{"id":1747477,"date":"2026-01-29T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1747477"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T09:30:00","slug":"move-over-sephora-tweens-the-smellmaxxers-have-entered-the-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1747477","title":{"rendered":"Move Over, Sephora Tweens\u2014the Smellmaxxers Have Entered the Chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.byrdie.com\/thmb\/iu8fLP0jQBGOu5NW5KxvX_dJGfc=\/1500×0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()\/Byr_DI_BoysSmellMaxxing_Social-6ad65d9cfc08485aa67bff6fea041701.jpg”]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"A\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Next-Gen Issue<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Move Over, Sephora Tweens\u2014the Smellmaxxers Have Entered the Chat<\/h1>\n
\n
\n
\n
By<\/span><\/p>\n
Derek Deng<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Derek\"Derek<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nDerek Deng\n<\/div>\n
\n
    \n
  • <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
    \nDerek is the associate content editor for Byrdie where he covers news and trends across site and social.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    \nByrdie’s Editorial Guidelines\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    Published on January 29, 2026 07:30AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    \n
    \n

    \u201cThe sillage on this goes hard,\u201d I overheard while deep in a sniffing spiral in the fragrance section of a Sephora. \u201cI still prefer Haltane,\u201d someone else said.\n<\/p>\n

    Anyone familiar with the world of niche fragrance knows Haltane as a crowd-favorite oud scent. I tore myself away from my blotter strips and realized that these words were coming out of the mouths of two teenage boys: one in a Nike tech sweat set, Foot Locker bag in hand, and the other in a Fear of God Essentials hoodie with a mango ice vape dangling from his mouth.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

    Since when did teenage boys casually drop the word sillage<\/em> in conversation? I was floored; they looked like the type of boys who would\u2019ve asked me why I talked \u201clike a girl\u201d in high school, and yet here we were, speaking the same language.\n<\/p>\n

    Take a trip to your local Zumiez, and you\u2019ll notice that amid a sea of St\u00fcssy shirts and Carhartt cargos, there are notes of oud, white musk, and mint lingering in the air. Alas, young boys don\u2019t want just<\/em> Supreme anymore\u2014they want Santal. One survey found that fragrance spending among teen boys jumped 26% in 2024; the boys are getting serious about scent.\n<\/p>\n

    Welcome to the era of \u201csmellmaxxing.\u201d To be a smellmaxxer is to treat fragrance as more of a competitive sport than a grooming habit; in other words, your sillage is your scoreboard. It\u2019s a movement largely fueled by teenage boys on TikTok, and it follows a larger trend of trying to \u201cmaxx\u201d out your real-life avatar (see: looksmaxxing, frame maxxing, and even carb maxxing). In the eyes of the smellmaxxers, your signature scent isn\u2019t just what you smell like. It\u2019s a vibe, a status, and a symbol of social capital.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

    How Did We Get Here? <\/span><\/h2>\n

    We are all too familiar with the Sephora tween. Her vanity is a neon shrine of TikTok Shop lip-liner stains, Glow Recipe serums, and Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balms. But we seem to have forgotten about her older brother, the smellmaxxer. Next to his sneaker wall sits an equally curated wall of colognes. He has a tendency to go for musk-forward scents; oud is too intense, and foug\u00e8res remind him of his uncle. His signature scent is an olfactory cocktail of Initio Musk Therapy and Parfums de Marly Percival. When\u2014and why\u2014did teenage boys go from Axe to Aventus?\n<\/p>\n

    \u201cYounger men used to choose fragrance by convenience,\u201d says Aymar de Cherg\u00e9, Vice President of Marketing at Parfums de Marly and Initio Parfums Priv\u00e9s. Now, because of social media, fragrance has become somewhat of a spectator sport: \u201cThey watch videos, compare viewpoints, and approach choosing a scent the way they would choose sneakers or tech.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

    \n
    \n
    \"Collage\"Collage<\/div>\n<\/div>
    <\/p>\n

    @thecologneboy \/ @fbfragrances \/ @fragrances \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

    <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The smellmaxxing renaissance on TikTok has reframed fragrance as a cultural commodity\u2014something to acquire, flex, and display rather than simply wear. Much like sneakers or streetwear drops, today\u2019s most hyped scents function as markers of taste among teenage boys, fueling a new kind of collectible culture around perfume. \u201cCollecting is cool now, and it\u2019s fun to have the newest and trendiest scents,\u201d says Elijah Yeroushalmi<\/u>, a 23-year-old fragrance creator. \u201cFragrance isn\u2019t seen as \u2018gay\u2019 anymore. It\u2019s seen as cool.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

    Notably, the boys aren\u2019t just sticking to mass-market hits like Dior Sauvage\u2014they\u2019re going niche. Once a tightly gatekept category that kept influencers at arm\u2019s length, niche fragrance has been democratized by TikTok. \u201cA 30-second TikTok can help decode a $400 niche fragrance instantly!\u201d explains de Cherg\u00e9. As one falls deeper into the smellmaxxing rabbit hole, the desire for increasingly niche, hard-to-find scents only grows.\n<\/p>\n

    \n
    \n
    \"Two\"Two<\/div>\n<\/div>
    <\/p>\n

    @thenoelthomas \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

    <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The Business of Smellmaxxing <\/span><\/h2>\n

    Brands, of course, are moving quickly to capitalize on the smellmaxxing wave. Designer and niche fragrance houses alike are now partnering with young male creators<\/u> in the fragrance space. The bigger shift, though, seems to be in how brands are talking to men.\n<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe noticed that men are no longer waiting for someone to buy them a cologne, but instead, [are] discovering them on their own,\u201d says Phil Riportella, co-founder of fragrance brand Snif. Last October, Riportella and co-founder Bryan Edwards launched Notewrks, a Snif sub-brand that specializes in men\u2019s fragrances \u201ccurated like a playlist.\u201d Challenging traditional notions of a cologne, the line frames scent through the lens of music. One fragrance description reads: \u201cThe track is smooth. The scent is sexy.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

    Alex Brands, founder of fragrance brand Rite of Way and former head of brand marketing at Madhappy, is also keen on reinventing how fragrance brands speak to male consumers. \u201cThey know much more about brands and style at a younger age, so this generation of shoppers is smarter,\u201d Brands tells Byrdie. \u201cIn contrast to the campy Axe ads of my youth, brands have to find a way to communicate that\u2019s more implicit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

    Even the frat bros are getting in on the smellmaxxing boom. For Drew Frank, a 22-year-old I knew back in college as a brother of Sigma Nu, fragrance really is the new streetwear. His first venture began in 2019 with his streetwear label Concrete Hills; six years later, he\u2019s now translating his streetwear sensibilities into scent with his new brand Temperatures. \u201cWe have a lot planned similar to streetwear,\u201d he tells me. \u201cLimited edition bottles, scents, and collabs with brands on fragrances.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

    What Do the Smellmaxxers Smell Like?\u00a0 <\/span><\/h2>\n

    The beauty of smellmaxxing is that there isn\u2019t one way to smellmaxx. The boys are all over the place. \u201cSweet vanilla scents\u2014more specifically Armani\u2019s Stronger with You Intensely<\/u>\u2014took over recently,\u201d Yeroushalmi tells me. His personal favorite, though, is Parfums de Marly\u2019s Percival, because it smells like a stronger version of his first-ever fragrance, Abercrombie & Fitch\u2019s Fierce. For Jatin Arora, known as @thecologneboy<\/u> on TikTok, he loves scents from Arabic perfumeries because \u201cthey\u2019re affordable and replicate the smell [of a designer fragrance] almost 90% of the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

    What links them all isn\u2019t a specific note so much as a vibe: Each fragrance offers a signature you can claim as your own. \u201cYounger men respond to fragrances with a clear signature,\u201d de Cherg\u00e9 says. \u201cSomething that stands out without feeling traditional or overly easy to wear.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

    \n
    \n
    \"A\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
    <\/p>\n

    Courtesy of Temperatures \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

    <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    This, of course, isn\u2019t a new sentiment. Scent has always been a shortcut to identity, a metaphorical band tee of sorts\u2014communicating good taste before you even open your mouth. But for the smellmaxxers, fragrance feels like the ultimate flex; scent is the new drip. It\u2019s only a matter of time before they discover the miraculous magic of Korean milky toners. Stock up while you can.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
    Read more:<\/div>\n
      \n
    • Fragrance<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
      \n

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        12 On-the-Rise Fragrance Brands to Add to Your Perfume Collection<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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        Want To Smell Like You\u2019re Good at Makeup? e.l.f. Made a Fragrance for That<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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          <\/main><\/p>\n

          \n
          \n
          \n
          \"A\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

          The Next-Gen Issue<\/span><\/p>\n

          \n

          Move Over, Sephora Tweens\u2014the Smellmaxxers Have Entered the Chat<\/h1>\n
          \n
          \n
          \n
          By<\/span><\/p>\n
          Derek Deng<\/p>\n
          \n
          \n
          \n
          \"Derek\"Derek<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
          \nDerek Deng\n<\/div>\n
          \n
            \n
          • <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
            \nDerek is the associate content editor for Byrdie where he covers news and trends across site and social.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
            \nByrdie’s Editorial Guidelines\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
            Published on January 29, 2026 07:30AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
            \n
            \n

            \u201cThe sillage on this goes hard,\u201d I overheard while deep in a sniffing spiral in the fragrance section of a Sephora. \u201cI still prefer Haltane,\u201d someone else said.\n<\/p>\n

            Anyone familiar with the world of niche fragrance knows Haltane as a crowd-favorite oud scent. I tore myself away from my blotter strips and realized that these words were coming out of the mouths of two teenage boys: one in a Nike tech sweat set, Foot Locker bag in hand, and the other in a Fear of God Essentials hoodie with a mango ice vape dangling from his mouth.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

            Since when did teenage boys casually drop the word sillage<\/em> in conversation? I was floored; they looked like the type of boys who would\u2019ve asked me why I talked \u201clike a girl\u201d in high school, and yet here we were, speaking the same language.\n<\/p>\n

            Take a trip to your local Zumiez, and you\u2019ll notice that amid a sea of St\u00fcssy shirts and Carhartt cargos, there are notes of oud, white musk, and mint lingering in the air. Alas, young boys don\u2019t want just<\/em> Supreme anymore\u2014they want Santal. One survey found that fragrance spending among teen boys jumped 26% in 2024; the boys are getting serious about scent.\n<\/p>\n

            Welcome to the era of \u201csmellmaxxing.\u201d To be a smellmaxxer is to treat fragrance as more of a competitive sport than a grooming habit; in other words, your sillage is your scoreboard. It\u2019s a movement largely fueled by teenage boys on TikTok, and it follows a larger trend of trying to \u201cmaxx\u201d out your real-life avatar (see: looksmaxxing, frame maxxing, and even carb maxxing). In the eyes of the smellmaxxers, your signature scent isn\u2019t just what you smell like. It\u2019s a vibe, a status, and a symbol of social capital.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

            How Did We Get Here? <\/span><\/h2>\n

            We are all too familiar with the Sephora tween. Her vanity is a neon shrine of TikTok Shop lip-liner stains, Glow Recipe serums, and Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balms. But we seem to have forgotten about her older brother, the smellmaxxer. Next to his sneaker wall sits an equally curated wall of colognes. He has a tendency to go for musk-forward scents; oud is too intense, and foug\u00e8res remind him of his uncle. His signature scent is an olfactory cocktail of Initio Musk Therapy and Parfums de Marly Percival. When\u2014and why\u2014did teenage boys go from Axe to Aventus?\n<\/p>\n

            \u201cYounger men used to choose fragrance by convenience,\u201d says Aymar de Cherg\u00e9, Vice President of Marketing at Parfums de Marly and Initio Parfums Priv\u00e9s. Now, because of social media, fragrance has become somewhat of a spectator sport: \u201cThey watch videos, compare viewpoints, and approach choosing a scent the way they would choose sneakers or tech.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

            \n
            \n
            \"Collage\"Collage<\/div>\n<\/div>
            <\/p>\n

            @thecologneboy \/ @fbfragrances \/ @fragrances \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

            <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

            The smellmaxxing renaissance on TikTok has reframed fragrance as a cultural commodity\u2014something to acquire, flex, and display rather than simply wear. Much like sneakers or streetwear drops, today\u2019s most hyped scents function as markers of taste among teenage boys, fueling a new kind of collectible culture around perfume. \u201cCollecting is cool now, and it\u2019s fun to have the newest and trendiest scents,\u201d says Elijah Yeroushalmi<\/u>, a 23-year-old fragrance creator. \u201cFragrance isn\u2019t seen as \u2018gay\u2019 anymore. It\u2019s seen as cool.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

            Notably, the boys aren\u2019t just sticking to mass-market hits like Dior Sauvage\u2014they\u2019re going niche. Once a tightly gatekept category that kept influencers at arm\u2019s length, niche fragrance has been democratized by TikTok. \u201cA 30-second TikTok can help decode a $400 niche fragrance instantly!\u201d explains de Cherg\u00e9. As one falls deeper into the smellmaxxing rabbit hole, the desire for increasingly niche, hard-to-find scents only grows.\n<\/p>\n

            \n
            \n
            \"Two\"Two<\/div>\n<\/div>
            <\/p>\n

            @thenoelthomas \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

            <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

            The Business of Smellmaxxing <\/span><\/h2>\n

            Brands, of course, are moving quickly to capitalize on the smellmaxxing wave. Designer and niche fragrance houses alike are now partnering with young male creators<\/u> in the fragrance space. The bigger shift, though, seems to be in how brands are talking to men.\n<\/p>\n

            \u201cWe noticed that men are no longer waiting for someone to buy them a cologne, but instead, [are] discovering them on their own,\u201d says Phil Riportella, co-founder of fragrance brand Snif. Last October, Riportella and co-founder Bryan Edwards launched Notewrks, a Snif sub-brand that specializes in men\u2019s fragrances \u201ccurated like a playlist.\u201d Challenging traditional notions of a cologne, the line frames scent through the lens of music. One fragrance description reads: \u201cThe track is smooth. The scent is sexy.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

            Alex Brands, founder of fragrance brand Rite of Way and former head of brand marketing at Madhappy, is also keen on reinventing how fragrance brands speak to male consumers. \u201cThey know much more about brands and style at a younger age, so this generation of shoppers is smarter,\u201d Brands tells Byrdie. \u201cIn contrast to the campy Axe ads of my youth, brands have to find a way to communicate that\u2019s more implicit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

            Even the frat bros are getting in on the smellmaxxing boom. For Drew Frank, a 22-year-old I knew back in college as a brother of Sigma Nu, fragrance really is the new streetwear. His first venture began in 2019 with his streetwear label Concrete Hills; six years later, he\u2019s now translating his streetwear sensibilities into scent with his new brand Temperatures. \u201cWe have a lot planned similar to streetwear,\u201d he tells me. \u201cLimited edition bottles, scents, and collabs with brands on fragrances.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

            What Do the Smellmaxxers Smell Like?\u00a0 <\/span><\/h2>\n

            The beauty of smellmaxxing is that there isn\u2019t one way to smellmaxx. The boys are all over the place. \u201cSweet vanilla scents\u2014more specifically Armani\u2019s Stronger with You Intensely<\/u>\u2014took over recently,\u201d Yeroushalmi tells me. His personal favorite, though, is Parfums de Marly\u2019s Percival, because it smells like a stronger version of his first-ever fragrance, Abercrombie & Fitch\u2019s Fierce. For Jatin Arora, known as @thecologneboy<\/u> on TikTok, he loves scents from Arabic perfumeries because \u201cthey\u2019re affordable and replicate the smell [of a designer fragrance] almost 90% of the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

            What links them all isn\u2019t a specific note so much as a vibe: Each fragrance offers a signature you can claim as your own. \u201cYounger men respond to fragrances with a clear signature,\u201d de Cherg\u00e9 says. \u201cSomething that stands out without feeling traditional or overly easy to wear.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

            \n
            \n
            \"A\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
            <\/p>\n

            Courtesy of Temperatures \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

            <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

            This, of course, isn\u2019t a new sentiment. Scent has always been a shortcut to identity, a metaphorical band tee of sorts\u2014communicating good taste before you even open your mouth. But for the smellmaxxers, fragrance feels like the ultimate flex; scent is the new drip. It\u2019s only a matter of time before they discover the miraculous magic of Korean milky toners. Stock up while you can.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

            \n
            Read more:<\/div>\n
              \n
            • Fragrance<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
              \n

              \u201cThe sillage on this goes hard,\u201d I overheard while deep in a sniffing spiral in the fragrance section of a Sephora. \u201cI still prefer Haltane,\u201d someone else said.\n<\/p>\n

              Anyone familiar with the world of niche fragrance knows Haltane as a crowd-favorite oud scent. I tore myself away from my blotter strips and realized that these words were coming out of the mouths of two teenage boys: one in a Nike tech sweat set, Foot Locker bag in hand, and the other in a Fear of God Essentials hoodie with a mango ice vape dangling from his mouth.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

              Since when did teenage boys casually drop the word sillage<\/em> in conversation? I was floored; they looked like the type of boys who would\u2019ve asked me why I talked \u201clike a girl\u201d in high school, and yet here we were, speaking the same language.\n<\/p>\n

              Take a trip to your local Zumiez, and you\u2019ll notice that amid a sea of St\u00fcssy shirts and Carhartt cargos, there are notes of oud, white musk, and mint lingering in the air. Alas, young boys don\u2019t want just<\/em> Supreme anymore\u2014they want Santal. One survey found that fragrance spending among teen boys jumped 26% in 2024; the boys are getting serious about scent.\n<\/p>\n

              Welcome to the era of \u201csmellmaxxing.\u201d To be a smellmaxxer is to treat fragrance as more of a competitive sport than a grooming habit; in other words, your sillage is your scoreboard. It\u2019s a movement largely fueled by teenage boys on TikTok, and it follows a larger trend of trying to \u201cmaxx\u201d out your real-life avatar (see: looksmaxxing, frame maxxing, and even carb maxxing). In the eyes of the smellmaxxers, your signature scent isn\u2019t just what you smell like. It\u2019s a vibe, a status, and a symbol of social capital.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

              How Did We Get Here? <\/span><\/h2>\n

              We are all too familiar with the Sephora tween. Her vanity is a neon shrine of TikTok Shop lip-liner stains, Glow Recipe serums, and Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balms. But we seem to have forgotten about her older brother, the smellmaxxer. Next to his sneaker wall sits an equally curated wall of colognes. He has a tendency to go for musk-forward scents; oud is too intense, and foug\u00e8res remind him of his uncle. His signature scent is an olfactory cocktail of Initio Musk Therapy and Parfums de Marly Percival. When\u2014and why\u2014did teenage boys go from Axe to Aventus?\n<\/p>\n

              \u201cYounger men used to choose fragrance by convenience,\u201d says Aymar de Cherg\u00e9, Vice President of Marketing at Parfums de Marly and Initio Parfums Priv\u00e9s. Now, because of social media, fragrance has become somewhat of a spectator sport: \u201cThey watch videos, compare viewpoints, and approach choosing a scent the way they would choose sneakers or tech.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

              \n
              \n
              \"Collage\"Collage<\/div>\n<\/div>
              <\/p>\n

              @thecologneboy \/ @fbfragrances \/ @fragrances \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

              <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

              The smellmaxxing renaissance on TikTok has reframed fragrance as a cultural commodity\u2014something to acquire, flex, and display rather than simply wear. Much like sneakers or streetwear drops, today\u2019s most hyped scents function as markers of taste among teenage boys, fueling a new kind of collectible culture around perfume. \u201cCollecting is cool now, and it\u2019s fun to have the newest and trendiest scents,\u201d says Elijah Yeroushalmi<\/u>, a 23-year-old fragrance creator. \u201cFragrance isn\u2019t seen as \u2018gay\u2019 anymore. It\u2019s seen as cool.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

              Notably, the boys aren\u2019t just sticking to mass-market hits like Dior Sauvage\u2014they\u2019re going niche. Once a tightly gatekept category that kept influencers at arm\u2019s length, niche fragrance has been democratized by TikTok. \u201cA 30-second TikTok can help decode a $400 niche fragrance instantly!\u201d explains de Cherg\u00e9. As one falls deeper into the smellmaxxing rabbit hole, the desire for increasingly niche, hard-to-find scents only grows.\n<\/p>\n

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              \"Two\"Two<\/div>\n<\/div>
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              @thenoelthomas \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

              <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

              The Business of Smellmaxxing <\/span><\/h2>\n

              Brands, of course, are moving quickly to capitalize on the smellmaxxing wave. Designer and niche fragrance houses alike are now partnering with young male creators<\/u> in the fragrance space. The bigger shift, though, seems to be in how brands are talking to men.\n<\/p>\n

              \u201cWe noticed that men are no longer waiting for someone to buy them a cologne, but instead, [are] discovering them on their own,\u201d says Phil Riportella, co-founder of fragrance brand Snif. Last October, Riportella and co-founder Bryan Edwards launched Notewrks, a Snif sub-brand that specializes in men\u2019s fragrances \u201ccurated like a playlist.\u201d Challenging traditional notions of a cologne, the line frames scent through the lens of music. One fragrance description reads: \u201cThe track is smooth. The scent is sexy.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

              Alex Brands, founder of fragrance brand Rite of Way and former head of brand marketing at Madhappy, is also keen on reinventing how fragrance brands speak to male consumers. \u201cThey know much more about brands and style at a younger age, so this generation of shoppers is smarter,\u201d Brands tells Byrdie. \u201cIn contrast to the campy Axe ads of my youth, brands have to find a way to communicate that\u2019s more implicit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

              Even the frat bros are getting in on the smellmaxxing boom. For Drew Frank, a 22-year-old I knew back in college as a brother of Sigma Nu, fragrance really is the new streetwear. His first venture began in 2019 with his streetwear label Concrete Hills; six years later, he\u2019s now translating his streetwear sensibilities into scent with his new brand Temperatures. \u201cWe have a lot planned similar to streetwear,\u201d he tells me. \u201cLimited edition bottles, scents, and collabs with brands on fragrances.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

              What Do the Smellmaxxers Smell Like?\u00a0 <\/span><\/h2>\n

              The beauty of smellmaxxing is that there isn\u2019t one way to smellmaxx. The boys are all over the place. \u201cSweet vanilla scents\u2014more specifically Armani\u2019s Stronger with You Intensely<\/u>\u2014took over recently,\u201d Yeroushalmi tells me. His personal favorite, though, is Parfums de Marly\u2019s Percival, because it smells like a stronger version of his first-ever fragrance, Abercrombie & Fitch\u2019s Fierce. For Jatin Arora, known as @thecologneboy<\/u> on TikTok, he loves scents from Arabic perfumeries because \u201cthey\u2019re affordable and replicate the smell [of a designer fragrance] almost 90% of the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

              What links them all isn\u2019t a specific note so much as a vibe: Each fragrance offers a signature you can claim as your own. \u201cYounger men respond to fragrances with a clear signature,\u201d de Cherg\u00e9 says. \u201cSomething that stands out without feeling traditional or overly easy to wear.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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              \"A\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
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              Courtesy of Temperatures \/ Byrdie<\/p>\n

              <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

              This, of course, isn\u2019t a new sentiment. Scent has always been a shortcut to identity, a metaphorical band tee of sorts\u2014communicating good taste before you even open your mouth. But for the smellmaxxers, fragrance feels like the ultimate flex; scent is the new drip. It\u2019s only a matter of time before they discover the miraculous magic of Korean milky toners. Stock up while you can.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

              [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.byrdie.com\/straight-boys-are-smell-maxxing-11879942″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.byrdie.com\/thmb\/iu8fLP0jQBGOu5NW5KxvX_dJGfc=\/1500×0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()\/Byr_DI_BoysSmellMaxxing_Social-6ad65d9cfc08485aa67bff6fea041701.jpg”] The Next-Gen Issue Move Over, Sephora Tweens\u2014the Smellmaxxers Have Entered the Chat By Derek Deng Derek Deng Derek is the associate content editor for Byrdie where he covers news and trends across site and social. Byrdie’s Editorial Guidelines Published on January 29, 2026 07:30AM \u201cThe sillage on this goes hard,\u201d I overheard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[83,226],"class_list":["post-1747477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-byrdie-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1747477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1747477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1747477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1747477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}