#even though im not on tiktok and use adblockers for everything

[bougonia]

Hey OP, sorry in advance for the essay but you stumbled upon something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Yes, perfumes are more popular due to advertising but it extends far beyond scentbird.

So... I just (rather abruptly) snapped out of a several-months-long fixation on fragrance. I had always been somewhat interested in fragrance from a sensory-seeking perspective but a few months ago I was reminded that there were various online communities about fragrance, a switch flipped in my brain, and I became completely obsessed. Spending hours and hours per day on various subreddits, websites, and blogs dedicated to personal fragrance.

While I did spend a lot of time just earmarking different scents that I wanted to try (most of which I never actually tried-- it was more of a "the research is the fun" kind of thing), I also became familiar with the culture surrounding perfumes, how we talk about them, and why they're having such a big cultural moment right now.

Up until recently, fragrance had more or less been a woman's game. There was enough cologne enthusiasts to keep the industry going and your average man would have a bottle or two, but if you pulled a random person off the street and asked if they wear fragrance daily, more women were going to say yes than men. Here's a survey among university students from 2020-- 56% of men vs 81% of women.

But as much as the recent trend targets women and girls, it has affected men and boys far more. In January 2023, r/perfumes had 21.2k members and has now increased by (a still absurd) 480% to 123k. r/colognes, on the other hand, had a mere 7165, and has now increased to 92k, an increase of almost 1200%. That is more than double the rate of growth. For context: reddit's userbase as a whole has increased about 21%.

(I wish I could get better data, including when the majority of users joined up, but because of reddit's API changes last year that's not really feasible)

To be clear, I do get that a certain amount is just due to the natural consequence of diminishing returns. Since more women were interested fragrance in the first place (enough to join a subreddit, anyway), there's a larger body of potential men and boys who could become consumers. But what makes people get "into" them in the first place? Obviously (and as OP pointed out) advertising.

And boy howdy are they advertising to men and boys. Specifically cisgender, heterosexual males aged 13 to 25. (Yes, 13. There was a New York Times article about the rise of designer cologne among teenage boys.)

There are so many tiktokkers and youtubers who are recieving promotional bottles of very expensive scents (seriously, it isn't uncommon for a single bottle to cost >$250, and a $100 bottle is often considered inexpensive) in return for hyping them up.

There are so many youtube videos that are top 10 lists of perfumes you need to buy Right Now using terms like "panty dropper", "smellmaxxing", and "beast mode". An emphasis is put on how the perfumes will get you compliments, how ladies love them, and how they are "the best scent" (which I find absurd; scent is a very subjective experience).

But why are boys watching these videos in the first place? What drew them there?

I actually don't necessarily think this was initially a calculated move by the perfume industry. They're encouraging and capitalizing on it now, for sure, but I don't think the initial domino was intended at all.

In my opinion, ground zero for the cologne phenomenon: Jeremy Fragrance.

Jeremy Fragrance has been a fairly popular youtuber for some time now, having been reviewing fragrances since 2014. But around December 2022, he began to go viral for his odd behavior. Interest in him died down for a little bit, but then again in March 2023 he goes viral again. After that, the previously eccentric man began an extended meltdown (theorized to be the result of cocaine usage) that cemented him as a target of parody and mockery. For lack of a better term, he became a lolcow. Clips of him would frequently go viral on tiktok-- particularly (albeit not exclusively) among teen boys and young men.

And that tiktok virality had an interesting side effect. As anyone who has ever used tiktok can tell you, it has a tendency to send you down rabbit holes. For all intents and purposes, Jeremy Fragrance was a fragrance reviewer. So you and your buddies watch a few of his videos, have a good chuckle, and then tiktok keeps showing you fragrance reviews. And hey, this sounds kind of interesting actually, maybe this would help me with women...

Eventually the tiktok algorithm recognizes that other content for teen boys and young men is frequently viewed alongside cologne reviews. So other members of that demographic get those reviews. And so on and so forth-- a self-reinforcing loop.

This is a major win for fragrance companies. More interest in reviews = more reviewers = more people to get to shill for you.

Of course, I don't think Jeremy Fragrance is the only factor. I don't think people would have taken to fragrance in the same way if there wasn't already fertile cultural soil for such a trend.

I suspect the (perceived or real) disenfranchisement of boys, the same atmosphere that bred manosphere content, is at least partially to blame. There's certainly some overlap in rhetoric. I can also imagine it's a reaction to the ubiquitous punchline that teen boys are smelly and gross.

I think a similar thing happened among women, except with a bunch of smaller, less conspicuous factors. Instead of the viral smash of Jeremy Fragrance, they had the "clean girl", skincare, and other trends that encouraged girls and young women to buy all sorts of products to perfect their bodies, fragrance included. Fragrance companies, having perfected social media marketing, could pull the same tricks.

(The idea of needing to have a different perfume for every occasion/season is more or less a new phenomenon outside of hobby circles. Sure is convenient for perfume companies, though...)

The increase of girls' interest in perfumes is more or less ignored. Granted, it's not as striking as teen boys suddenly spending thousands of dollars on niche and designer perfume, but it is a massive increase. But hey, women are supposed to be into perfumes, after all. It's just another one of those costs of femininity that we expect women to bear.

Obviously a lot of this is just speculation on my end. My suspicion that it's Jeremy Fragrance's fault is especially suspect. But a lot of this is based on trends that I have noticed, and I'm far from the only one.

Anyway, I love the idea of perfumes. I love having a scent that you really like that you can smell whenever you feel like it. I like coming across something and thinking, woah, I didn't know perfumes could smell like that. However, I am very disillusioned with the perfume industry, and I especially hate the way that they utilize social media to push their overpriced products (which have been getting more and more expensive!), especially to young people who lack the critical thinking to realize they're being advertised to.

"advertising doesn't work" the increase in scentbird ads and people talking about a "personal signature scent" directly correlates with my family's interest in perfumes. Even if they're not using scentbird, something probably changed to make them want perfumes more, right?

[smallcrystals]

I had written so much and then i fucking lost it all nooooooooooo. 

Welp, gotta rewrite it. Here are my sibs, be warned, there’s a lot here. Also, apologies for subjecting you to my handwriting. 

  Morning star (eldest, top left)

  Mid-late twenties

Likes historical weaponry and combat. she ‘s a big nerd, who used to larp and enjoys things like tabletop and renaissance fairs and fantasy stuff (she also sort of inspired a dnd hobby in flash)

Amputee 

She has adhd (they all do) which was inherited from their dad. 

She likes jazz

She was in the air force for a while doing mechanics and maintenance. She ended up losing an arm and a leg in an engine accident due to someone else’s neglect of procedure. She got a medical discharge and ended up not getting a lot of benefits she was kind of promised (cause ‘merica). She depends on vet aid for a lot of her expenses but it’s still not nearly enough (cause ‘merica), and she is bitter. 

She used to be a huge social butterfly, very much the Prep/jock leader type. She’s more jaded and a lot more tired now, but she still very much likes people when she has the energy. 

She likes making morbid jokes. Her:  “Damn that sounds like it’ll cost you an arm and a leg,” Everyone: *sweating*. She lives for their discomfort. 

She still lives with her family for convenience, and now a days she’s doing college online. 

Tol lady 

Frizzy hair

V protective

  Militant march (second oldest, top right.)

A year or two older than flash 

I got his design from the scene in friendship games where the band comes on

Speaking of, Band Geek. he’s in percussion, he is percussion dad. He has extra sheet music and the freshmen are his kids

Also plays classical piano

He has inattentive type adhd, which he deals with by doubling down on organization. 

His bullet journal is pristine. He has…so many sticky notes. So many. On his desk, on his door, stuck on the walls, covering the bathroom mirror, so many. He has a set of alarms, and he keeps a calendar. 

Does like ~awarness~ exercises to deal with zoning out and getting lost in thought (which he does a lot) 

He doesn’t want to deal with forgetting stuff he so just. Carries everything. Everywhere. 

If you mess with his schedule he will panic. Please arrange hangouts with at least like, 3 days notice pls, he doesn’t do well with spontaneity 

He’s a good student. He’s also good to his teachers, he brings in apples and coffee, he volunteers to help them retrieve things and with grading, and he’s generally very agreeable. He usually also establishes a relationship with them because he needs to communicate his needs when it comes to ADHD accommodations.

 On the flip side, if a teacher ignores his disability accommodations or his county plan or is an asshole about it, he doesn’t tolerate it. He will lawyer on it, he will file with the school, he will go to admin and he will have you in litigation from your toes up to your teeth. God forbid you are a shitty sub. 

Petty but like, quietly. 

Whenever people get up to nonsense he’s just like: sips tea

Otherwise, he’s a soft boi. Accommodating, patient, and polite. Wears cable knit sweaters and polo shirts. 

  Uppercut (lower left, second youngest)

She boxes! She also wants to get into mma. Very scrappy gal

She’s in like, 7th or 8th grade

Despite her jockness, she still very much dresses femininely. She likes skater skirts and e-girl stuff. 

Flash: “she’s my little sister and I love her. She’s also a demon from hell sent to kill me via stress attack,”

Mischievous. She likes to prank people, she likes to sass her brothers and she is a mythic  troll to her family (and others)

Also pretty internet savvy. She’s on a lot of different forms and boards. She also uses VPNs, AdBlock, data protectors, and the like. 

She likes making video edits and amvs. 

She is a menace, and sometimes gets up to dangerous and/or questionable things, like trolling alt-right message boards or baiting people into saying creepy or incriminating stuff so she can report or blackmail them 

She’s on reddit

G a m e r 

She also floods bigoted tags with things like memes and fancams to clog them. 

She has catfished people before. Usually incels and 4channers. She has some weird sense of vigilantism, and also finds it funny. It’s never anything serious (like having someone think they’re in a serious relationship) but she has gotten people to get her stuff like steam games b4.

 Flash was not pleased when figured this out and he’s sort of constantly worried somethings going to happen. One time she did something that especially freaked him out and he got Microchip to install parental controls on her computer for like a month.

On the less worrying side of things, she runs fan blogs and likes tiktok. Normal fandom stuff. 

Her room has colored LED lights. 

I like to think flash give her the jacket he wore in the first 3 movies once he got his makeover. 

Hyperactive adhd! She has a fidget spinner, but she only got one after it became “cringy”. She hyper focuses All The Time.  Does the leg bounce, and gets a lot of energy out through her boxing. Her computer is super organized, her room is an absolute mess. 

First base (youngest, bottom right.)

He’s like, 10-12. 

Baeby. He baeby. 

He’s the little colt in a couple of the cmc episodes, im pretty sure everyone decided he’s flash’s brother and so have i. 

Combined type adhd. He is a very hyper boy. He’s constantly fidgeting or moving in his seat or dancing in place.

It would annoy his teachers if he weren’t so polite. 

He plays baseball! 

He also really likes flowers, especially yellow ones, and especially especially yellow roses, dandelions, and marigolds

He tucks dandelions into his shoelaces a lot. 

He’s also very friendly and upbeat, as well as surprisingly emotionally mature. He’s very in touch with his feelings and very good at sensing how other people feel. 

Plays ukelele, flash taught him. First painted flowers on it

He has this giant frizzy fluffy mass of hair, so he has some clips and barrettes he uses to keep it out of his face sometimes. He also sometimes wears headbands. 

Yellow is his favorite color. 

He dresses literally however he wants, including stuff like skirts. he‘s very fond of sweater dresses when it’s cold. 

Him and flash are very close. Flash basically acts like he’s his momma, and he will extend that nurturing to First base’s close friends. 

He’s also just an absolute magpie. He collects a ton of things from cool rocks to random shiny stuff to hairpins he finds. He always most have pockets for this reason. He also always has scrunches and hair ties on his wrist even though he doesn’t use them, in case anyone needs to borrow one. 

Also keeps fun bandaids in case anyone needs one. 

Did i mention he baeby? He baeby.

HOL Y FUCK

hi mum i love them all

you really went so in depth with them and i love it!! they’re so interesting to read abt and i love their designs!! i’m pretty sure most people took first base as flash’s younger brother sdjkfd but i’m glad i’m not the only one who hcs flash being one of the middle siblings!!

i love them sm and thanks for sharing them w me! 🥺