Beauty editor Derek Deng has collected more than 25,000 responses to an online survey asking queer people which perfumes they wear and questions like whether they identify as more dominant or submissive, turning the results into a TikTok series that has drawn hundreds of thousands of views, according to Dazed Beauty. Deng says masc-identifying men in his survey leaned toward musky, leather-heavy scents like Dior Homme, while twinks and femmes favored softer florals and gourmands; he says bisexual respondents gravitated toward fragrances like Aesop Hywl, and trans women largely chose high-projection scents such as Angel Nova by Mugler. Deng himself wears Nashi Toro by French perfumer ānti.
Smaller, queer-owned fragrance houses have released scents aimed at the same audience: Jouissance, founded by Cherry Cheng, put out a collaborative fragrance with Hackney lesbian bar La Camionera built on vanilla, tonka, sweet almond and jasmine notes. The same month, LA-based Boy Smells re-released Citrush, a scent inspired by poppers with notes of pomelo and musk, and Discothèque released a fragrance inspired by Leigh Bowery's Taboo club, built on musk, cashmere, leather and pink pepper notes.