Why Indonesia’s fragrance boom matters to ingredient suppliers

Fragrance Evaluation at PT. Infinisia Sumber Semesta’s Laboratory.
(Photo courtesy of PT. Infinisia Sumber Semesta)

If you walk through Jakarta’s top beauty counters today, you’ll notice something that wasn't there a few years ago. Homegrown perfume brands aren't just holding their own alongside international heritage names.

Brands like HMNS, Saff & Co., and Mykonos are no longer emerging experiments, they are market drivers. Some of these brands now have their own counters, loyal communities and consumers waiting for new launches. What interests me is not simply that they are local, but how confidently they understand the consumers they are speaking to.

I have worked in Indonesia’s cosmetic industry for almost four decades, and I have seen many categories rise quickly. Fragrance feels a little different. For many years, perfume was not really at the centre of Indonesia’s beauty conversation. Skincare and makeup received far more attention. Today, fragrance is becoming part of how younger consumers express themselves, reward themselves, and even choose a different identity or mood for the day.

Indonesia's fragrance retail market recorded IDR 10,884 billion in retail value in 2025. With a CAGR of 8.4%, the market is growing faster than the Southeast Asian regional average of 6.1%. On Indonesian e-commerce, local brands are also performing strongly. Nine of the ten best-selling fragrance brands on Shopee in the second quarter of 2025 were Indonesian brands.

But for those of us working with cosmetic ingredients and formulation, the more interesting question is not simply how large can this market become?

Indonesia is hot and humid. Consumers increasingly expect good longevity and performance, while brands are under pressure to innovate at accessible price points. At the same time, halal requirements, sustainability, local ingredients and new fragrance formats are becoming part of the discussion.

This creates an interesting space not only for fragrance houses, but also for ingredient suppliers, formulators and technology providers.

And this is where I believe Indonesia’s fragrance story is only beginning.

Today, I see younger consumers approaching fragrance in a completely different way. They talk about projection, longevity, dry-down and layering. They know the difference between an eau de toilette and an eau de parfum. Some follow particular perfumers or fragrance reviewers. A perfume may be chosen for work, another for an evening out, and another simply because it suits how they want to feel that day.

This change in behavior is important because it means fragrance is no longer competing only as a functional product that makes someone smell good. It is becoming part of the beauty ritual itself.

There is also an economic reason behind this. During periods when consumers are more careful with spending, an affordable local fragrance can offer a small indulgence without the commitment of a major luxury purchase. In Indonesia, where many good local fragrances are available at relatively accessible price points, this has helped bring more consumers into the category.

Retailers are seeing the shift as well. Guardian reported triple-digit growth in its fragrance category for two consecutive years, while Sociolla’s SOCO Insight Factory reported that perfume sales had more than doubled by the end of 2025 compared with the previous year. After years in which skincare and makeup dominated much of Indonesia’s beauty conversation, fragrance has clearly earned a much bigger place at the table.

The e-commerce numbers tell the same story. By November 2025, fragrance sales value had increased 53% year on year, while the number of units sold grew 36%. Consumers were not only buying more fragrance; the value of what they bought was rising faster than the volume.

What interests me most, however, is not only that Indonesians are buying more perfume. They are learning more about perfume.

A more knowledgeable consumer eventually asks more from a product. Better performance, better value, a more distinctive scent and something that feels relevant to the way they live.

For formulators and ingredient suppliers, that changes the conversation considerably.

Fragrance has now become more personal

For younger consumers especially, scent has become very personal. They may choose something fresh and clean for work, something warmer for the evening, or a completely different fragrance when they travel. Some enjoy layering two scents to create something of their own. Others change fragrance according to mood, occasion or even the weather.

This may sound familiar in mature fragrance markets, but in Indonesia the speed of this change has been remarkable. A generation that grew up discussing skincare ingredients on social media is now becoming equally curious about fragrance. They read reviews, compare notes, discuss projection and longevity, and are increasingly comfortable describing what they like and what they do not.

Social media has certainly accelerated this. Fragrance is particularly suited to recommendation and storytelling because scent itself cannot be experienced through a screen. Someone has to describe it. This has created an interesting role for Indonesian fragrance reviewers, whose opinions can introduce an unfamiliar scent to thousands of consumers before they ever smell it themselves. 

One of the most interesting parts of Indonesia’s fragrance growth is that local brands are not simply following the market. In many ways, they are helping to shape it.

Scarlett, Mykonos, Octarinè, HMNS, Saff & Co. and a growing number of Indonesian fragrance brands have built very different identities. Some focus on sophisticated, niche-inspired scents. Others compete through strong performance, accessible pricing or a very specific consumer community.

What they have in common is a good understanding of how Indonesian consumers actually buy and use fragrance.

Indonesia is not one homogeneous market. A fragrance enthusiast in Jakarta may be looking for something quite different from a first-time perfume buyer in a smaller city. Younger consumers may discover a fragrance through TikTok, while others first encounter one in a minimarket, a beauty store, an exhibition or simply through a friend.

Local brands have become very good at navigating these different routes to the consumer.

They are also becoming more confident with scent itself. Gourmand profiles, florals, woody scents, fresh musks and stronger, more projecting fragrances can all find an audience. Consumers who once stayed close to familiar scent profiles are increasingly willing to try something less predictable.

This gives local brands an advantage, but it also creates pressure.

With so many new launches, being local is no longer enough. Neither is attractive packaging or a fragrance that performs well on social media. As consumers become more knowledgeable, they begin to notice differences in the quality of the scent, how it develops after several hours, how long it remains noticeable, and whether the product they loved in the store still performs the way they expected after they take it home.

For ingredient suppliers, this is where the Indonesian market becomes particularly interesting.

Local fragrance companies are growing beyond the stage where access to another fragrance composition is enough. The more mature brands will increasingly need better technical solutions, including improved substantivity, stability, solubilization, delivery systems and ingredients that can help them create something distinctive without moving too far away from the price their consumers can afford.

The opportunity is not simply to sell more fragrance to Indonesia. It is to help Indonesian brands make better fragrance products.

A fast-growing market naturally attracts new players, and Indonesia’s fragrance market is no exception. New brands are appearing at remarkable speed, many of them launched by young entrepreneurs who understand social media and consumer trends very well.

This energy is good for the industry. But it also creates challenges.

Price is one of them. Indonesian consumers have many choices, and comparison is easy. Local brands compete not only with one another, but also with imported products across a wide range of price points. For a new brand, lowering the price may be the quickest way to attract attention, but it is difficult to build a sustainable fragrance business on price alone.

Retailers are offering discounts in excess of 50%

The second challenge is technical.

It is relatively easy today to develop a pleasant-smelling fragrance and put it on the market. Developing one that remains stable, performs consistently, survives transportation and storage, and gives consumers the same experience from one production batch to another is a different matter.

I have seen this many times in cosmetic formulation. A formula can look perfectly acceptable when it is first made and still develop problems later. Fragrance adds another level of complexity because it is not a single ingredient. It is a mixture of many materials with different chemical and physical characteristics, and these have to coexist with the rest of the formulation.

This becomes even more important when fragrance moves beyond conventional alcohol-based perfume into body mist, hair products, creams, lotions, cleansers and other personal care formats. Solubility, clarity, colour, viscosity and packaging compatibility can all become part of the problem.

Then there is Indonesia’s climate.

Products may spend their commercial life in conditions very different from those in which they were originally developed. Heat, humidity, light exposure, transportation and storage can affect both the product and the way a fragrance is perceived over time. A formula that performs beautifully in a laboratory in Europe, Korea or Japan cannot simply be assumed to behave in exactly the same way after months in Indonesia.

This is why I believe the next stage of Indonesia’s fragrance growth will require more than creativity and good marketing. It will require better formulation.

I find it fascinating that our present fragrance opportunities are not new to Indonesia at all. Patchouli, clove, vetiver and citronella have been part of our agricultural and trading heritage for generations. What is changing is how we look at these materials. Indonesia is no longer only a place where aromatic raw materials are sourced; it is also becoming a market where consumers are increasingly interested in how those materials can be translated into modern fragrance experiences.

For me, this creates an exciting connection between what Indonesia produces and what Indonesian consumers want. I have seen that an ingredient becomes much more meaningful when a formulator understands not only its technical characteristics, but also the story, origin and possibilities behind it. There is an opportunity for suppliers to help local brands go beyond simply adding a fragrance to a product, to explore more distinctive scent concepts, improve formulation performance and create products that feel relevant to Indonesian consumers while meeting the consistency and regulatory requirements of today’s market.

This is also why I believe the opportunity for ingredient suppliers is becoming more collaborative. Indonesian brands do not necessarily need more ingredients. They need partners who can help them understand what an ingredient can really do. The future opportunity, in my view, lies in connecting Indonesia’s aromatic heritage with better formulation knowledge, reliable supply and the creativity of the brands themselves.

As Indonesia’s fragrance market becomes more sophisticated, I believe the relationship between brands and their ingredient suppliers will also have to change.

Of course, price, quality and reliable supply will always matter. But increasingly, they are not enough.

Young shoppers exploring boutique scents at a local fragrance library

When a formulator is working with a new fragrance technology, a solubilizer, a delivery system or a new aromatic material, the most useful supplier is not necessarily the one with the longest presentation. It is the one who can help answer practical questions.

Will it work in this formulation? What happens if the viscosity changes? How should it be incorporated? Is it still stable after several months? Can it work at the price point the brand needs? And what should we change when the first prototype does not behave as expected?

These are the conversations that happen in a real laboratory.

For international ingredient suppliers, halal readiness is also becoming increasingly practical rather than theoretical. Formulators need clear information about raw-material origin, processing and supporting documentation early in development. It is much easier to design a compliant product from the beginning than to reconstruct its documentation after the formulation has already been finalized.

Application laboratories and formulation data are extremely useful, but local application work matters too. A prototype developed elsewhere can be an excellent starting point, but it may still need adjustment for the ingredients available locally, the manufacturing process, the target price and the conditions in which the finished product will eventually be sold.

This is why I see considerable value in genuine technical partnership.

Indonesia already has the consumers. It has increasingly confident local brands. It has a long connection with the global fragrance industry through its aromatic materials. And it has a new generation that is becoming much more curious about scent.

What comes next will depend partly on how well the industry can connect all of these pieces.

After almost four decades working with cosmetic formulation and the Indonesian beauty industry, I have learned that an exciting ingredient is rarely enough on its own. What makes the difference is understanding how to turn it into a product that works technically, commercially and for the consumer who will eventually use it.

For fragrance suppliers looking at Indonesia today, perhaps that is the opportunity worth paying attention to.

Fragrance on your radar? Visit the new Fragrance Zone at in-cosmetics Asia in Bangkok in November.

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