So you want to smell like an ancient god?

THE TREND: Beauty infused with the essence of antiquity. There are no epigenetic or longevity buzzwords here, this trend is all about looking back in time. Think: papyrus, epic poetry and ritualistic, oil-slicked bathing.

WHO’S DOING IT? Established brands are releasing products which nod to classics, but new brands are weaving ancient civilisations into their DNA.

HOW CAN I GET IT? Indulge in some bacchanalian ribaldry at your nearest amphitheatre, or douse yourself in cyclamen, jasmine and eucalyptus oils at the thermal bathhouse. 

Boyfriends, they say, are always thinking about the Roman Empire. But thanks to a cohort of beauty brands drawing inspiration from the classical world, ancient civilisations and mythology, now everyone else is too. Or, at least, you might smell like you are. 

What did the ancient world smell like? Presumably a heady blend of sweat, garum, essential oils, smoke, and the ubiquitous funk of leather tanneries. Fortunately, in 2025, we are taking the botanicals and the divinity, but leaving behind the fermented fish and animal hide. This is a notably citrus-forward trend, bright and zingy and Mediterranean, but with something sexier and earthier at the base: amber, sandalwood and frankincense.

To My Ships is a deodorant brand launched by Aesop alumni (Aesop itself, of course, named for the Ancient Greek fabulist), inspired by Homer’s Iliad, and the rather less lofty, but universally relatable, “desire for cleaner armpits”. If a 15,693-line epic poem about the Trojan War, written sometime in the eighth century, feels like an incongruous starting point for a range of premium deodorants, don’t for a moment imagine that To My Ships is a one-off. At Memo Paris, the perfume ‘Ithaque’ takes its name from the island backdrop of The Odyssey. Roos & Roos’s ‘Les Larmes de Tiresias’ interprets the myth of Tiresias, a recurring character in Greek and Roman mythology who was changed from a man into a woman for seven years, and distilled here in milky incense, curried fig and leather accord. 

Heritage homeware brand Wedgwood’s celebrated Bacchus range – inspired by, you guessed it, the myth of The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne – features scented candles in Jasper holders with a relief Borghese vase motif. The Hellenist’s entire collection of body and home fragrances is drawn from Ancient Greek heritage, with names like ‘le chant d’Achille’ (neroli, lemon, pepper, musk), and ‘à l’ombre d’Artémis’ (bergamot, fig, sandalwood). Intrigued? Us too. As this X user put it: “Yes I cannot wait to buy this perfume that’s supposed to capture the night 300 Spartans made love to each other before being killed by the Persian army.”

It may all feel a tad far-fetched, but as Alexandra Roos, co-founder of Roos & Roos, tells Dazed, “Ancient mythology is so rich in stories and legends that it is a formidable field to explore, a fertile universe. We need stories to tell to the perfumers, to feed them, and mythology instils grandeur and mystery to any creation.” The stories may be grand in their metre and mysterious in their provenance, but they are also fundamentally allegorical, and speak to aspects of the human condition which still resonate with audiences. “One can refer to ancient mythology in any era and always find a mirror image of our society,” Roos continues. “Whether it is the glorification of virility, the fluidity of genders… the Greeks have already thought of everything and considered it all.”

Sharmadean Reid’s latest venture takes a similarly expansive view of what we can take from studying the ancient world. The range of shower oils which make up 39BC’s debut collection is inspired by the love story between Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and each product symbolises an archetypal character from the period (the warrior, the handmaiden, and so on). But for Reid, researching and understanding the Egyptian queen was about so much more than just aesthetics. 

“I think it’s important to remember that the Mediterranean, where these empires grew from, is as much, if not more, Asia and Africa as it is Europe. So I want to really emphasise those influences and cultures and the smells of those places in this collection.” Reid achieves this through ingredients such as Iranian galbanum, Guaiac wood and fig. “When I started this brand, I thought a lot about the decolonisation of scent. There is a set of rules about what it means to smell clean, or appropriate, and they’re a very Western set of rules.” Reid hopes that by going right back to antiquity, she can encourage people to challenge this paradigm, and to consider fragrance in a way that isn’t wholly Eurocentric.

There seems to be a kind of Classics fever spreading through popular culture in recent years, with productions on stage and screen including Anne Carson’s translation of Elektra, Tom Wright’s adaptation of Troy, La Chimera, Gladiator II and Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming interpretation of The Iliad, all catering in different ways to our appetite for antiquity. But in the beauty world, the trend is also reacting against a fixation on science-backed, high-tech products and treatments – and instead leaning into history, slowness, storytelling, and ritual. 

There’s nothing clinical or ‘maxxing’ about this trend, and even though the classical world is absolutely foundational to modern ideals of beauty and form, the contemporary interpretation places much less emphasis on visual perfection and more on the olfactory, and on finding a particular state of mind – namely this is bringing a sense of ceremony and ritual back into beauty and wellness, something we all crave. This could be via a visit to AIRE Ancient Baths, or at home, with the help of brands such as Mircea, named for the author of The Sacred and The Profane, and NERRĀ, whose founder grew up in the shadow of Carthage’s Roman Baths of Antoninus and has steeped the collection with the ethos of the ancient bathhouse. Or maybe we hope that a liberal spritz of Ganymede or Persephone will elevate us to the status of gods and heroes for which they are named.