Speaker 1: These sees Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenavic on Bloomberg Radio. Okay, Katie, I'm really excited. We've
Speaker 1: been talking about this all day. Right now we've got
Speaker 1: in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio with us the fragrance Queen.
Speaker 1: She is Linda Leavy, president of the Fragrance Foundation, here
Speaker 1: to talk to us about the state of the fragrance
Speaker 1: industry this holiday season. Linda, you blew my mind with
Speaker 1: something that you mentioned earlier, and Katie was on top
Speaker 1: of this. To the fragrance industry does not just mean perfumes.
Speaker 1: It's it's bigger and broader than that, isn't it? Yes,
Speaker 1: it is, and Scarlett and Katie is a thrill to
Speaker 1: be back. Um, I want to tell you all about fragrance.
Speaker 1: Fragrance comes in a lot of forms, and particularly during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, the business has been soaring. So think about this.
Speaker 1: Of course, there is that term perfume, and that's a
Speaker 1: personal fragrance or a cologne that you spray on yourself.
Speaker 1: But also think about all the sanitizing and cleaning and
Speaker 1: how many lotions you've put on. Those have fragrant too.
Speaker 1: We consider those fragrance and in addition, two major categories
Speaker 1: that have sword and will continue. One of them you're
Speaker 1: going to nod with me, are all about home fragrances, candles, diffusers,
Speaker 1: plug ins. People who were home has spent so much
Speaker 1: time there really want wanted to enhance their environment and
Speaker 1: distinguish one room from for another. Every night, my husband
Speaker 1: Steve and I, he picks a bottle of wine and
Speaker 1: I picked the candle to go with the meal. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of fragrance out there in your environment
Speaker 1: as well. Just sent you pair with like an oaky
Speaker 1: chardonnay or what's your wine and choice question? Well, many
Speaker 1: evenings I must admit penot noir, the red one is
Speaker 1: part of our life and that brings you a little depth.
Speaker 1: So there's always a little fruity and floral fragrances are
Speaker 1: big um. Also this time of year, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of holiday fragrances. You probably know Diptique, Joe Malone,
Speaker 1: Boy Smells Nest, and so many others have come out
Speaker 1: with fragrances that either remind you of some nostalgic holiday
Speaker 1: with fur and balsam and all that stuff, or d
Speaker 1: S and Durga in New York based he created um
Speaker 1: a latka for Hanukkah a latka taste. So it's yeah,
Speaker 1: the candle smells like probably fried potatoes and oil and pepper.
Speaker 1: So I'm beyond fragrance a big category in the industry
Speaker 1: and loved by consumers. This is blowing my mind. It is,
Speaker 1: and it's blowing my mind because again, I until I
Speaker 1: had this revelation during the commercial break that fragrance doesn't
Speaker 1: just mean perfume. That why would it, you know, see
Speaker 1: an increase during the pandemic. We weren't leaving our houses,
Speaker 1: no one was smelling us except people theoretically who we
Speaker 1: loved us with. But uh, it kind of sounds like
Speaker 1: it coincides with the self care trends when you think
Speaker 1: about lotions and candles. Yes, it's very interesting. Even prior
Speaker 1: to the pandemic, where we weren't getting dressed up and
Speaker 1: going out so much, um, we started to reference fragrance
Speaker 1: and even more so now as the invisible accessory. So
Speaker 1: while everyone probably was getting much more casual, they really
Speaker 1: wanted to feel a little more dressed up or when
Speaker 1: they went out and put the mask on, they wanted
Speaker 1: to have a little identity. We really believe and we've
Speaker 1: proven that fragrance as one of the senses was elevated
Speaker 1: because during COVID some people lost their sense of you know, smell,
Speaker 1: And the other thing is they wanted it for transportive reasons.
Speaker 1: So think about this scarlet and Katie, where did you
Speaker 1: go on vacation and what did you smell or what
Speaker 1: did you wear? Where you want We're on vacation, so
Speaker 1: while you were home during the pandemic, you wanted to
Speaker 1: sprits that on and sort of flashback to that Caribbean
Speaker 1: island or the coast of a Malfi or somewhere else
Speaker 1: where there was a distinctive scent. You know. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you bring this up because I was in Vegas
Speaker 1: last month and what I noticed in walking through the
Speaker 1: different hotels was that every hotel had its own scent,
Speaker 1: But hotels that were owned by MGM Grand, for instance,
Speaker 1: had a similar family of scent versus those that were
Speaker 1: owned by Caesar's. And it's it's very distinct, so that
Speaker 1: as you go through the different hotels, sometimes you have
Speaker 1: no idea whether you're in still in Caesar's or you've
Speaker 1: moved on to the bellagio um and maybe my geography
Speaker 1: is wrong. So if it's wrong, but the scent would
Speaker 1: help you distinguish one venue from another, that is exactly
Speaker 1: right on. Another type of fragrance is on beyond scent.
Speaker 1: That's what we call it. So hotels or stores really
Speaker 1: want to create an environment or give you what you
Speaker 1: really smelled in those um different hotels was what was
Speaker 1: their personality coming through? And it gives you a sense
Speaker 1: of home. It gives you a sense of what the
Speaker 1: environments like. So in your fragrance list collection, you talked
Speaker 1: we talked about home. The other one we talk a
Speaker 1: lot about in the biz is on beyond scent, and
Speaker 1: it's becoming more and more popular, and of course we're
Speaker 1: having this conversation on December twenty we are firmly in
Speaker 1: the heart of holiday season. Talk about how important that
Speaker 1: is for the industry as a whole, even as you're
Speaker 1: seeing other types of fragrances become more popular. When you
Speaker 1: think about the home, but when it comes to the
Speaker 1: gift giving season, is that still incredibly crucial, incredibly big.
Speaker 1: The pre pandemic, I would say the consumers were buying online,
Speaker 1: going in stores, but I was a retailer at Macy's
Speaker 1: before this job, and the last ten days it used
Speaker 1: to be five days, three days. The countdown to Christmas
Speaker 1: was huge. Most of the time, it is a go
Speaker 1: to gift. It continues as we speak. Last year or
Speaker 1: the year before, during the pandemic, a lot more was
Speaker 1: brought online. Think about it, you bought something for someone
Speaker 1: and you shipped it to them because you weren't going
Speaker 1: to see it or see those people in Christmas. Now
Speaker 1: we really think that there is going to be a
Speaker 1: stampede into the stores the last few days, and it's
Speaker 1: always giftable, wrapped up in a beautiful box and easy
Speaker 1: to get someone something new. Do perfumes or fragrances ever expired?
Speaker 1: Can they go back? A good question. I hear that
Speaker 1: question quite a bit. If you do not open the
Speaker 1: actual bottle or you don't start spraying, it would last longer.
Speaker 1: But as long as you keep your fragrances away from
Speaker 1: extreme heat or sunlight. Quite frankly, they can last for years.
Speaker 1: They could go on for five years, but I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say they expire. It also depends how much of the
Speaker 1: natural versus synthetic is in there, and I'm always telling
Speaker 1: everyone one is not better than the other. But generally speaking,
Speaker 1: unless you have it right on top of your heat
Speaker 1: or it's gonna last pretty long. Okay, So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go home. I'm going to take the bottle of Mademoiselle
Speaker 1: off the heater. We only have about forty seconds or
Speaker 1: so left with you. Such a good conversation. But when
Speaker 1: you look into what do you think the biggest trend
Speaker 1: will be in fragrances? I do believe the home category
Speaker 1: will continue, and as Scarlet you were mentioning on beyond.
Speaker 1: But what I'm very proud of and what's changed in
Speaker 1: the industry and with consumers, it's not just about sexual attraction.
Speaker 1: It's how you feel about yourself. It's self care. And
Speaker 1: we're seeing that fragrance is really becoming a collection, not
Speaker 1: just a signature fragrance, not just a signature fragrance. This
Speaker 1: is such a great conversation. But Scarlett, you don't wear
Speaker 1: perfume necessarily. I don't, but I get my hair done
Speaker 1: at work and they use an a rebig dry shampoo,
Speaker 1: and so I've come to identify that as my sent Okay,
Speaker 1: in a sense, then you and I were the same
Speaker 1: persose everything walk around. Yeah, we have the same fragrance.
Speaker 1: What a great conversation that is. Linda Levy, she is
Speaker 1: the president of the Fragrance Foundation known as the Fragrance Queen,
Speaker 1: joining us in the Bloomberg Interactive Burker Studio in New York.