Fragrance Trends: Comfort and Wellness Notes Gaining Momentum

Covalo data shows a clear concentration of search activity around warmth-associated fragrance ingredients in 2025. Cocoa leads overall, confirming its position as the most sought-after comfort note among formulators. Vanilla shows the strongest upward momentum year-over-year, reflecting a sharp acceleration in interest – particularly across Europe, while honey continues to gain traction as a warmth-driven profile with broad emotional appeal. 

Together, cocoa, vanilla, and honey form a dominant "gourmand trio", shaping global fragrance ingredient discovery. These familiar notes signal a move toward scents that feel indulgent yet safe; a powerful combination in times when consumers are seeking emotional reassurance through everyday products. 

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Where comfort, wellness and trust align

Beyond scent alone, Covalo search behavior reveals how fragrance discovery is increasingly filtered through certification and transparency lenses. While organic certification is not a wellness claim in itself, it acts as a strong proxy for trust, purity, and perceived safety, particularly in fragrance formulation.

This is most evident in the popularity of organic rose, which leads fragrance-wellness overlap searches in 2025, far ahead of other pairings. Alongside rose, botanicals traditionally associated with calm and balance – such as neroli, chamomile, lavender, and ylang-ylang – consistently appear in wellness-adjacent fragrance searches. 

The takeaway is clear: formulators are not just selecting fragrance ingredients for how they smell, but for what they signal: care, credibility, and alignment with wellbeing-driven brand narratives. 

Comfort fragrance meets neurocosmetics

What makes the rise of comfort fragrances particularly compelling is how closely it mirrors the logic of neurocosmetics. Notes such as cocoa, vanilla, honey, rose, and lavender are not only warm and familiar; they are widely associated with relaxation, emotional balance, and positive sensory experiences.

In neurocosmetic formulation, fragrance becomes more than an olfactive signature. It acts as a sensorial cue that shapes how a product is perceived on the skin, influencing feelings of comfort, safety, and indulgence. This helps explain why fragrance ingredient discovery nowadays is increasingly intertwined with wellness filters, botanical origins, and certification signals that reinforce trust and emotional reassurance.

In conclusion

Taken together, these trends point to a broader evolution in fragrance development. Comfort notes deliver emotional warmth, botanical profiles evoke calm, and certification builds consumer trust. In this context, fragrance becomes more than an olfactive layer; it becomes part of an emotional experience.

As Valentine's Day approaches, this intersection of comfort, connection, and wellbeing feels particularly relevant. Fragrance is no longer just about attraction; it's about creating moments of reassurance, intimacy, and sensory escape.