Smellmaxxing is a term describing a phenomenon where pre-adolescent and adolescent males use fragrances to enhance their musk. [1] [2] This trend occurred in 2024 and was fueled by social media, specifically TikTok. [1] [3] Designer fragrances are often used to achieve this, frequently at a high cost. [1] [3]
As adolescent males progress through puberty, body odor is a frequent occurrence; a stereotype that has persisted in the United States is teenage males using Axe body spray as their primary fragrance. [1] [4] With the ubiquity of social media, the trend of smellmaxxing became prominent. [5] As lower-end brands like Old Spice lost favor amongst Gen Z, more premium brands enjoyed a higher degree of popularity. [5] [6] Due to peer pressure in social arenas such as school, teenage boys conform to the trend. [5]
TikTok influences often recommend using different scents for different occasions. [1] [3] Other aspects include where on the body to apply the fragrances, where to store the fragrances, and how to make the smell last longer, for instance by first applying a moisturizer. [3] The language used to describe the smells are not unlike that of sommeliers. [1]
There may be several motivations for smellmaxxing. [1] [3] Seduction may be one motivation. [3] It can also be a form of self-expression. [3] It can also be an aspect to achieving popularity. [5] For some, they believe it would lead to an increased perception of maturity. [1] Additionally, it can be use it as a way to relate to older role models. [1]
A survey by Piper Sandler, an investment bank, demonstrated that since Spring 2023, the annual spending on fragrance amongst teenage males rose 26%. [1] [3] Christian Dior, Chanel, and Tom Ford were particularly popular brands. [3] Teenage males often obtain these high-end items by saving their personal money and/or requesting them as gifts for birthdays or Christmas. [1] [3] Some classrooms have banned applying fragrances and broken glass bottles of fragrance in backpacks became regular occurrence. [1]
The trend has been pervasive in Western markets, but it also has gained traction in China. [7] However, cultural factors such as price sensitivity, fragrance preferences, and consumption patterns affect the Chinese market differently. [7] Nevertheless, the personal fragrance market demonstrated marked growth in China and is projected to grow. [7]
Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products encompassing aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, shaving cream, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble.
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards preteens and teenagers. Often, the artists themselves are teenagers during their breakout. While it can involve influences from a wide array of musical genres, it remains a subset of commercial pop, focusing on catchy melodies and marketability. Teen pop’s lyrics emphasize themes that teenagers can relate to, such as love, growing up, or partying. The image of the artist as an aspirational or desirable teenage figure is a crucial element of the genre, highlighting their visual appeal.
Lip balm or lip salve is a wax-like substance applied to the lips to moisturize and relieve chapped or dry lips, angular cheilitis, stomatitis, or cold sores. Lip balm often contains beeswax or carnauba wax, camphor, cetyl alcohol, lanolin, paraffin, and petrolatum, among other ingredients. Some varieties contain dyes, flavor, fragrance, phenol, salicylic acid, and sunscreen.
Axe or Lynx is a French brand of male grooming products owned by the London based company Unilever and marketed toward the younger male demographic. It is marketed as Lynx in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and China.
Aromachology is the study of the influence of odors on human behavior and to examine the relationship between feelings and emotions. Those who practice aromachology are aromachologists. Aromachologists analyze emotions such as relaxation, exhilaration, sensuality, happiness and well-being brought about by odors stimulating the olfactory pathways in the brain and, in particular, the limbic system. Different wearers are thought to have unique physiological and psychological responses to scents, especially those not manufactured synthetically but based on real scents. The word "aromachology" is derived from "aroma" and "physio-psychology", the latter being the study of aroma. This term was coined in 1989 by what is now the Sense of Smell Institute (SSI), a division of The Fragrance Foundation. The SSI defines aromachology as "a concept based on systematic, scientific data collected under controlled conditions". The term is defined as the scientifically observable influence of smell on emotions and moods. Consumers use aromachology to alleviate time pressures, for relaxation or stimulation and as a component of other activities that generate a feeling of well-being.
The Fragrance Foundation is a trade group representing the interests of the fragrance industry. It sponsors the annual Fragrance Foundation Awards since 1973.
TAG Body Spray was manufactured by TAG Fragrance Company, a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble. It was first released in 2005. From 2005 to 2007, TAG Fragrance Company was part of Global Gillette, until Gillette was bought out by Procter & Gamble and dissolved. In 2016, My Imports USA acquired the TAG brand from Procter & Gamble. My Imports USA plans to launch new TAG items in early 2017. In 2024, TAG returned to shelves at Dollar Tree stores in North America.
Teen Spirit is a deodorant, originally sold by Mennen, then Colgate-Palmolive.
Francis Kurkdjian is a French perfumer and businessman of Armenian descent. He is best known for creating the men's fragrance Le Male for Jean Paul Gaultier in 1995, which has become one of the world's best-selling perfumes.
Brandy Melville is a multinational fast-fashion clothing company. Established in Italy by Silvio Marsan, it gained international popularity after switching to a California-based style and reaching American consumers.
TikTok, whose mainland Chinese and Hong Kong counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smart phone app.
Charli Grace D'Amelio is an American social media personality. She was a competitive dancer for over a decade before starting her social media career in 2019, when she began posting dance videos on the video-sharing platform TikTok. She quickly amassed a large following and subsequently became the most-followed creator on the platform in March 2020 until she was surpassed by Khaby Lame in June 2022. With over 155 million followers, she is the second most-followed person on TikTok, as of 2024.
The Benadryl challenge is an internet challenge that emerged in 2020, revolving around the deliberate consumption, excessive use and overdose of the antihistamine medicine diphenhydramine, which acts as a deliriant in high doses. The challenge, which reportedly spread via the social media platform TikTok, instructs participants to film themselves consuming large doses of Benadryl and documenting the effect of tripping or hallucinating.
TikTok food trends are specific food recipes and food-related fads on the social media platform TikTok. This content amassed popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many people cooked and ate at home and more people turned to social media for entertainment. While some TikTok users share their diets and recipes, others expand their brand or image on TikTok through step-by-step videos of easy and popular recipes. Users often refer to food-related content as "FoodTok."
Hyram Yarbro is an American skin care influencer known for his videos on YouTube and TikTok. His videos consists primarily of product reviews, skin care advice, and reactions to celebrity skin care routine videos. In 2021, he launched his skin care product line, Selfless by Hyram, with Sephora.
Christina Aguilera Fragrances is a perfume brand by American singer Christina Aguilera. It was founded in 2007 in a deal with Procter & Gamble (P&G), who manufactured the products until 2016, after its production and distribution rights were bought out by Elizabeth Arden, Inc. In addition to fragrances, the brand has also worked with the production and sale of other cosmetics, including body lotions, body sprays, bath gels, and deodorants.
Sol de Janeiro is an American skincare and fragrance brand founded in 2015 and inspired by Brazilian beach culture. Sol de Janeiro products carry its signature base of almond and vanilla scents.
C-beauty, or Chinese beauty is an umbrella term encompassing contemporary beauty products, practises, and ideals originating from China. China has the second largest beauty market in the world, after the United States. Common C-beauty products include cosmetics, skin care, hair care, perfumes, and nail art. C-beauty often incorporates influences from traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese art.
Carole Jackson is a former color consultant who developed seasonal color analysis, a system of advising which colors a person should wear to look their most attractive based on their skin tone.
Galaxy Gas is an American culinary brand which produces flavored whipped-cream chargers and dispensers containing nitrous oxide. Founded in 2021, Galaxy Gas is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Despite their dispensers being advertised for culinary use such as whipping ingredients, Galaxy Gas gained notoriety through social media in 2024 due to their products being misused as a recreational nitrous oxide inhalant to get high, with the inhalation of their canisters gaining popularity as a TikTok trend; the platform has since blocked "Galaxy Gas" as a search result. The brand's name has additionally been used colloquially to refer to nitrous oxide inhalants generally.