From cherry and banoffee pie to Tabasco and sesame, the list of food aromas popping up in luxury fragrances keeps growing. Now some perfume makers are starting to ask if weight-loss drugs might be reshaping what consumers want in a scent.

So-called gourmand fragrances like Thierry Mugler’s pioneering cotton candy-inspired Angel and Nina Ricci’s toffee apple scent Nina have been around for decades. More recent growth in the segment has been attributed to the pandemic-era boom in online retail – when familiar food associations helped sales of perfumes that cannot be smelled before purchase – and the growing prominence of Gen Z consumers.

But as scent makers experiment with more novel flavour aromas, Reuters conversations with eight fragrance manufacturers and top perfume brands revealed how they are assessing GLP-1 users’ responses to these food-linked smells.

Givaudan and IFF, two of the world’s largest flavour and fragrance houses, British-owned scent maker CPL Aromas and French cosmetics giant L’Oréal all said they have explored the link between the increasingly popular drugs and scent preferences.

All four companies, as well as four scientists Reuters spoke to, stressed that more research was needed.

Common negative side effects of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro include nausea and gastrointestinal issues. Researchers are also looking at other potential effects, some unexpected, including a reduction in alcohol cravings or urges to gamble and impulse-shop, and changes to smell and taste.

“(GLP-1 drugs having) a chemosensory effect is not a far-fetched idea,” said Paule Joseph, co-director of the National Smell and Taste Center at the US National Institutes of Health.

Source link