikTok algo juicing the conversation, I’d put some money on this trend being a Covid echo, in that an illness that stripped many of smell has created a culture obsessed with scents. I’d put more money on this being one of the final realms of untapped taste, something that cannot be caught on camera front row at a fashion show or on a podcast to make someone giggle: smell is so ephemeral and physical, representing time and place one has to literally be there for. If you smell good? Only the people physically by you are aware of that. And to be able to describe such a scent? That is high art. To smell good now is to enter a realm of beauty that is unseen and unheard, a respectability politic that Rihanna knows ties to wealth and reputation — and why young men are trying force their way in, as they sense that smelling good might make them more appealing or more interesting than their politics and brain rot.

As a long time scent head (a la, a la, a la), it feels like we’re coming to the peak of this trend which I felt first hand during last week’s Paris fashion week: it continued a trend I’ve noticed for years, that scents keep popping up in fashion industry settings, leaping from beauty and into the space of “looks.” This is perhaps why buzzy design fair Matter and Shape has had a “scent partner” (Byredo) for three years running and why this year’s iteration of the salon featured a mesmerizing (niche) scent installation featuring fourteen brands, from the funky fun conceptual fragrances of Roelen to the heady earthy dirty but floral Cave 0: scents are now the main character, the spirit taking us from NPC to person of interest. Again: why? It’s been bugging me. (Read more about the scent bar at Matter and Shape over on Horstman.)

I sought out some expert advice, starting first with friend and beauty strategist/trend analyst Clarisa Scalisi. “Fragrance has had such a big moment because the whole category has quietly reinvented itself over the past few years,” she shared with me over text, explaining “scent” is no longer perfume but hair and body care, home and car ambiance, and even art. “We’re seeing the emergence of full immersive olfactory universes, sometimes connected to cultural worlds like literature or music.” She noted brands like LORE, Serviette, and Notewrks as pushers of “scentmaxxing” innovation, which is also reflected in distribution (oils, balms, gels, 50 ml bottles). This has opened the door to — You guessed it! — AI and tech to “disrupt” this space as tech is used to develop smells that interpret memory and sensation into something tangible: see Future Society and Kaorium but also MIT Labs. These play in direct contrast to another trend emerging: scents of the body, be they “skin scents” (“very intimate fragrances that behave almost like a second skin and interact with your personal chemistry”) or “neuro-scents” (“fragrances designed to interact with the brain and regulate emotions”) that suggest post-fragrance, smell that resettle and unsettle. It’s not enough just be into the trend of scents: one now has to be the scent.

I also asked Claire of Selleb Sisters, as she and I and her sister Chloe were just chatting about scents after Claire posted a semi-viral TikTok about her collection. Claire sees scents as a point of fixation in people seeking to better understand themselves, as if a filtration device to move through the world: it leaves people with a memory, a “LITERAL aura” she texted. “I don’t think that’s a new phenomenon by any stretch…an invisible IYKYK, a social secret privy only to those who know,” she said, connecting hashtag scents to hashtag 6-7. She agrees that scents are a salve for the digital and personally uses them to christen life’s chapters. “More than ever I think we as a society are looking for novel markers and forms of capturing the moments in our lives,” she said. “It’s transportation more than anything.” Her sister, Chloe, had a more realistic view: “It’s reaching a point of overload,” Chloe noted, pointing to to the recent FT story on niche scents. “A lot of them are starting to look and smell the same.” Chloe also came to a similar conclusion as Clarisa as far as the trend evolving: “There’s also this interesting pendulum swing where OG perfume enthusiasts are switching to oils or even nothing. #pheromones” (If you’re looking for scents to invest in, Selleb has been monitoring the situation via receipts from Nose and Luckyscent: the brands they most are Universal Flowering, Snif, Perfumer H, and Regime des Fleurs.)

What I’m wondering as perfume/cologne/scent culture is hitting a maximum is where we go from here. What will the next je ne sais quoi category be, given scent is such a unique space? I’ve been brainstorming this for weeks and think we have to consider a few things in order to understand “what the next scent category” will be: it has to be 1.) ephemeral and esoteric, 2.) collectible, 3.) easily branded, 4.) easy to turn into luxury (Fashion houses!) or common (Celebrity!), and 5.) could eventually be co-opted by men who Clavicularmaxx. A few ideas, from most likely to least —

Laundry detergent. This came up from Clarisa, Claire, and Chloe and is already in-the-water given The Laundress, a growing TikTok niche, and the hyped Glamours Diva Wash. This isn’t just laundry either. “I’m starting to notice fragrances designed specifically for clothes, essentially scenting garments without overwashing them,” Clarisa said. Claire cites collabs like Dedcool and Ouai and Le Labo and Laundress as proof while alluding to dish soap spaces too. “Linen sprays and even scented sachets to put in your drawers too,” Chloe added.
Bar soap. This is a category begging to be awoken as liquid soaps feel obvious yet uncool, while bar soaps are starting to pop up from fragrance brands like Perfumer H and Penhaligon’s: this is the most natural jump, one that is beautiful when displayed and that offers accessorizing (dishes, satchels, etc.) in ways that liquid soap doesn’t. Add in local soap cultures from France to Nigeria and you see how this trend comes together.
Tea. Given the matcha grip, the world of teas is primed to pop. It’s accessible and everywhere, with brands as high up as Mariage Frères and as low as Celestial Seasonings feeling ripe for people to lift their pinkies about. It has regional and historic appeal too — UK, Japan, etc. — making it a perfect candidate for performative high brow tasting. There’s also many opportunities for accessorizing, from teapots to artisanal honeys.
Cigarettes. Walk with me here: given the rise and appeal of smoking again, I’m sensing an Anthony Bourdain gourmand cigarette moment. This will mean (young) people discovering and fawning over brands like Gauloises and Dunhill before flexing scent-and-looksmaxxing fags like the rainbow Sobranie Cocktails, the super skinny Vogues, and the scentual Djarum. Add in rolling your own cigarettes and lots of appealing lost media and we’ve got a success.
Flower arranging. This is a lost art that would be easy and impossible to capitalize on, as flowers are ubiquitous but the accessories to them (vases, food, etc.) run wild. There is a DIY element appealing in financially strapped times and only works for those with the touch: floral arranging is like being able to dance, a language of putting things together that isn’t just pretty but a representation of time and the senses. The extreme ephemerality of this category won’t work well with the young and the chaos that comes with youth, but there’s something here given how high-and-low, local-and-exotic approaches avilable.

(What about jewelry and charms? Too obvious and already connected, as evidenced by someone like scent expert Tracy Wan’s bridging the two luxe worlds. Candles? Also obvious and also having a moment, given Byredo, Boy Smells, etc.. Wine? Obvious but also ubiquitous but also young people are too conservative to drink. Deodorant and toothpaste? Those spaces never quite took off despite the success of a brand like Salt & Stone (which is…overrated and overpriced). A case can be made for combs and brushes, but they lack the extra oomph of the aforementioned. Chocolate could happen too, if it wasn’t a literally dying sector.)

It’s funny that the nose is being obsessed over now given it is a literal part of the body culture has been so eager to slim down and disappear. And yet: it’s the most essential part of the body, a taste center long overlooked that — even in this scent moment — is lost to the art of the bottle, the social media buzz, and general consumption of it all. #Perfumetok will end, people moving on to tea and cigarettes, but the real ones will remain, a testament to a culture of refinement, a trend emblematic of our humanity.

The Young Women Leaving the New Right
Pentagon bars ‘unflattering’ Hegseth photos
UFC Fighters to Train FBI Agents
“Rubiorejo”
“tired of this shit”
“Are you gay or straight?”

If I hadn’t already written about this again and again and again and again, I’d write more on this being a huge week in the gayification of the American right male body politic. We’ve got stories of women leaving the movement as they’re seen as sidekicks to Hegseth and Rubio’s vanity, all framed by UFC fighters and Jake Paul entering political bromances. This is the age of men performing for each other’s affections, dance and video game flirting until they kiss and kill us all. Cue the Bacha boys! (Here are the bad Hegseth photos too lol)

Is Dubai’s glossy image under threat?
The expat dream turns sour
“Why Dubai’s influencers are deleting videos”

There is a lot of hand wringing about if Dubai will still be Dubai after Dubai was bombed, which is a very silly question since Dubai has always been an ideological mirage. What’s more wild are the stories of people having to pull down posts about the missiles — or face jail, as such posts are seen as “material that could disturb public security.” Where will the next Dubai be? It must be safe for the insufferably “influential,” the morally not-great, and those at the vanguard of scamming. I have a few ideas, but my lawyers told me not to put them in writing.

Strapping cameras on their bodies
The Rise of RentAHuman

While the viral post about RentAHuman was dispelled this week, stories of AI needing to “hire humans” to learn or do things are indeed gaining momentum.

Zendaya, Tom’s viral ‘wedding’ photos
“tom holding a spider-man mask”

How stupid are people? Pretty dumb, or lacking any sense of reality or taste. This fits into another trend too: AI scams and fakes that profit from looking like Black women. I’m sure there are many that are not-Black-women, but the two linked examples redirect genuine interest in supporting Black businesses to buying slop from unknown sources. Anyway, here’s an AI speaking cat.

Insider Trading Is Going to Get People Killed
“see themselves as a news alternative”

Similar to the above, the connection between betting markets and political manipulation is starting to get concerning. Another not-fun thing!

Buzzfeed has ‘doubt’ it can stay in business

Pour one out for Buzzfeed, Millennials.

Lawsuit alleges David understates calories
David bar founder pushes back after lawsuit

I’m putting the fat David drama on the same mood board as the On running squeaker drama. Y’all need to stop falling under status economy spells!

“nana’s iMac”

I keep a collection of inadvertent spiritualism and philosophy as expressed through (TikTok) posts, and this post on nana’s iMac is almost guaranteed to make you cry. Thought Daughters are ageless <3 Other recent entries to the canon: the best friends fighting cancer, Upstairs Neighbors and Tanner’s spiritual ass moment, a chihuahua smelling a flower, and the solar powered chihuahua.

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Bobby Aaron Solomon and I had a way-too-fast trip to Paris, popping in and out in four days. It’s not my preferred amount of time to stay but, hey, you have to do what you can when you’re ~ on a budget ~ and you’ve got work to do at the design fair Matter and Shape. The trip was just long enough to capture a few patterns of note that I found super interesting and that have been stuck between my teeth as I chewed on the culture of the capital as if a very decadent piece of duck. Items of note include!

We’re entering a space where jewelry and utensils collide, which I would tack onto the scent story as another signal of little luxuries, as another interior real estate of desire. Forks and spoons and knives like salt and pepper shakers and coasters are the accessories of our tablescapes while earrings and necklaces and bracelets and rings are the accessories of our bodies: these two worlds are colliding likely because the crafts persons behind them are getting closer and closer together. Portugal’s Tavares 1922 did it best, a jewelry brand that dropped a fascinating collection of anthropomorphized utensils and table items, crafted from items like bronze and seashells. There was also Danish jeweler Monies who brought steel tiers to display precious stones on precious metal necklaces along with Japan’s Shihara displaying its gold items in its namesake case, a somewhat ridiculous way to display your jewelry but — Hey! — this was a design fair for people who have way too much money. If you’ve want to go beyond a curled fork cuffs, now is the time because there’s a rich desire for the curtains to match the drapes (a la: your silverware to match your silver jewelry).
The era of chrome is ending as metals are getting beaten up, meaning the heavy metal trend of the mid-decade is moving away from the polished silver metals and into hammered, cracked, and otherwise touched-by-hands metallics. This signals the end of perfection and the entrance of humanity into hardware, that these items — tables, lights, objects — are not more sophisticated than we people are. This seems to be a statement against tech while reminders of your body, which is right on time and directly related to the scent trend. If you need help visualizing this, consider Giopato & Coombes’ aluminum lighting systems ostensibly made from potted forms, Conie Vallese’s hammered metal floral furniture, and Completedworks’ aluminum furniture fashioned as if sloppy blocks — and was my pick of best thing at the fair. (This ties into another trend of technical items becoming “beautiful” as seen by a 22 System plug mirror elevating the humble outlet as a place of play along with Petite Friture’s Sandows collection, which took sleek steel chrome frame chairs and layered it with matching bungee cords. Objects continue to do double duty, I see.)
Hiking culture is going off. While I am sure people are hiking, this trend is more stylistic as if a more hippie and nature-driven movement is fighting back gorpcore, offering another salve for our anti-tech and anti-dystopia tendencies, even if on an aesthetic level. This can be attributed to Au Vieux Campeur launching their first collection at Merci along with Words, Sounds, Colors, & Shapes down the street offering a similar overlap of streetwear and hiking wear. Activewear — like the body, like wellness — have gotten too serious, not-fun, and unpleasurable: hiking culture takes us toward more vibrant styles as a reminder that we have to unplug in our daily lives but also from the system. Dress your way to utopia!
Two quick accessories that caught the eye: ruched loafers are going crazy, which I suspect is the influence of The Row (as both mens and womens styles are sold out) and is exactly why CamperLab has started carrying a similar style, which means the normal sleekness of the loafer is over while furrowed browed footwear is in; cross body tote bags are coming, as this was one of the most-seen accessory I spotted (on mostly men), which is a statement of getting around town functionally and that the traditional design of tote bags isn’t as secure or helpful as it should be, that a decade and a half into tote culture we’re only now engaging with bags that work for us beyond when we’re carrying groceries.

There are lots of other cute lil things from such a cute city: catch it all in a full recap of trends from both the city and the salon here.

“no idea he transitioned”
“American urge to”
“HDAK Peter Thiel”
“If a nuke hit Manhattan”
“DisTok”
“Pete Hegseth’s spoken word”

Best political and war memes, which I can’t believe I’m saying. (If you want to keep the fun going, enjoy some good Strait of Hormuz solution memes.)

“article about an individual TikTok”

Apparently the 2022 TikTok “My Weekend as a 28-Year Old in Chicago“ has a Wikipedia page which...might be the first individual TikTok to get a Wiki page? If true, that is wild but also: it really is a definitive media item of the decade, hence why there seems to be a struggle to get this on Letterboxd.

“impossible for a Scottish person”
“tharteen”
“Sensational.”

A strange trio of UK crazy accents emerged this week.

“the tickle-me-elmo”

The video I watched most this week, which I thank the deranged Heated Rivalry fandom for. The second most watched? Nicole Kidman saying Tweety Bird. Actually? Nicole may have been watched more at this point.

“someone is a young ho”
“Younghos”
“YOUNG HOS”
“young hos play overwatch”
“young hos play pt 2”

“Young ho” culture has been going for months since the breakout of young hos cooking on high, sitting down, etc. but is having a big breakout now. I’m also proud to inform you that, given my over-filling of washing machines and cooking on high, I too am a young ho. Old bitches winning!