The Rise of Metallic Perfumes

Words by

Ella Clapton

30th January 2026

Metallic perfumes are the anti-nostalgia scent trend of the year, and a mirror into our warped, industrial reality. Join SPHERE in a cultural digest, unpacking why cyborg-coded scents have become our most honest reflection.

Still life by Oddity.

Often trends are introduced carefully, slipping into what’s in my bag videos or meticulously planned paparazzi shots, long before we recognise them as trends at all.

“Oh, that’s so funny. I nearly forgot this lip gloss — I don’t think I’ve ever left the house without it.” Says a smiling model, who has yet again guided me blind into buying what I didn’t need. Victim of the infamous talented influencer.

But metallic perfumes, oh boy. That’s a trend I never saw coming.

Homework perfumes.

On a grey Monday commute, I scrolled across a magazine headline in bold: So you want to smell like a cyborg? My immediate answer: no. However, a lack of self-restraint for the unbeknownst had me almost instantly second-guessing whether I did.

Metallic scents reject all that’s familiar to us (think less bakery, more laboratory) and, as some of the industry’s leading noses told SPHERE, perhaps push us to confront the increasingly tech-dependent world we live in.

What are Metallic Perfumes?

Copper, Comme Des Garçons, La Bague D'o Jouissance Parfums, Radio Bombay DS & Durga.

Industrial-esque scents reject hyper-gourmand fragrances, leaning on ozonic and aldehydic notes — think fresh air after a thunderstorm, or as lead perfumer at Rook Perfumes compares, “a freshly plastered room or even a freshly chlorinated pool.” (Is this the true meaning moment of the clean girl aesthetic?)

Designers often layer in metallic accords that evoke steel or iron, sometimes softened with vetiver, amber, or musk to make the fragrance more wearable. The top notes strike immediately (metallic and almost sharp) before giving way to mineral and ozonic middle notes. Base notes of amber, musk, or soft woods anchor the effect, adding warmth to what could otherwise feel like a lab experiment in a bottle.

Resonant by Oddity.

But this trend isn’t entirely new. Paco Rabanne was the first to bottle alloy olfactory with Metal in 1979, and later Comme Des Garcons stole the hearts of fellow olfactophiles with the cult classic, Copper in 2019. These early examples were never mass-market phenomena — consider them quiet whispers from perfumers daring us to reconsider scent itself.

Meanwhile, today they’ve captured the collective fancy, becoming the subject to devotion of hundreds of reddit threads hunting for the perfect industrial scent and TikTok videos dissecting the industrial notes. Fragrantica’s 2025 trend analysis confirmed the fixation, reporting a desire for metallic tones and “urban sophistication”, while Marie Claire deemed it the “most misunderstood” in perfumery.

It’s obvious that metallic perfumes are undergoing a somewhat surprising reappraisal, becoming something of a cultural mirror — one that looks a little like our own tech-addled lives.

Make it Make Scents

Scent of the Metaverse, metallic perfumes.

Scent of the Metaverse - digital era fragrance.

Discourse around the rise of metallic perfumes has posed a couple of questions: Is it a turn away from the male gaze, a logical reaction to our ever-growing industrial-esque reality or simply another answer for a generation that loves the nicher things in life?

“I think they resonate because they mirror how we’re feeling right now,” Stephanie Hannington-Suen, co-founder of Homework tells SPHERE. “We’re living in a hyper-digital, post-natural space where technology shapes almost every part of our lives, so metallic and industrial scents feel strangely familiar.”

Scent of the Metaverse Rook Perfumes, Steamed Rainbow DS & Durga, Celestial Whispers Maison Margiela.

Ugo Charron, leading perfumer and creator of Fleur Danger by Thomas De Monacom echoes the sentiment, “I’m not surprised that sharper, more metallic and industrial fragrances are emerging. These scents don’t soften reality — they confront it.”

“Bold and structured perfumes feel necessary right now; they embrace the tension of the present moment rather than escaping it. Metallic facets help us face reality with clarity and resilience, instead of retreating into nostalgia or illusion”, he adds.

Oddity still life.

Rather than offering an escape, they sit with discomfort. In that sense, metallic fragrances feel less like trends and more like documents — olfactory proof of what living in today feels like.

“It is actually quite easy to create a "nice" scent. It’s brave and even more creative to delve into the world of scent feeling unrestricted by popular notes or with a desire to sell thousands of bottles.” Nadeem Crowe, artisan perfumer at Rook Perfumes, reflects.

Fleur Danger, Thomas De Monaco, Metal, Homework.

Not only do they confront what’s often shied away from — they dare to oppose the conventional in a leap of faith that someone out there, does in fact want to smell like a cyborg. And given their recent claim to fame, there are a fair few.

You didn’t think we’d end this cultural digest without touching on the male gaze, did you? The pivot away from male approval has truly revolutionalised these times for women — first having a boyfriend was embarrassing, then his disapproval on an outfit meant you’ve absolutely killed it, and now, if a scent actively repels him, it may in fact be the one for you. It’s a reclamation of power, an active choice away from scents seeped in seduction, towards scents for the self. And we can all admit there’s an undeniable pleasure in confusing men even further about female products.

Resonant metallic perfume.

So ultimately, despite a search for comfort, it’s not surprising that sharper, more industrial scents are emerging. They don’t promise softness, instead, they offer confrontation and clarity — ways of inhabiting the present rather than retreating from it. After all, we live in a world with AI facials and self-driving cars, we might as smell like it too.