1. THE TREND: Scents inspired by all things industrial, mechanical and metallic – think your mouth filling with blood at the dentist’s office, or the smell of cold knives.
  2. WHO’S DOING IT? Niche brands are superheading the rebellion, but the fashion houses, from Dries Van Noten to Tom Ford and Viktor & Rolf, are also getting in on the action
  3. HOW CAN I GET IT: Lean into smelling like the back of a mechanic’s shop. Layer your metallics like you’re the lovechild of Tetsuo the iron man and a character in a David Cronenberg film.

Looking through the latest fragrance launches can feel like stepping into a hardware store. Bright and sharp, with notes that evoke everything from rusty machinery and cold knives to bloody noses and the dentist’s office, perfume, it seems, has gone industrial. Suddenly we all want to smell like metal.

It’s not surprising to see this cyborgian turn, considering we’ve spent the last few years in a frenzy of sickly sweet gourmand fragrances. Brimming with vanilla, caramel, marshmallows, cupcakes, cherries and buttery frosting, strolling the perfume aisles has felt at times like being in a bakery. As a reaction, there’s been a growing appetite for fragrances with a sharper edge. On TikTok we see #metallicperfume and #industrialfragrance clips rack up hundreds of thousands of views, while Fragrantica’s 2025 trend analysis reports the popularity of “metallic tones, clean, and cold” and “urban sophistication” in perfumes.

These include fragrances like Viktor & Rolf’s Spicebomb Metallic Musk Eau de Parfum, described as smelling like “skin against polished steel”, and Dries Van Noten’s Havana Gold, which launched in the summer and has a resinous glow, offering a softer side to the harsh metallics. Then there’s the fragrances being brought out of the archives: Tom Ford Metalique, Marc-Antoine Barrois Ganymede, Serge Lutens Dent de Lait, Craft by Andrea Maack, Hermès H24, Blackbird Moto Oud, DS & Durga Radio Bombay, Prada Luna Rossa Carbon.

Animalique by Byredo, described by one Fragrantica user as smelling like the opening scene of Titane, “sweat, metal, shiny leather and gas,” fuses synthetic brightness with ozonic textures creating a cool, steel-like edge. Gladiator Oud by Electimuss layers smoky resins over mineral foundations, while Volutes by Diptyque brings its own twist to metallic warmth. “There’s something tangy, metallic, almost earwax-like about it,” as a Fragrantica user put it. 

The metallic edge in perfume isn’t always literal; it’s about texture, contrast, and how materials are balanced. “Many woody amber materials have a hard edge that can be used to ramp up the aroma of industrial materials,” explains David Seth Moltz, co-founder of D.S. & Durga. “There are even certain aroma chems whose regular usage is for floral/spicy ideas. When you rebalance them in a perfume you can make the impression of glass, metal and concrete. Cashmeran, for example, is supposed to be a soft musk, but it has a green edge, and a steely concrete one as well.”

So, why now? Aside from being a reaction against gourmand sweetness, fragrance trends often reflect the world and culture they are born into. Just as niche fragrance brands are exploring apocalyptic scents during these unsettling times, these metal-noted scents mirror an increasingly technological world. “Perfume distills and elevates scents around us – florals, woods, resins. As the world grows more industrial, embracing industrial or non-organic smells that have been aestheticized and made beautiful,” says Barbara Herman from Eris, an NYC-based luxury niche perfume brand.

Stephanie Hannington-Suen, founder of Homework, agrees that we are embracing and reflecting the world around us through fragrance. “There’s a kind of beauty in the clinical. We’re surrounded by screens, steel and synthetic light, so these scents feel familiar in a strange, comforting way,” she says, adding that “unsexy” scents are now the sexiest thing ever. 

“They challenge the old idea that sensuality has to be soft or floral. There’s something powerful about embracing the cool, abstract scent of machinery or ozone, it’s a different kind of intimacy.” Herman also sees the sensual side of metal, describing the fragrances ‘olfactory armor’. “There’s danger in metallics, a deliberate tension that draws you in. Sexiness lives in that tension – sharp, controlled, magnetic,” she says.

So different from the gourmand perfumes of late, or the warm skin scents that dominated the 2010s, industrial abrasive fragrances are taking over. They smell of overworn silver, singed wires, static electricity, blood filling your mouth when you bite the inside of your cheek, the metal probes wielded by dentists. Metallic fragrances both embrace the technological, clinic world that we live in and reject it – rust and blood and steel are aspects of the physical world that the digital one could never offer.