Local and global brands are fighting for a share in India's evolving fragrance market, as a growing number of consumers view perfume as an extension of their personality while ensuring it doesn't burn a hole in their wallets.
Valued at around $2 billion, India's fragrance industry is witnessing a surge in demand from Gen Z and millennials who are open to experimenting, influenced by social media and global exposure. The market is expected to grow to $4.08 billion by 2030.
Nearly 120 million out of the 300 million households are now opting for higher-quality personal care products, analysts say. The move offers greater opportunity to new and existing players, making personal care a thriving space in the FMCG basket amid the e-commerce boom and rising disposable income.
By 2029, the number of fragrance users in India is expected to reach 120.7 million, with user penetration rising from 6.2 percent in 2025 to 8.2 percent. With 34 percent of the population being millennials (born between 1981 and 1986), personal grooming has become a priority, fuelling demand like never before, according to Kotak Securities.
Deodorant is passe
“At an overall level, this trend is an outcome of drivers that are not only visible in fragrances but across categories; affordability, exposure and aspiration are all improving,” said Tejas Shah, director, Avendus Spark Institutional Equities.
Many traditional categories are getting premiumised or transformed. Personal care is now about beauty and efficacy-led products.
“We are getting much sharper in what we are looking for and this is visible across categories,” Shah said.
India was a deodorant market for a long time; however, now people are moving to categories like body mist, perfumes and roll-ons, as premiumisation takes shape in the consumption businesses.
Global players smell the opportunity
Over the past two years, India has seen a flurry of international brands setting up shop in metropolitan cities such as Delhi, collaborating with e-commerce platforms or local players to reach the affluent and the aspirational.
In July, 260-year-old Anglo-French luxury perfume house, The House of Creed, opened its flagship store in Delhi, with its scent travelling from the European royal courts to now aspiring Indians.
Known for cloaking emperors and aristocrats, the artisanal perfume maker has priced its products in Rs 30,000 to over Rs 50,000 range.
“Sometimes you discover brands when you travel abroad. For the longest period, some perfume brands remained popular because one didn’t have access to these products. Now, consumers are discovering more, and foreign brands are finding a market here. Accessibility, in addition to affordability and aspiration, is rising as well,” Shah said.
Creed entered the Indian luxury market through a partnership with the omni-channel distribution platform LUXASIA.
Analysts expect India to see an exponential growth exhibited by other Asian economies such as China, leading to a surge in the number of high-income households.
Chanel widened its distribution earlier this year through Nykaa, aiming for broader access among premium shoppers.
From the Middle East, Dubai-based perfumer Yusuf Bhai — often called the “Doctor of Fragrance” — is preparing to open his first Indian store in Hyderabad.
Other brands that made their entries this year include Velvetor, a contemporary luxury perfume house known for minimalist European aesthetics, and Paris-born heritage brand Diptyque.
Celebrities, homegrown labels fuel momentum
While global players eye the luxury shoppers, domestic firms are seeking to monetise the sweet spot of affordability.
Several digital-first brands such as Bellavita are offering products in the mid-premium range of Rs 1,000-Rs 3,000.
Bellavita, which started operations in 2021, reported a triple-digit increase in revenue in its third year.
Mass-market perfumes, led by brands such as Fogg, Wild Stone, and Park Avenue, continue dominate due to their affordability and reach.
Actors Rashmika Mandanna and Ranbir Kapoor also jumped on the bandwagon by launching their fragrance brand earlier this year.
Mandanna launched Dear Diary, a homegrown fragrance brand inspired by her childhood in Coorg, while Kapoor launched gender-neutral perfume ARKS Day, under his lifestyle brand ARKS.
Modern-trade retailers like Zudio and Westside have also introduced their private labels, moving away from deodorants.
“When the category is at a very high growth phase, it's easy to accommodate many players before consolidation starts. This is the right inflection point. If somebody puts in the right effort on product, branding and distribution, this is a great time to create a brand in the space,” said Shah.
In the premium category, brands such as Ajmal, Forest Essentials, and Nykaa are expanding their presence.
Nykaa’s prestige fragrance sales, for instance, surged 74 percent between 2022 and 2025, highlighting the rising demand for luxury scents, according to Kotak Securities.
“Fragrance is among the fastest-growing categories consistently every quarter. Globally, you're seeing fragrance as being the category which Gen Z is really adopting. We are seeing the same thing in India. So, I think fragrance is going to be a big driver of growth for beauty globally as well as in India and the same applies to us,” said Anchit Nayar, executive director and CEO, Beauty– SN Ecommerce Ventures Ltd (Nykaa).
The biggest cosmetic retailer counts fragrance as one of the three pillars of its retail stores.
“Fragrance is one of, if not the fastest-growing category on the platform, a big part of our retail store network, a high ASP item, very, very good for average order values and ticket sizes,” Nayar said.
The company plans to open fragrance-only stores called Nykaa Perfumery in the coming months.
“Perfumes as a category are dominated by foreign brands. If somebody does the right job, depending on what segment they target, there is definitely room for Indian players in each segment,” Shah said.
Overall, the women’s fragrance market was valued at Rs 10,859 million (7.31 percent CAGR, 2018-2023).
The men’s segment, worth Rs 23,097 million (7.64 percent CAGR, 2018-2023), is also expanding rapidly, according to data from Kotak.
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