Perfume Decant Statistics 2026: How Europe Buys Perfume

Monthly perfume decant sales on Scento.com were 3.2 times higher in September 2026 than in January. Growth was fastest beyond Scento’s two largest markets, with monthly sales to France up 71-fold and to Spain 37-fold. Louis Vuitton Imagination was the most-ordered perfume over the period.¹

In short

• Scento.com sold 3.2 times as many decants in September 2026 as in January, and the third quarter alone brought 2.3 times as many as the first.¹
• By month, France (71-fold) and Spain (37-fold) grew fastest. By whole quarters, Sweden and Portugal grew more than fifteenfold.¹
• Imagination by Louis Vuitton was the most-ordered perfume in every month from December 2025 to September 2026, and number one in nine of Scento’s 10 largest markets.¹
• Niche houses took 65.6 percent of decants sold, and nearly four in five orders held two or more different perfumes.¹

Decant sales more than tripled in 2026

Scento.com sold 3.2 times as many decants in September 2026 as in January.¹ The third quarter of 2026 alone brought 2.3 times as many decants on Scento.com as the first quarter.¹ Germany, Scento’s largest market, more than tripled its monthly sales, and Italy nearly tripled.¹

The wider European market moved far more slowly. Circana’s figures, reported by Premium Beauty News, put growth in the European prestige beauty market at 4% in 2025, both in value and in volume.² For January to June 2026, Circana’s figures reported by Allure Italia show 5% growth in value.³ Prestige fragrance grew below that European average in the first half of 2026, held back mainly by France and Germany.³

The two sets of numbers are not like for like. Market reports track full bottles sold through prestige channels, while the decant figures come from one retailer’s orders. Read together, they show a direction of travel rather than a share of the market.

The fastest growth came outside the two largest markets

Growth was fastest beyond Scento’s two largest markets.¹ Monthly decant sales to France rose 71-fold from January to September 2026, and to Spain 37-fold.¹ Measured by whole quarters, Spain grew more than tenfold from the first quarter to the third and France 4.9-fold, while Sweden and Portugal grew more than fifteenfold.¹

Monthly and quarterly figures answer different questions. A month compares one month with another and swings harder; a quarter smooths that out. The table shows both where Scento has published them, and Sweden and Portugal appear only as quarterly figures.

Source for every cell: Scento order data.¹

France is the sharpest contrast with the wider market. Circana reports that sales in France’s selective distribution channel fell 1% in value and 3% in units in 2025, in a market worth EUR 4.3 billion.² Perfume, France’s largest category at €2.3 billion in revenue, was the main category behind that downturn, with a 3% fall in value and a 5% fall in units.² In the first half of 2026, France and Germany grew around 1%, while Italy, Spain and the UK grew between 6% and 9%.³

Spain’s market was healthier. Stanpa reports that perfume in Spain grew 9.5% in 2025, against 5.8% for the whole market, passing €2.4 billion and reaching 21% of the market.⁴ Online sales of cosmetics and perfume in Spain fell 4.7% in 2025 and are about 8% of the market, according to Stanpa figures reported by Europa Press.⁵ Decants to Spain grew 37-fold by month anyway.

None of this proves a cause. It does show that decant demand grew quickly in markets where prestige perfume was soft, such as France, and in markets where it was growing, such as Spain. For a market-size view, see our pages on the French perfume market and the Spanish perfume market.

Imagination led every month from December 2025

Louis Vuitton Imagination was the most-ordered perfume on Scento.com over the period, one in every 29 decants sold and two-thirds more than Creed Aventus in second place, with Amouage Guidance third.¹ Imagination was Scento’s most-ordered perfume in every month from December 2025 to September 2026.¹

It was the number one perfume in nine of Scento’s 10 largest markets, from Germany, Italy and France to Greece, Spain and Austria.¹ Romania was the lone holdout, where Amouage Guidance led.¹ For the quarterly climbers and fallers, see the Scento Fragrance Index Q3 2026, and for country top lists see our sales data and rankings page.

Imagination by Louis Vuitton

Imagination ranked first on Scento.com over the period, with one in every 29 decants sold.¹ It held the top place in every month from December 2025 to September 2026, and in nine of the 10 largest markets.¹

Imagination as a 2 ml decant (€14.90)

Aventus by Creed

Creed Aventus came second; Imagination sold two-thirds more decants than Aventus.¹

Aventus as a 2 ml decant (€9.95)

Guidance by Amouage

Amouage Guidance placed third overall and was the one perfume to beat Imagination in a top-10 market: in Romania, Guidance led.¹

Guidance as a 2 ml decant (€12.90)

Niche houses took most decants and unisex perfumes half

Niche houses took 65.6 percent of every decant sold, and unisex perfumes took half.¹

For the trend, the Scento Fragrance Index tracks the niche share by quarter on a separate basis: the share of paid decant units, with Scento’s own house perfumes excluded. On that basis the niche share rose from 62% in the first quarter of 2026 to 67% in the third.⁶ The two measures use different windows and bases, so read the 65.6 percent as the figure for the period above and the quarterly series as the direction.

Quarter	Niche houses’ share of paid decants
Q4 2025	60%
Q1 2026	62%
Q2 2026	65%
Q3 2026	67%

Trying before committing to a full bottle

Nearly four in five orders held two or more different perfumes, and nearly two in three customers tried three or more different perfumes over the period.¹ That is the opposite of a single blind purchase. Scento’s founder put it this way:

“Blind-buying a full bottle is on its way out, and Spain grew tenfold to prove it,” said Sebastian Dobrincu, founder and CEO of Scento.¹

Scento sells decants in 2 ml, 5 ml and 8 ml vials, plus a 30 ml bottle decant on most perfumes, hand-poured from original bottles. The full-size question is covered in decants vs full bottles, and the range is on our perfume samples page.

US data points the same way, though it is not European data. Circana reported that US prestige fragrance sales rose 6% in the first half of 2025, with mini and travel-size fragrance growing 15% in units sold, nearly four times the rate of other sizes.⁷ For January to September 2025, Circana put US growth in mini and travel-size fragrance at 12% in units, and mini and discovery fragrance sets were up 41%.⁸

Mintel’s “The Future of Fragrance 2025” report says growing interest in discovery sets is accelerating fragrance sampling.⁹ Mintel adds that consumers are rationalising the cost of sample sets, even when these are equivalent to a full-sized bottle, and that trial-sized products offer a low-commitment way to explore new scents.⁹ In the US, it found 25-34-year-olds prefer buying fragrance samples online before committing to a full-size product.⁹

Price pressure adds to the case for trying first. In the US, prestige fragrance dollar sales grew 6% in the first half of 2026, driven primarily by premiumisation rather than an increase in purchases: average prices rose 5% while unit sales stayed flat.¹⁰ When a full bottle costs more, a wrong choice costs more too.

What the numbers say about perfume buying in Europe

Cosmetics Europe values European cosmetics and personal care retail sales at €110 billion in 2025.¹¹ Within that, fragrances and perfumes are valued at €17.1 billion.¹¹ The association’s 2024 annual report gives the same €17.1 billion for the category.¹²

Online buying is part of the picture. In French prestige beauty, e-commerce grew 12% in value and in volume in 2025 and now accounts for 18% of sales, compared with 8% in 2019.² The same report notes that France lags far behind the UK, which achieves over 50% of sales online, and Germany, with 46%.²

Put together, the figures suggest that shoppers in Europe are exploring fragrance in small formats and online, in countries where prestige perfume is flat as well as in those where it is growing. That is reasoning from the published numbers, not a measured cause. Scento’s own release is listed in the newsroom.

How we compiled this

The rankings, shares and growth figures come from Scento.com orders placed between Oct. 17, 2025 and Oct. 11, 2026, Paris time, counting paid perfume decants and excluding cancelled and fully refunded orders, free gifts, full bottles, gift cards and accessories. Monthly growth compares September 2026 with January 2026, and quarterly growth the third calendar quarter of 2026 with the first.

• Own data is shown only as growth ratios, shares and ranks, never as order counts or revenue.
• The Scento Fragrance Index series uses its own window (October 2025 to September 2026) and the paid decant unit basis described above.
• External sources were read on 15 October 2026. US figures are labelled as US data.

Sources

1. 1Scento Now Sells a Perfume Decant Every 10 Seconds, More Than 3 Million a Year Across Europe, Scento press release, EIN Presswire, 14 October 2026. einpresswire.com
2. 2Prestige beauty 2025: France falls behind in a rising European market, Premium Beauty News (Circana’s Mathilde Lion), 3 March 2026. premiumbeautynews.com
3. 3Il mercato della bellezza tiene il passo, Allure Italia (with Circana’s Francesca Comis), 29 September 2026. allure.it
4. 4La industria cosmética supera los 11.800 millones de euros en consumo…, Stanpa, 23 April 2026. stanpa.com
5. 5El sector de la cosmética y del perfume creció un 5,8% en 2025…, Europa Press, 23 April 2026. europapress.es
6. 6Scento Fragrance Index, quarterly niche share, window October 2025 to September 2026, generated 8 October 2026. scento.com
7. 7US Beauty Industry Grows in the First Half of 2025, Circana, 19 August 2025. circana.com
8. 8US Beauty Industry Sales Accelerate in Q3, Circana, 18 November 2025. circana.com
9. 9Social Media Fuels Fragrance Sampling as Gen Z and Gen Alpha Seek Affordable Prestige, Mintel, 17 June 2025. mintel.com
10. 10US Beauty Industry Posts Solid First-Half Growth as Fragrance and Skincare Lead…, Circana, 11 August 2026. circana.com
11. 11Our Industry (Market Performance 2025, European Cosmetics Data Report), Cosmetics Europe, 2026. cosmeticseurope.eu
12. 12Annual Report 2024, Cosmetics Europe, June 2025. cosmeticseurope.eu