Women's fragrance statistics: 3 market-share estimates

Women account for 53.52% to 70.7% of fragrance sales, depending on scope: 70.7% including deodorants,¹ 67.44% for perfumes and deodorants,² and 53.52% for perfume in a 2026 forecast.³ In the US, prestige women’s fragrance was flat in H1 2026.⁴ In Scento’s European orders, Amouage Guidance leads the 25 most-bought feminine-labelled perfumes.⁵

In short

• The three published estimates of women’s share measure different things, so read 70.7%, 67.44% and 53.52% as a range, not an average.^1,2,3
• US prestige women’s fragrance was flat in the first half of 2026, the first flat half since the boom began in 2021.⁴
• US mass-market women’s fragrance sales rose 19.2% to $3,483.7M in the 52 weeks to 22 February 2026.⁶
• In Kantar TGI data for Great Britain (October 2021 to September 2022) published by Relish, 59% of women used fragrance at least once a day, against 35% of men.⁷
• Only 27% of women like one signature scent; 70% prefer a fragrance wardrobe.⁸

Women’s fragrance statistics at a glance

How big the women’s fragrance market is

There is no single figure for women’s share, because publishers count different things. Grand View Research counts fragrance including deodorants; Mordor Intelligence counts perfumes and deodorants; Fortune Business Insights counts perfume alone and gives a 2026 forecast. The table sets the three side by side.

Grand View Research’s fragrance market includes deodorants, which held 32.6% of its 2025 revenue.¹ That likely helps explain, in our reading, why its women’s share is the highest of the three.

For women’s perfume alone, Grand View Research Horizon puts global revenue at US$27,324.8 million in 2024, expected to reach US$36,387.4 million by 2030, a CAGR of 4.9% from 2025 to 2030.⁹

Forecasts give men’s fragrance the faster growth. Grand View Research expects the men segment to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2026 to 2033, against 5.5% for the whole market.¹ Mordor Intelligence projects the men’s segment to grow at the fastest rate, a CAGR of 8.86% during 2026 to 2031.² For the whole market, see fragrance market statistics for 2026.

Women’s fragrance growth in 2026

The answer depends on the channel. In US prestige retail, fragrance dollar sales grew +6% in the first half of 2026, driven primarily by premiumization rather than more purchases: average prices rose +5% while unit sales stayed flat.¹⁰ Circana also said luxury fragrance remained a bright spot, with dollar and unit sales both rising, “fueled largely by women’s fragrance purchases”.¹⁰ Retail Dive’s report of the same data says women’s fragrance sales drove dollar and unit increases in the luxury sector.¹¹

Within prestige as a whole, women’s fragrance sales were flat for the first time since the fragrance boom began in 2021. WWD reports that the category’s growth was instead driven by luxury fragrance, about 15 percent of total prestige fragrance, and by men’s fragrance, which continued to rise.⁴ WWD’s men’s fragrance report gives the contrast: men’s fragrance sales grew 7 percent in dollars and 3 percent in units in the first half of 2026.¹²

Both statements hold together: women’s prestige fragrance overall was flat, while women’s purchases drove growth at the luxury end. That reading is our own reconciliation of the two Circana-based reports.

The year before looked different. In the first half of 2025, fragrance was the fastest-growing category in the US mass market, up 17% in dollar sales and driven by women’s fragrances.¹³ Across full-year 2025, mass fragrance rose +15% in dollars and prestige fragrance +5%, which Circana described as signs of normalisation in prestige.¹⁴

Circana’s mass-market table, published by Happi, gives the fullest public US split by gender. Circana data published by Happi covers the 52 weeks to 22 February 2026: women’s fragrance sold 178,444,383 units, up 19.9%, at an average $19.52 a unit, down 0.6%.⁶

Source: Circana via Happi, total US Multi Outlet+ with convenience stores.⁶ Women’s mass fragrance grew by more than twice the rate of men’s, and gift packs were the fastest-growing row. The men’s row is covered in men’s fragrance statistics for 2026.

Mother’s Day: a key moment for women’s fragrance

Circana measured US women’s prestige fragrance sales over the three weeks ending 17 May 2025. They exceeded half a billion dollars, growing 7% versus the 2024 Mother’s Day period, and fragrance drove half of the total dollars gained within the overall women’s prestige beauty market in that timeframe.¹⁵

• One in five people chose to gift fragrance for Mother’s Day in 2025.¹⁵
• Sales of new scents increased 31%.¹⁵
• Set growth was driven by mini and travel-sized sets, which Circana says have been trending in women’s fragrance for a couple of years.¹⁵

In 2026, Circana reported that prestige fragrance juices were right behind flowers as a top category for Mother’s Day. Ahead of the previous year’s occasion, the category had a $98 million week-over-week dollar lift.¹⁶ That figure covers all prestige fragrance, not women’s fragrance alone. For more on gift buying, see perfume gifting statistics.

Europe: what the data shows

Europe was the largest revenue-generating region for women’s perfume in 2024, according to Grand View Research Horizon.⁹ Fortune Business Insights puts Europe at 30.46% of the global perfume market, worth US$16.16 billion in 2025.³ Grand View Research’s wider fragrance market, deodorants included, puts Europe at 28.6% of 2025 revenue.¹ The scopes differ, so the two shares are not directly comparable.

Country data with a gender split is scarce. For France, Circana’s Q1 2025 read of prestige beauty found women’s perfumes stronger than men’s. In the same quarter, sets rose 8%, extracts and perfumes grew 18% and body sprays 43%, while eaux de toilette fell 12% so far this year. Those category figures are not split by gender.¹⁷

Scento is a curated European perfume retailer that sells authentic decants of the original perfumes. Its Scento Fragrance Index covers paid decant units shipped across Europe from October 2025 to September 2026, and gender follows the label each perfume carries in Scento’s catalogue.⁵

A perfume ranked as feminine is simply one the catalogue labels that way. With half of units going to unisex perfumes, label-based figures can understate what women actually choose; that is our reasoning, not a measured result. Read more in gender-neutral fragrances growing.

How women buy and wear perfume

Daily habits show the widest gap. Kantar TGI data for Great Britain (October 2021 to September 2022), published by Relish, shows 59% of women used a fragrance at least once a day, against 35% of men.⁷ In a 2023 YouGov survey published in the same report, the median number of fragrances owned was 3 for women and 2 for men; 6% of women owned 10 or more, against 2% of men, and 8% of women owned none, against 20% of men.⁷

Women are not loyal to a single scent. Avon’s Censuswide survey of 7,172 women aged 18 and over in the UK, Italy, Poland, Turkey, South Africa, the Philippines and Romania found 27% like a signature scent, while 70% enjoy a fragrance wardrobe and 25% like a few fragrances to choose by mood or occasion.⁸ Almost half of women (43%) cite price as the second most important factor after scent.⁸

YouGov’s own polls of 800 adults in each country, in October and November 2025, give gender splits. In the UK, women are more likely to experiment with perfume (22% against 17% of men) and more likely to prioritise scent (91% against 81%), while men are more brand-conscious (28% against 16%).¹⁸ In the US, 23% of women experiment against 18% of men, and 64% of women weigh price and value against 59% of men.¹⁹

Trying before buying matters. Mintel found that 69% of UK adults who buy the fragrances they use say buying a new fragrance online without trial feels risky, in a market it estimates at £1.7bn in 2026.²⁰ That fits Scento’s own mix: 2 ml vials were 76% of paid decant units across all genders.⁵ For more on how people use decants, see perfume decant statistics.

The most-bought women’s perfumes in Europe

The table ranks the ten most-bought perfumes labelled feminine in the Scento Fragrance Index, by paid decant units from October 2025 to September 2026.⁵ Prices are one-time retail prices for a 2 ml decant, read on 2 November 2026.

A 2 ml decant of the top ten costs from €6.90 (Kirke) to €17.90 (Lost Cherry). Ranks 11 to 25 are Hundred Silent Ways (Nishane), Good Girl Gone Bad (By Kilian), Aventus for Her (Creed), Intense Cafe (Montale), Prada Paradoxe (Prada), Love Delight (Amouage), Coco Vanille (Mancera), Delina La Rosée (Parfums de Marly), Libre (YSL), Goddess (Burberry), Lira (Xerjoff), Marfa (Memo Paris), Musc Noir Rose For Her (Narciso Rodriguez), Soleil Blanc (Tom Ford) and Atomic Rose (Initio).⁵

Two counts come from our analysis of that top 25. Parfums de Marly holds 4 places (Valaya, Delina, Delina Exclusif and Delina La Rosée) and Amouage holds 3 (Guidance, Guidance 46 and Love Delight). By the catalogue’s house classification, 19 of the 25 are niche; the six designer entries are Lost Cherry, Soleil Blanc, Prada Paradoxe, Libre, Goddess and Musc Noir Rose For Her. Across all genders, excluding Scento’s own house perfumes, niche perfumes were 65% of paid decant units and designer 35%.⁵

The full ranked list, with country top fives, is in most popular perfumes for women in 2026.

Women’s vs men’s fragrance: where the gap is closing

Women still hold the larger share of fragrance revenue in every estimate above.^1,2 The gap is narrowing in two places. In the US, men’s fragrance sales grew 7 percent in dollars and 3 percent in units in the first half of 2026 while women’s prestige sales were flat,¹² and both Grand View Research and Mordor Intelligence forecast faster growth for men.^1,2 In US mass, however, women’s fragrance grew +19.2% against +8.2% for men’s.⁶ On habits, women are the heavier users: in Kantar TGI data for Great Britain, 59% against 35% use fragrance daily.⁷ For the men’s side, read men’s fragrance statistics for 2026, and for the wider picture see the perfume industry statistics hub.

How we compiled this

We read every external source on 2 November 2026. Market-size scopes differ between publishers, so each share is shown with its own scope, year and total, and the three are never averaged. US gender splits come from Circana data as published by Happi, WWD and Retail Dive.

• Scento Fragrance Index figures are shares and ranks of paid decant units shipped across Europe, October 2025 to September 2026. Feminine, masculine and unisex follow the label each perfume carries in Scento’s catalogue, and small cells are withheld.
• Surveys are named with sample and dates: Kantar TGI (Great Britain, October 2021 to September 2022, published in Relish’s 2023 report), YouGov UK (800 adults, 14 October 2025), YouGov US (800 adults, 6 November 2025), YouGov data in Relish’s 2023 report (2,162 GB adults, 2 and 3 February 2023) and Avon/Censuswide (7,172 women, March 2024). The Avon survey was commissioned by an industry company.
• Counts of houses and niche entries in the top 25 are Scento’s own analysis of the Index list.

Sources

1. 1Fragrance Market Size, Share & Trends Report, 2026–2033, Grand View Research, June 2026.
2. 2Perfumes and Deodorants Market, Mordor Intelligence, updated 11 September 2026.
3. 3Perfume Market Size, Share, Growth (FBI102273), Fortune Business Insights, updated 12 October 2026.
4. 4Online and Natural Skin Care Sales are Growing in 2026, WWD (Noor Lobad), August 2026.
5. 5Scento Fragrance Index, October 2025 to September 2026, Scento, generated 8 October 2026.
6. 6New Scents & New Strategies, Happi, 1 April 2026, Circana data.
7. 7The Fragrance Report 2023 (Kantar TGI data, Great Britain, October 2021 to September 2022; YouGov data, fieldwork 2 to 3 February 2023), Relish Agency, July 2023.
8. 8For the love of fragrance (Future of Beauty: Fragrance Edition), Avon / Censuswide, 1 August 2024.
9. 9Women – Perfume Market Statistics 2024–2030, Grand View Research Horizon.
10. 10US Beauty Industry Posts Solid First-Half Growth as Fragrance and Skincare Lead, Circana (Larissa Jensen), 11 August 2026.
11. 11Fragrance drives beauty sales as consumers seek ‘emotional and functional value’, Retail Dive (Lara Ewen), 24 August 2026.
12. 12From Dior Sauvage to JPG Le Male, the Top Men’s Fragrances in the U.S., WWD (Noor Lobad), 25 August 2026.
13. 13US Beauty Industry Grows in the First Half of 2025, Circana Reports, Circana, 19 August 2025.
14. 14US Prestige and Mass Beauty Retail Deliver a Positive Performance in 2025, Circana, 10 February 2026.
15. 15The Gift of Fragrance, Circana (Jacquelyn Wenskus), 12 June 2025.
16. 16To Mom, With Love: Trendspotting Mother’s Day 2026, Circana, 13 April 2026.
17. 17France: prestige beauty at a growth breakpoint, warns Circana, Premium Beauty News, 6 May 2025.
18. 18Scent first, brand later: How Britons buy their perfume, YouGov (Shinmin Bali), 20 October 2025.
19. 19Among American perfume users, scent and price outweigh brand in fragrance choices, YouGov (Shinmin Bali), 17 November 2025.
20. 20UK Fragrances Market Report 2026, Mintel.