For a perfume to be a success in Mexico, it should meet two standards.
“In Mexico, people like to smell good. But they also like to smell a lot,” mentioned Katerina Brunback, co-founder and director of operations at area of interest scent model Laguna Cyprien.
That long-standing cultural predilection for daring, long-lasting scents has made fragrance a preferred class in Mexico for many years. But now, the market is seeing a contemporary inflow of curiosity, partly from youthful home consumers and a flurry of rich vacationers passing by means of locales like Mexico City and Baja California.
One factor that unites each teams? A rising choice for area of interest Mexican-made scents, and fewer value sensitivity than their older counterparts.
It mirrors what’s taking place in Mexico at giant, mentioned Veronica Peña, one of many co-founders of area of interest luxurious model Xinú.
“Mexico is going through a beautiful stage, almost like a renaissance,” she mentioned. Cultural and sporting occasions like October’s Formula 1 race; Zona MACO, Latin America’s largest modern artwork honest and the Festival de México en el Centro Histórico, an arts occasion in March, have helped tick up tourism ranges, bringing in extra rich expats. She added that there’s been city renewal in beforehand uncared for areas and a culinary “explosion” in native eating places.
That’s elevated the variety of excessive web price clients flocking to its main metropolises. They’re bringing with them excessive expectations on the subject of fragrance.
“The customer [here] is passionate about fragrance, and not shy about what they’re wearing,” she mentioned.
To capitalise on the second, native manufacturers like Xinú, Laguna Cyprien and Perfumerica are shifting quick, opening extra shops, inking extra collaborations and launching merchandise with clear ties to Mexico and its surrounding nations. Xinú’s Aguamadera, $240, has notes of agave, a candy succulent native to Mexico; accessibly priced model Perfumerica will quickly launch a mango-inspired scent (Mexico is likely one of the world’s largest mango producers); Laguna Cyprien, which makes room scents, soaps and detergents in addition to fragrance, is increasing its community to offer facilities to extra Mexican accommodations.
“There’s more of a focus on pride in Mexico, made in Mexico,” mentioned Brunback.
As tourism in the nation has ticked up, led in no small half by so-called “digital nomads” — international distant staff — shopper manufacturers have refined their choices to focus on these prosperous guests. According to Mexico City’s authorities, visits to the capital greater than doubled in 2023, led by American vacationers.
While anti-tourism protests will not be unusual all through the capital, native companies are reaping their advantages. Xinú’s 102-square-metre, light-filled house in ritzy Polanco has turn into must-see websites for guests, showing on broader “what to do in Mexico City” lists.
“It’s one of those things that makes people put their phones away,” mentioned Peña. “They start experiencing the flowers and all the elements of the store, and lose themselves a little.”
Peña’s co-founders, Héctor Esrawe and Iganacio Cadena, are fellow architects and inventive consultants. The wood-panelled retailer is crammed with lush vegetation and floor-to-ceiling home windows in a radial construction. Its dual-hemisphere fragrance bottles are impressed by sculpture, artfully splattered with paint, and wrapped in repurposed materials in their packing containers. “We take inspiration from the whole [Latin American] continent with no borders, just the volcanoes, the rivers, the people, the colours,” mentioned Peña.
Xinú, which is bootstrapped however receiving curiosity from worldwide traders, sources advised The Business of Beautyopened a separate retailer in Mexico City in October only for its homewares choices, like soaps and candles, that are scented otherwise to its core perfume line — a acutely aware alternative to take care of the integrity of its private perfume line, and to extend its buyer base. It at present has 5 shops in Mexico, with three extra underneath building. Perfumerica, which presents a variety of scents priced round $40, can also be rising its door depend, with a second flagship retailer set to open in Mexico City purchasing district of Condesa on Nov. 21, its twenty second location in the nation.
While tourism could also be rising the trade to new heights, the fragrance market in Mexico has all the time been sturdy, even when its economic system has faltered.
“It doesn’t matter which socioeconomic layer you’re in, in Mexico, we have this concept of ‘coquette’, which is a kind of flirtiness,” mentioned Gerardo Pérez Rojas, co-founder of Perfumerica. “Perfume is definitely a big part of that,” he mentioned, including that whereas the economic system is just not booming general, there’s nonetheless a need for genuine, well-executed manufacturers.
While Mexico’s economic system grew 1.8 p.c in the primary half of 2025, stunning analysts who had anticipated it to fall right into a recession, buying energy is bifurcated in the nation, with small pockets of super-wealthy clients. Shopping habits additionally make scale more durable: in response to analysis by perfume firm Givaudan, round two-thirds of fragrance gross sales nonetheless occur door-to-door. Pérez Rojas mentioned shops nonetheless management a lot of the area of interest fragrance market, and that it’s arduous for manufacturers to develop with out distributors.
Still, all three manufacturers are decided to push forward with their very own shops.
“[Perfume requires a lot of interaction with your customer directly,” mentioned Brunback, who additionally mentioned that Laguna Cyprien was evaluating increasing into different Latin American markets earlier than contemplating coming into the US. “We have a great product that would actually resonate a lot with Latin America in general,” she mentioned, including that she feels the model has a greater likelihood rising in markets and economies which are nonetheless rising. Brazil is especially enticing, because the world’s second-largest perfume market after the US.
While enlargement in Latin America will help Mexican manufacturers develop their companies, in the event that they do resolve to increase their providing in the US, they get pleasure from extra preferable buying and selling preparations than different Latin nations. Despite fluctuations in tariff coverage, fragrances are exempt underneath the USMCA commerce deal inked in 2018. Xinú and Laguna Cyprien ship to the US at present, whereas Perfumerica is carried in some American retailers together with area of interest perfumery Osswald in New York City.
Robust demand at residence may even preserve urge for food excessive.
“In Mexico, we love when someone says, ‘Oh I knew you were in this room because I smelled you’,” mentioned Perez Rojas. “It’s part of our identity.”
Sign as much as The Business of Beauty e-newsletter, your complimentary, must-read supply for the day’s most vital magnificence and wellness information and evaluation.