How to Sell Fragrance Like a Fashion Accessory
- Business
ThePostMaster- 0
- 18 minutes read
Welcome to Haul of Fame, your weekly roundup tracking the new products and ideas driving the beauty industry forward.
Included in today’s issue: Athena Club, Cocokind, Discothèque, Dyson, Estée Lauder, La Prairie, Lashify, Mustela, Olipop, Parfums de Marly, Sidia, Starface, Tilt Beauty and Unove.
But first…
Erin Kleinberg, co-founder of The Coveteur, never cared much about beauty. “I grew up as a fashion kid,” she said. “But the more I was on sets and shoots, the more I understood how it works together. And in some ways, beauty can be even more important than fashion.”
Epiphany led to the founding of Sidia, Kleinberg’s body care brand named for her grandmother, which gained early accolades for inventions like its hand serum. More recently, however, Kleinberg has pivoted toward scent: Its latest launches, a fragrance called Midas, is designed to evoke the typical inspirations of a fashion-turned-beauty girl, like fur coats and vintage gold jewellery, and features Erin Wasson in a campaign produced by Métier Creative that will run on Sidia’s socials and posters scattered across New York City.
Wasson was selected for her longevity as a fashion inspiration, the antithesis to transient industry figures or fleeting trends, which Kleinberg steers Sidia away from, she said. “Erin was Karl’s muse. She was a muse to McQueen,” Kleinberg added. “She exudes the energy of Midas so perfectly, which is all about taste and intuition.”
While beauty is mostly relegated to accessory status, fragrance and fashion operate far closer to a partnership. For many big fashion houses, scent is the initial touchpoint: the layman unfamiliar with Jonathan Anderson’s couture work might yet remain loyal to flagship fragrances such as Miss Dior. Meanwhile, Chanel is just as synonymous with Number 5 as it is with tweed. The recent rise of fragrance layering has further cemented this status, as an individual’s collection of scents has come to be known, fittingly, as their fragrance wardrobe.
The fragrance-fashion relationship is a winning strategy for Sidia, whose best-selling product became its solid perfume in Jan. 2025. The brand now has five fragrances, expressed through skincare-infused body mists or purse-friendly solid perfume compacts. It has another hit in Braless, its woody, vanilla scent designed to evoke the sense of indulgence that comes from one of the more understated fashion moments: slipping off your bra. The body mist and the braless franchise helped grow the business, Kleinberg said. “We pretty much tripled the business last year from 2024.”
Sidia isn’t the only body care label to pivot to fragrance, which has seen an unprecedented sales boom in the post-pandemic years. But as growth in the category already begins to moderate, brands can no longer rely on a venture into the category to secure meaningful growth.
But for now, at least, it’s working for Sidia. The brand further casts its fragrance as accessories via packaging, which is designed to emulate vintage beauty heirlooms like inherited glass perfume vessels and weighty beauty compacts.
It’s as much about the accessory as it is the performance. “No one is using Sidia to get rid of wrinkles,” Kleinberg added.
What else is new…
Skincare
Who: Cocokind
What: Olipop Ceramide Lip Balm Blur Collection
When: Feb. 5
Why: For its first ever beauty collaboration, Olipop has partnered with Cocokind on three cola-flavoured lip balms ($12 each). They’re reminiscent of lipsmackers of yore, only now with a distinctly 2026 fibremaxxed spin.
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Who: Vacation
What: Wild Cherry Pepsi SPF 30 Lip Balm
When: Feb. 3
Why: For those seeking a more traditional soda flavour, Vacation has teamed up with Pepsi on a “wild” cherry tinted lip balm, exclusively at Target.
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Who: Starface
What: Ashley Williams patch collaboration
When: Feb. 5
Why: In the midst of the “performative patches” debate, Ashley Williams has joined Starface’s collaborative catalogue. Following the likes of Marc Jacobs and Hello Kitty, the British designer brings her subversive “I ❤️ me” motif to the brand’s hydrocolloid patches and lip balms. ($27 for set)
Makeup
Who: Lashify
What: Sway Stax Gossamer Lash
When: Jan. 30
Why: In the last two years, the lash category has been especially turbulent, with lash serums, “ghost lashes” and eyelash extensions somehow each trending intermittently. Lashify has done a good job at innovating to stay relevant: its new angled stacking lash, which can be dressed up or down, caters to all. ($22)
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Who: Estée Lauder
What: Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup
When: Feb. 2
Why: Incoming EU silicon bans have spelled trouble for beauty labels, who are now saddled with the task of reformulation. Estée Lauder has taken the opportunity for a rebrand, tapping actress Daisy Edgar Jones to front its Double Wear 2.0 ($52) and extending the foundation’s promise of longevity to a staggering — and wholly unadvisable — 36 hours.
Fragrance
Who: Athena Club
What: Eight new scents
When: Feb. 1
Why: Shaving brand Athena Club is also gliding into new product categories. It released eight new scented body lotions, along with eight new cloud-shaped, bag-charmable hair and body mists to match. ($10–$16)
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Who: Discothèque
What: Body Heat
When: Feb. 5
Why: Indie fragrance brand Discothèque is known for its collection of hedonistic, dance floor-inspired scents. Body Heat ($175), its newest scent, is a gourmand with edge, with notes of coffee and dark chocolate blended with suede and oud.
Hair Care
Who: Unove
What: Sephora US launch
When: Feb. 2
Why: Unove, bestselling hair care in Korean giant Olive Young, becomes the first ever K-beauty hair brand to land at Sephora. Dubbed the “glass hair brand”, Unove’s entire regimen of 15 shampoos, conditioners and treatments ($11-$28) are now available to shop in-store and online.
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Who: Dyson
What: Amino leave-in scalp treatment
When: Feb. 3
Why: Dyson is slowly but surely expanding its catalogue of topicals. In 2024, it entered the category with Chitosan, a slew of styling products designed to work in tandem with Dyson hair driers. Last year saw the addition of a leave-in conditioner and hair oil duo called Omega. Amino, its latest innovation, is a leave-in scalp treatment powered by amino acids sourced from the Dyson farm. ($63)
Body care
Who: La Prairie
What: Cashmere Body Cream
When: Feb. 1
Why: La Prairie enters the body care category. With heavy lifting ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and shea butter, the Cashmere Body Cream ($335) is designed to feel like slipping into a luxurious cashmere jumper — and is priced accordingly.
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Who: Tilt Beauty
What: Adaptive Sweats
When: Feb. 3
Why: Tilt Beauty is pushing accessibility even further with a limited-edition of “adaptive sweats.” Created in collaboration with disability advocates, the trio collection is designed to be easily slipped on and off thanks to intuitive magnetic closures and lightweight fabric. ($89–$99)
Additional reporting by Faran Krentcil.
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