Perfume consumers are getting emotional. Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic made plain the connection between our sense of smell and our wellbeing, fragrance brands have put feeling good as much as smelling good at the forefront of their messaging, with new perfume launches ranging from Charlotte Tilbury to Bella Hadid’s Orebella promising emotional benefits.
Estée Lauder, which owns fragrance brands such as Le Labo and Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, wants to be at the forefront of the burgeoning field of functional fragrances with its own proprietary research on perfume’s connection to memory and emotion.
On Monday, the beauty conglomerate announced a partnership with the Dresden University of Technology to further study the connection between scent and memory and emotion. The research partnership is led by Dr. Thomas Hummel of the university’s Smell & Taste Clinic and department of otorhinolaryngology, who has been studying the sense of smell for three decades.
“[When] people lose the sense of smell, they also lose these memories,” said Dr. Hummel. “The ultimate goal is to learn more about odor memories. Perfumes are complex odors. And together, we thought these complex odors could be used because many people have such specific memories for [perfumes] and it would be a nice tool to evoke memories.”
According to research from Estée Lauder, 75% of consumers change their fragrance based on mood and emotions. “[Emotional benefits] are one of the more important reasons why they want to purchase a fragrance. And this is going beyond just occasional use of fragrances,” said Sumit Bhasin, senior vp of corporate fragrance research and development, product development and innovation at Estée Lauder.
TUD’s research began in April and will study the effects of perfumes from Estée Lauder’s catalog on the parts of the brain that control memory and emotion. Dr. Hummel said the research hopes to find which parts of the brain are involved in mapping odor memory, such as the thalamus; which controls sensory and motor skills, or the cerebellum; and which controls balance and coordination, by tracking blood flow to various parts of the brain. The project will include up to 80 subjects, with TUD hoping to publish findings in the next six months.
The research project comes at an inflection point for Estée Lauder, which will welcome a new CEO as Fabrizio Freda steps down after 16 years at the helm. The company’s most recent quarterly earnings report pointed to a beauty slowdown, citing a 2% decline in net sales in the second quarter of 2024. But fragrance remained a bright spot; Estée Lauder reported a 2% increase in fragrance sales for the full fiscal year, with double-digit growth in the Le Labo brand.
“Fragrance is a big engine for growth for us, for the company. We wanted innovation to be the driver for growth,” said Bhasin.
Bhasin said demand for perfume with emotional benefits is especially high among Asian consumers, a still-growing market for niche and luxury fragrances. Estée Lauder’s second-quarter 2024 report showed double-digit growth in perfume sales in Japan, where consumers have traditionally shied away from wearing noticeable perfume. But new generations may be increasingly open to fragrance: A report from market research firm Fuji Keizai Group found that Japan’s domestic perfume market will grow to ¥54.7 billion ($376 million) in 2024, a 30% increase from 2020. And the growing base of male fragrance shoppers may be especially interested in fragrances with a concrete benefit like emotional enhancement.
“When you see male consumers entering into fragrances in the East, they are much more benefit-orientated,” Bhasin said.
According to Dr. Hummel, TUD has previously worked with companies such as conglomerate Procter & Gamble and fragrance manufacturers Takasago and Firmenich. Its work with Estée Lauder represents its first partnership with a premium cosmetics company, however. While the university will make its findings available to the public, Bhasin says Estée Lauder has yet to determine whether or not it will pursue patents from the research.
“Some [findings] we may keep proprietary. We may feel that we’ve uncovered something that we may want to patent, and some we may decide to keep as a trade secret,” he said. “But the intention when you work with academics of high standing, like Professor Hummel, is that you want to publish some original findings.”
Estée Lauder declined to share how much funding it has provided to TUD, but describef it as a multi-year partnership. The company plans to use the findings across its R&D facilities, including its upcoming Paris-based perfume atelier that is slated to open in 2025 with a focus on fragrance craftsmanship. Exactly how the company will integrate the findings into products remains to be seen. But Bhasin is confident that with consumers demanding fragrances with an emotional benefit, the results will be fruitful.
“When the desire is there, and then you set your field in actually doing some groundbreaking research, in my experience, you always find elements which you can leverage in the products,” he said.
