May 28, 2026
The influencer known as OverSpray Jay has become one of the top sellers of men’s fragrances on TikTok in part by offering his followers a very specific piece of advice: whatever scent they’re wearing, they should spritz themselves 100 times.
His catchphrase: “If you ain’t shinin’, are you even applyin’?”
It’s a far cry from how fragrance was marketed in the past to men — and the women who often bought it for them — with campaigns focusing on outdoor pursuits, rippling torsos and smelling “like a man, man.”
Now, the approach is more nuanced. Instead of having an instantly recognizable cologne, men are being encouraged to layer their fragrances, wearing multiple perfumes or colognes at once to create a signature scent. The trend is a boon to cosmetics companies as consumers buy several products instead of just one, often adding lotions, high-end deodorant and body washes to their haul.
TikTok Influencers Are Rewriting the Rules of Men’s Cologne - Bloomberg
A display of Jean Paul Gaultier and other fragrances for sale. Photographer: Magda Gibelli/Bloomberg
Meanwhile, the number of influencers hawking fragrances to men on TikTok has increased around 12-fold from April 2024 through April this year, according to data from Charm.io analyzed for Bloomberg News. That far outpaces the 8-fold increase in those marketing to women, the data show.
Corporations and influencers alike are capitalizing on a post-pandemic boom in fragrance in the US, particularly among men.
The amount spent on men’s fragrances on TikTok’s shopping platform each month has outpaced that spent on women’s scents for the past two years or so, according to Charm.io, and peaked at $18 million in sales last November.
The surge in demand is one of the reasons that cosmetics giant Estée Lauder Cos. was keen to acquire Spain’s Puig Brands SA, according to analysts. Puig owns brands including Penhaligon’s, Byredo, Rabanne and Jean Paul Gaultier, and had the second-largest share of the men’s premium fragrance market last year, at 16%.
Estée Lauder and Puig ended discussions about a potential deal last week, after months of negotiations.
Evan Hall, a 23-year old influencer based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, who posts as @fragranceknowledge, said most of his 1.1 million TikTok followers are 18- to 24-year-old men. Many are seeking creativity and innovation from products and can be ruthless when they don’t see it, he said.
TikTok Influencers Are Rewriting the Rules of Men’s Cologne - Bloomberg
Evan Hall, 23, posts to his 1.1 million TikTok followers as @fragranceknowledge Photographer: Chase Castor/Bloomberg
If a brand launches what’s known as a flanker — a new iteration of an existing fragrance — it can be seen as a cash grab. “A lot of the market sees through it,” Hall said.
Fastest Growing
Because of their high prices, premium fragrances make up a much larger share of sales versus mass-market items — about 86% of the total $16 billion in US fragrance sales last year, data from Euromonitor analyzed by Bloomberg Intelligence show. At Sephora, a 100ml bottle of Angel’s Share Eau de Parfum by Kilian Paris costs $415, while the same size of Dior Sauvage Elixir is $265.
Beauty executives think there’s still room to grow across all categories. Among men, fragrance use is highest in Europe, followed by the US and then Asia, but “there is no region in the world that has 100% usage,” said Jean Holtzmann, chief brand officer of prestige fragrances at Coty Inc., the company behind lines such as Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss.
Market for Premium Men's Fragrances Has Boomed in the US
Sales topped $3 billion for the past two years
Shifting demographics in the US underpin the bullishness, too.
Latino men wear fragrances more frequently than other groups, data from market research firm Circana show — and are a growing portion of the US population. Meanwhile, fragrance executives say that younger consumers are more likely to buy online without smelling first, accelerating the market. Fragrance has been the fastest-growing category across the US beauty industry for the past two years, according to Circana.
A tie-up between Estée Lauder and Puig would have helped the US company make up ground against L’Oréal, which dominates the No. 1 spot for global fragrance sales with a 12% share of the market in 2025, the Euromonitor data show.
Influencer Paul Fino, 26, said that when he started posting about fragrances a few years ago, “nobody really cared.” In the past 12 months, he’s promoted perfumes by Balmain, Philosophy and Armani, and amassed a collection of 5,000 fragrances while being paid to fly around the US promoting brands.
He’s noticed a recent spike in interest among his 13- to 18-year old followers.
“They’re saving up their money to purchase this $400 bottle of cologne from Creed,” Fino said.
Their expensive enthusiasm reminds Fino of a similar demographic about a decade ago who obsessively followed drops from sneaker and streetwear brands such as Supreme. The next generation of teen boys “are now into these niche fragrances,” Fino said.
OverSpray Jay, who asked not to be identified by his real name due to privacy concerns, has leaned into the same phenomenon. He said about three quarters of his followers are between 18 and 25 years old — he is 33 — and they come to him to learn.
“I call them nephews, they call me ‘unc,’” he said, using a slang term for uncle that’s popular on social media. Though he intended the 100-spray gimmick to be tongue-in-cheek, he said some followers take him at his word.
Fragrance bottles fill the shelves in Evan Hall’s bedroom at his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Photographer: Chase Castor/Bloomberg
While the influencers’ youthful audience means more money flooding into the industry, young men — and Gen Z shoppers in general — aren’t as loyal to specific fragrances as older cohorts, and are happy to try out different brands and price points.
Influencer Hall has noticed a huge increase in the number of so-called dupes, where mass-market or budget brands produce a much cheaper, very similar version of a high-end fragrance. Often stocked at outlets like Burlington Stores Inc. or TJ Maxx, they can cost a fraction of what the original scent would sell for, making them particularly attractive to younger shoppers.
Chris Cano, a 19-year-old student in New York, once splurged $110 on a Jean Paul Gaultier fragrance that was on sale. But on a recent shopping trip, he walked out empty handed from an Ulta Beauty Inc. store in Manhattan.
“I can go to dupe shops and get the exact same thing, cheaper,” said Cano, who now prefers to shop online or at outlets, often looking for fragrances by Rayhaan and other manufacturers in the Middle East.
The top 10 most popular sites to buy scents from via TikTok Shop mostly sell dupes, together generating around $82 million in sales in the 12 months through March, data from Charm.io show. While that’s a fraction of what cosmetics giants sell, the popularity of replicas could take a chunk out of brand-name sales.
Shoppers who aspire to own premium and luxury fragrances, but have limited budgets, are driving demand for dupes and more affordable fragrance mists, according to Deborah Aitken, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
And unlike their fathers, who are more likely to have one cologne they’ve worn for decades, newer fragrance devotees tend to follow their noses, said Diana Melencio, a general partner at XRC Ventures who invests in the beauty sector. The lack of loyalty “makes it harder to invest in a specific brand,” Melencio said. “We’re all trying to figure out how to approach fragrance.”
With that fickleness, though, comes knowledge. Hall uses phrases like “scent profile” and “classic woodiness,” to describe the fragrances he reviews, while Fino calls himself the “King of Gourmands” — a term to describe scents with notes based on edible ingredients like vanilla and cacao.
“They use words that are usually used by the master perfumer or the chemist,” said Jean Madar, chairman and chief executive officer of Inter Parfums Inc., which manufactures and distributes fragrances for brands including Oscar de la Renta, MCM and Donna Karan.
Inter Parfum’s online sales were up more than 20% year-over-year in the 12 months through April, buoyed by demand from young men buying items online from retailers like Ulta, Sephora and Macy’s Inc., Madar said.
“They have all the vocabulary,” he said. “We have to adapt to this connoisseur.”