Male fragrances 10 years from now

'In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, or say
Is in the pill you took today'
- Zagar and Evans In the Year 2525

Well, some are predicting an en masse oud onslaught...

Well by then the government will ban them for being hazardous to your health. It's inevitable. They ARE carcinogens right? I'ma just enjoy em while I can. =]

Peak Oil Perfume

Climate Change Bouquet

Royal Lack Of Water - Creed

Please Keep Buying My T-Shirts Cologne - Ed Hardy

Trailer Life - Britney Spears

Who? - Avril Lavigne

Still Not Funny EDT - SNL Fragrances

LOL. That about nails it.

It will smell like techno. All of it.

Groundbreaking new molecules, if smelling beautiful, have given fragrant trends a direction in the past. It must be assumed they will do the same in the future. But who can predict the nature and time of such discoveries?

Personally.. I think we're leaving the orientals and sweet behind and more flowers will pop up..

Synthetics and synthetic cocktails will become far more comprehensive, precise, and nearly indistinguishable. We will still have all the same olfactory groups, and classic themes, only with a greater pallet of acceptability as all the inferior formulas come and go. I think the overall direction will tend towards more use of soliflores on the designer/non-niche level, and organic/natural lines seeing increasing market share consecutive for the forseeable, and whole plant/absolutes, including stem, root, wood, leaf, etc.

Of course new molecules will pop up. But will new categories?
Perhaps someone has a lehman's linear timeline, displaying cycles in popularity since Koln, DE.
Aquatic/fresh had a previous cycle early in the 20th century...Aqua Velva Ice Blue and all it's derivitaves.
hmm...

Unisex perfumes seem to become more universal. Masculine fragrances are easier to be perceived as feminine nowadays. If fragrance communities are an indicator, it is quite possible that one or the other fashion design house may offer more unisex perfumes beyond the classical Cologne scope. In ten years unisex counters may be a common phenomenon in department stores.

Oud onslaught? Don't think so! Could well be that as naturally occuring compounds (oud, sandalwood, ambergris etc) become even more scarce (I actually do feel guilty for buying oud but love it) then we might see a move to using more finely-tuned synthetics.

Or, it could be a return to the traditional base ingredients, lifted by something new.

Maybe technology will give us something totally new, like a calone for the 2000s that will lead the way for a decade or so?

Time will tell...

I think over the next few years certainly, we are going to see more male florals on the market.

I believe the direction will be more Eco - friendly scents like how Nautica's Oceans. The use of alcohol will not be used much and when it is new scent technology like now being used by Thierry Mugler in Angel will be the style. Scents that last for hours upon hours on any skin type.

Two words for you OLD SPICE been around since 1937. I think you will see cheaper bottles as companies try to save money. Maybe some reformulations. Less Niche and more Drugstore fragrances as people are trying to save money and more all natural scents will pop up but all in all I don't think there will be that many drastic changes. Fragrance is what it is. We just happen to love it more than most people.

Hilarious! best thing I've read in days.

I'd like to see a movement inspired by the late 1800s. Although I imagine the "green" concept that is infiltrating all other areas of culture is more likely to take over and we'll have a increased number of single notes and things we consider earthy. Aquatics will probably be toned down and blended with woods and grasses, that sort of thing. Wouldn't it be great if there was a trend in less expensive frags created by a new world economy?

I think fragrance in general will continue to rise in popularity. Synthetics will be used more and more, but they will be of higher quality. I'm sure there will be some nice new creations possible. I think there will be a trend in hypoallergenic fragrances. The lasting power will be longer. There will be more specialty houses, and some will be successful while others fail...the proof still lies in the pudding. The scent has to be good. Then again, I'm sure there will be new houses that capitalize on some sort of other pop culture phenomena that do happen to be successful. That being said, I welcome NEW companies to put out offerings in whatever style they want. Use the "Old English" image/marketing strata if you want, as long as your fragrances kick ass and uphold that brand image. Of course, there will be more celebrity fragrances. And although they will get better, they will undoubtedly still suck in relative comparison to the fragrances being released as an artistic expression.

So basically, everything that is true about the current situation will continue to expand and enrich...hopefully.

For men, I believe the trend will go towards more male florals. Here in the US atleast. The trend has started already, Fleur du Male, Infusion d'Homme, Amouage Lyric Man, and Amouage Reflection man.

For women, to be honest, no clue. I just hope they get out of this over played candy sweet phase.

Excellent comment! However, I think the future will be about choice, and personal expression.

Here are couple of ideas. It could happen!

1) New molecules that stimulate a neural pathway chemical response in the person smelling them that has subtle affects on serotonin or dopamine levels. Fragrances that alter the emotions, mood and other changes in the outlook of those who smell them.

2) More fragrances that create a story and drama with image, name and scent profiles etc. Things along the line of ELDO's fragrance stories but even go farther into fantasy hyper reality imagery of fragrances.

I picture concoctions of other-worldly synthetics, neurally active and potentially psycho-stimulating stuff so out of this earth the FDA would be taking a look at it. Alcohol as the delivery agent will be left behind, replaced by the natural smoothness of water, and eventually, perhaps the oils themselves will come pressurized, and deliver in a fantastic, unadulterated mist? New molecules so deliciously different and indescribable that we would be inexplicably drawn to them as something impossible in nature, much like insects (and bears) are drawn to perfume as scents impossible in the animal kingdom. New flowers, new woods, new metaphorical accords so vibrant that the only disappointment would be that a real, tangible analogue did not exist (and botanists would strive to create the new flowers these scents would represent). Unisex scents that reacted differently with the skin chemistry of a man and a woman, superbly evolving, multi-linear fragrances that depart from the skin bearing little resemblance to what they were when their first moist mist settled. And why stop there? Our creative youth, frustrated with the state of the economy and the job market, armed with organic chemisty and pharmaceutical skills, will be dissolving new drugs inside of these fragrant sprays, and when you board the train for your morning commute, groggy from lack of sleep and coffee that has yet to kick in, you'll feel a sudden blast of euphoria, and in your confusion, you can thank the dazed-looking twenty-something to your left, oblivious to you and the world around him, lost in the rapture that is the psychoactive drug in his cologne. And he smells good, too. People wont just smell fresh or clean or spicy or sweet or sexy, they will smell fast and strong, alert and curious.

Just as trance music encompasses so many sounds impossible in the natural world, so will these new fragrances encompass olfactory inputs far beyond what sits on the now mute and pale palette of the traditional perfumer. And as we go to sleep, wrapped in whatever cocooning comfort scent we have chosen for our nocturnal journey, will we dream of electric sheep?

So it will all smell like techno.

LOL


Amen to that. Death to Eau du Gummi Bears

Jean Claude Ellena's cryogenically preserved self will be traveling the planets in search of strange fruits hanging over rivers flowing through craggy planetary ravines. Oops. I guess this was more based on Ruggles predicting thousands of years in the future.

I cant imagine some nanomolecular blending going on to produce amazing concoctions of fragrances

In 10 years the fragrance world will revolve a lot less around france and italy, and we will begin to see more globalization around the houses of perfume.

Fragrances as we know them will cease to exist... We will pop a pill and a cloud of sillage will emanate from our pores...

The horror of what a scrubber fragrance would be then! *Craaaaaaaawling in my skin, these wounds they will not heeeeal...*