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UK Fragrance Trends in BPC Report 2023

UK Fragrance Trends in BPC Report 2023

Market Intelligence Reports Beauty and Personal Care UK

Mintel explores the latest trends in fragrances in the UK beauty and personal care market in this comprehensive market report. Mintel’s UK Fragrance Trends in BPC Market Report 2023 is packed with consumer-led market intelligence, opportunities for growth, and consumer preferences and habits in fragrance and personal care.

Below, we’ve handpicked the key insights analysed in the full report and summarized the core topics.

This Report Delivers Key Insights On

The relevance of the rising cost of living in relation to driving usage of body sprays/mists.
Areas of the body to which fragrance is typically applied, and exploring format innovation opportunities on this basis.
Scent preferences within both fragrance and personal care, and how this varies according to demographic profile and product type.
Consumer usage of scent in relation to current trends, such as fragrance layering and format experimentation.
The relevance of social media trends in relation to preferred scents.

Fragrance Trends in UK BPC

Body sprays and mists near perfume usage: A combination of the income squeeze driving trading down and product innovation has boosted usage of body sprays and mists. These are now typically used by just under half of UK consumers.
Consumers show a preference for freshness: A ‘fresh’ scent is a preference for over half of UK fragrance consumers.
Scent comes before brand: Over two-thirds of UK consumers choose products based on scent type rather than brand. Highlighting the need for a rethink around in-store merchandising.

Opportunities in the UK Fragrance Market

Shake up scent profiles

There are opportunities to reimagine scent profiles, in alignment with consumer preferences in both scented personal care and fragrance. Fresh scents are preferred in both fragrance and scented personal care, highlighting opportunities to prove the ‘freshness’ of products by formulating with ingredients that are known from food and drink.

Tap into desire for nostalgia by bringing back old favourites

Whilst a desire for scents that promote nostalgia could be location-related, nostalgia can mean different things to different people. Brands that have scents which were once popular and have since been discontinued can bring these products back in a small quantities in order to drive hype with limited edition relaunches.

Purchase the full report for more analysis of the fragrance trends shaping the future of BPC, and expert recommendations for how brands can capitalise on these trends to secure future growth. Readers of this report may also be interested in Mintel’s A Year of Innovation in the Fragrances Market 2023.

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Expert Analysis from an Industry Specialist

This report, written by Maddie Malone, a leading Beauty and Personal Care analyst, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends in the UK fragrance and scented personal care market and add expert context to the numbers.

Inject newness into fragrance and scented personal care by flexing format innovation and shaking up scent profiles.

Maddie Malone
Beauty and Personal Care Analyst

Collapse All

- Key Issues Covered in this Report
Executive Summary
- Opportunities for fragrance trends
- Market dynamics and outlook
- What consumers want and why
- Graph 1: fragrance formats typically used, 2023
- Graph 2: usage of scented personal care products, 2023
- Graph 3: fragrance and personal care scent preferences, 2023
- Graph 4: fragrance and personal care scent strength preferences, 2023
- Graph 5: I want fragrances/scented personal care products to make me feel…, 2023
- Graph 6: fragrance and scented personal care behaviours, 2023
- Innovation and marketing
- Graph 7: % of fragrance launches featuring hair claims*, 2019-23
- Graph 8: % of facial skincare launch activity featuring sensitive skin claims, scented vs unscented, 2019-23
Market Dynamics
- Macroeconomic factors
- Graph 9: GDP, 2021-23
- Graph 10: types of BPC brands used, by category, 2022
- Graph 11: average spend on fragrance, 2023
- Social, environmental and legal factors
- Graph 12: use of and interest in refillable beauty/grooming products, 2023
- Graph 13: sources of information found useful when looking for facial skincare ingredient information, 2023
- Graph 14: mentions of #PerfumeTok and #FragranceTok on TikTok, 2021-23
- Graph 15: priorities when choosing a soap, bath or shower product, 2023
- Graph 16: trends in the age structure of the UK population, 2023-28
What Consumers Want and Why
- Usage of fragrance
- Graph 17: fragrance formats typically used, 2023
- Graph 18: fragrance formats typically used, by current working location, 2023
- Fragrance application
- Graph 19: where fragrance is applied, 2023
- Graph 20: where fragrance is applied, by agreement with the statement “I prep my skin before applying them”, 2023
- Graph 21: where fragrance is applied, by gender, 2023
- Scent preferences in fragrance
- Graph 22: fragrance scent preferences, 2023
- Graph 23: fragrance scent preferences, by gender, 2023
- Usage of scented personal care
- Graph 24: scented personal care products typically used, 2023
- Graph 25: select scented personal care products typically used, by location, 2023
- Scent preferences in personal care
- Graph 26: personal care scent preferences, 2023
- Graph 27: personal care scent preferences, by gender, 2023
- Graph 28: repertoire of scent preferences in fragrances and personal care, 2023
- Strength preferences in fragrance and scented personal care
- Graph 29: fragrance and personal care scent strength preferences, 2023
- Emotive benefits desired from fragrance and scented personal care
- Graph 30: I want fragrances/scented personal care products to make me feel…, 2023
- Graph 31: I want fragrances/scented personal care products to make me feel.., by household income, 2023
- Fragrance and scented personal care usage behaviours
- Graph 32: fragrance and scented personal care usage behaviours, 2023
- Graph 33: reapplication of fragrances/scented personal care products throughout the day, by household income, 2023
- Graph 34: skin prep before applying fragrance products, by age and gender, 2023
- Attitudes toward fragrance and scented personal care
- Graph 35: attitudes towards fragrance and scented personal care products, 2023
Innovation And Marketing Trends
- Fragrance launch activity and innovation
- Graph 36: % of BPC launch activity accounted for by fragrances, 2018-23
- Graph 37: % of fragrance launch activity accounted for by body sprays/mists*, 2018-23
- Personal care launch activity and innovation
- Graph 38: % of fragrance launch activity featuring hair claims*, 2019-23
- Graph 39: % of facial skincare launch activity featuring sensitive skin claims, scented vs unscented, 2019-23
- Graph 40: % of BPC launch activity featuring confidence claims*, by category, 2018-23
- Advertising and marketing activity
Appendix
- Report scope and definitions
- Methodology

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