According to a recent report by Eternal Beauty, China’s largest fragrance distributor, and Deloitte, China’s dopamine-driven beauty boom is fueling rapid growth in the fragrance market, which is projected to expand at an 8 percent annual rate and reach nearly 34 billion renminbi, or $4.7 billion, by 2028.
Characterized by the report as “small luxury moments,” “temporary escape” and “instant thrills,” fragrance has become “a tool for both self-expression and emotional regulation,” according to Crystal Wang, partner in charge of the consumer and retail industry at Deloitte China.
“Emotional value has emerged as the biggest growth driver in China’s consumer goods market. We have entered an era of emotion-driven pricing,” Wang added.
Although female shoppers under age 30 from first- and second-tier cities still make up fragrance’s core consumer base — around 60 percent — male consumers are rapidly evolving, creating growth opportunities for brands.
“Men have long been seen as having little commercial value — sometimes even ranked below pets. But while they’ve been late to the consumer game, men are quickly emerging as a potentially disruptive force. Unlike mature female shoppers, men tend to have more hard-core interests, creating fresh opportunities for products that blend new categories with new usage scenarios,” Wang said.
Characterized as “pragamatic scent-seeking males,” the consumer category favors long-lasting fragrance profiles with fresh and neutral scents, according to the report.
Another noteworthy consumer cohort is Gen Zers based in second-tier cities. Dubbed “dream scent seekers,” these shoppers look to “Chinese style and sentimental narratives” in a fragrance product.
”These Gen Z consumer, they are a living paradox — they want to lie flat but also love to work out, they are into ancient Chinese health regimes, but also stay up too late. What unites them might be an urge to pursue serendipitous small joys in everyday life — they will easily spend their money on storytelling-based consumer products in place of paying for obvious logos,” Wang explained.
According to the report, brands must lean into emotional resonance and proactively respond to trends popping up on social media — such as citywalk, hiking, fan activities such as music festivals and celebrity airport pickups — in order to succeed.
“The cautious consumer can be highly emotional. For example, Aesop targets ‘career-driven young women’ that believe in the manifestation power of sandalwood; Documents has a lot of streetwear cache because it uses Chinese traditional fragrance culture to activate cultural confidence,” explained Wei Wang, chief operating officer at Eternal Beauty.
On the retail side, fragrance has been the only beauty category showing consistent positive growth over the past three years, according to the report.
In the first three quarters of 2025, the overall beauty market — including skin care, color cosmetics and fragrance — fell 5.9 percent, while the fragrance category grew 3.6 percent.
Based on data from department stores across 51 Chinese cities, the top five perfume brands by sales in the second quarter of 2025 were Chanel, Dior, Jo Malone, YSL Beauty and Diptyque.
Online, international brands continue to dominate.
“Legacy luxury houses like Chanel and Dior have maintained steady growth on Tmall, JD.com and Douyin, leveraging synergies between fragrance and makeup and driving traffic through bundled hero products,” the report noted.
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