Future of Smell

Future of Smell Future of Smell helps brands design sensory experiences through research-backed custom fragrance design & smell-based technologies.

We provide insights and solutions for the design of custom scents and experiences for world-leading brands.

Fragrance is expanding in several directions at once: formats, online purchase, AI materials, and disclosure.What do you...
28/05/2026

Fragrance is expanding in several directions at once: formats, online purchase, AI materials, and disclosure.

What do you see?

Consumers are increasingly using scent as a tool to influence their internal state and this has implications far beyond ...
10/05/2026

Consumers are increasingly using scent as a tool to influence their internal state and this has implications far beyond perfume.

People didn’t suddenly wake up and decide they want to smell better.

New Harvard-led research suggests smell may be more spatially organized than scientists thought.In a new Cell paper publ...
04/05/2026

New Harvard-led research suggests smell may be more spatially organized than scientists thought.

In a new Cell paper published April 28th, researchers mapped around 5.5 million olfactory sensory neurons from 300+ mice across 1,100+ receptor genes. Instead of finding random placement, they found tight, overlapping horizontal bands in the olfactory epithelium, and that organization appeared to align with sensory maps in the olfactory bulb.

That matters because smell has long been the major sense without a clear receptor map. This work gives researchers a new framework for how odor signals are organized, and a stronger basis for studying smell loss and recovery.

This study was conducted in mice.
Brann DH et al., Cell 2026. “A spatial code governs olfactory receptor choice and aligns sensory maps in the nose and brain.” DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.03.051.

For years the dominant technology platforms optimized for attention extremely well.Now a different set of consumer behav...
29/04/2026

For years the dominant technology platforms optimized for attention extremely well.

Now a different set of consumer behaviors is becoming harder to ignore. Sleep tracking. Nervous system regulation. Recovery culture. Focus tools. Wearables. Fragrance. Products built around calm, energy, and restoration.

What used to sit at the edge of wellness is starting to influence technology, consumer products, and environment design.

Not every company in this category will succeed. Many ideas will fail. Some will become wellness theater.

But it does feel like a new market is forming around products and systems designed to influence how people feel rather than simply keep them engaged.

Scent may be the oldest technology in that category. And one of the least understood.

Smell tech is easy to frame as innovation. The bigger question is what changes once scent can be read, designed with pre...
17/04/2026

Smell tech is easy to frame as innovation. The bigger question is what changes once scent can be read, designed with precision, and moved far from its source. That is where the stakes shift across privacy, culture, perception, and power.

Which slide stayed with you most? ⬛️

We tend to treat scent as atmosphere. Something that sits on top of a product or space.But if smell can change how somet...
10/04/2026

We tend to treat scent as atmosphere. Something that sits on top of a product or space.

But if smell can change how something is felt and remembered, it becomes a system you can design.

That means asking different questions:
What does this scent do when experiencing a product or a space?
What does it do to memory a day later?
Does it calm, activate, or anchor the experience?
Does it make the brand easier to recall?

This is the kind of thinking I keep coming back to when working with fragrance and product teams.

It is also part of what we explore in Fragrance Futures Salon with founders who are building perfume brands and thinking through how scent actually connects with people.

Comment SALON for details on the upcoming salon.

07/04/2026

One thing that became clear at the last Fragrance Salon is that many fragrance founders are not having challenges with formulation but with how to talk about what they are creating, how to position it, and how to get it in front of the right people.

That is part of why I created the Fragrance Salon.
The next salon is on April 14 and it will bring together fragrance founders who are actively building and refining their brands. It is a chance to listen, learn, and be in conversation with others navigating similar questions.

If this could be useful to you comment SALONA for ticket info or check my link in bio!

Most fragrance development happens in a sealed room. Internal reviews. Benchmarks. Focus groups. By the time real market...
06/04/2026

Most fragrance development happens in a sealed room. Internal reviews. Benchmarks. Focus groups. By the time real market signal arrives the bet is already placed.

Leaked Labs flipped that model for beauty. The question is whether fragrance can borrow from it or needs to build something entirely its own.

There’s a difference between testing to reduce risk and testing to find truth. The industry has a lot of the first. Almost none of the second.

The irony is that over-testing is already a problem in fragrance. It’s part of why so much smells the same. The goal isn’t more testing. It’s earlier, more organic feedback from real people who actually want to smell something new. What do you guys think 🤔

Recent fragrance deals point to a larger market than perfume alone, with capital reaching prestige brands, body care, di...
26/03/2026

Recent fragrance deals point to a larger market than perfume alone, with capital reaching prestige brands, body care, diagnostics, and scent technology. Together, they show how scent now sits inside a broader set of businesses with very different paths to value.

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