Commandeer Everyone's Attention With a "Beast Mode" Perfume

Have you ever been at dinner or on the subway when suddenly your attention—or rather, your nose—is drawn elsewhere? There’s a strong aura of vanilla or rose in the air, and you find yourself craning your neck, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bold, improbably chic woman who commandeered your thoughts with just her luxurious scent. But she’s nowhere to be found. That’s because she hasn’t yet entered the room—only her fragrance has.

Scroll for any amount of time on TikTok and you’ll likely come across creators raving about these loud, attention-grabbing scents. Only they refer to them by a different name: “beast mode” perfumes. In a video viewed over 800,000 times, fragrance reviewer Mae West shows off her “long-lasting perfumes with beast mode projection.” Scent Takes, a popular fragrance creator, raked in 2.5 million views on a video about her favorite long-lasting fragrances.

The descriptor, coined by Marshawn Lynch, used to be in the vernacular of jocks and finance bros, but clearly it's struck a chord among fragrance-loving women. Just look at the FemFragLab Reddit board, which has several posts dedicated to the topic. One user posted, "What are your most beast mode fragrances?" calling specifically for "long-lasting, great projection" scents. Another popular post asked for "beast mode vanilla fragrance" recommendations. These long-lasting, powerful perfumes are shaping up to be one of the biggest fragrance trends within the scent-obsessed community.

Not just any fragrance can be considered beast mode (dousing yourself in your regular perfume will only make it run out quicker!). "'Beast mode' refers to the projection and strength of a perfume’s sillage (the scent that radiates from the wearer)," explains Sable Yong, a beauty writer and co-host of the Smell Ya Later podcast. These popular scents typically share higher-than-average concentrations of perfume oils and heavy base notes (as for the specific concentrations and base notes, more on that later). You might’ve guessed it with a moniker like “beast mode,” but these fragrances are not for shy olfactory personalities, instead geared toward those who want all eyes on them without having to say a word.

"Basically, it’s a perfume that has a wide and inescapable reach—it makes a scent into a stench," adds Yong.

While potent fragrances aren’t anything new, the events of the last few years (the pandemic ring a bell?) may have something to do with their rise. According to Guerlain perfumer Delphine Jelk, the fragrance trend may have cropped up thanks to the effects of COVID-19. “Some people who got sick and lost the sense of smell, they got depressed, and so they noticed how important this is for your mental health to smell,” she explains. The pandemic subsequently sent consumers on a fragrance-buying frenzy: perfume sales were up 45 percent in the first quarter of 2021 versus the year prior, according to Business Insider. Essentially, consumers wanted to smell, and smell a lot, post-pandemic.

Needless to say, the current economic environment is in play, too. Demi Rawling, content creator and co-founder of the fragrance discovery app Sniff, says global tariffs and increased costs of goods may also have customers longing for stronger scents. “People want more bang for their buck,” she says.

Some of the most popular beast mode perfume recommendations may cost upwards of $300 (and in some cases, even $600), but when you only need one spray to smell amazing all day long, you’re getting a much better cost per wear than a perfume that requires multiple sprays or reapplication. "Perfume is an expensive, luxury category, so people want to feel like they’re getting their money’s worth," agrees Yong. "A perfume that can’t be smelled an hour after applying seems like a poor investment."

Rawling also believes that the social media landscape, which she says heavily favors compliments and virality, has contributed to beast mode fragrances taking off. “A lot of people tend to choose fragrances based off of what is going to get complimented. They’re not necessarily choosing a fragrance because it’s something that they really love themselves,” she explains. Beast mode scents are inherently difficult to ignore due to their strength, so you’re more likely to get a compliment from a stranger on the street than when you’re wearing a demure light fragrance.

Finding a beast mode fragrance isn’t as simple as pursuing the Sephora fragrance aisle and looking for a perfume labeled as “long-lasting.” That’s because how long a fragrance lasts and its strength isn’t a cut-and-dry formula. “There are many factors that make a fragrance last longer, for instance, the choice of ingredients, or a perfume’s concentration, but also how it is composed technically,” says Aurélien Guichard, creative perfumer and co-founder of Matière Premiere.

To spot a likely beast mode scent, take a look at its composition. In a nutshell, fragrance is composed of top, middle (or “heart”), and base (or “bottom”) notes. Base notes are where you’ll see a common thread among long-lasting fragrances. “If you want a fragrance to last long, you need to have a lot of bottom notes,” says Jelk. Base notes are heavy molecules, so they'll stay on your skin and clothes for many days. Guichard says to look out for base notes like vanilla, incense, styrax, myrrh, sandalwood, or patchouli. Rawling adds oud, tobacco, musk, and honey to the list. "The more of these earthy, rich base notes in a perfume, the more likely the fragrance is to be long-lasting and have projection," says Yong. Fragrances with a concoction of these base notes, such as the TikTok-viral blend of vanilla, honey, and musk, Giardini di Toscana Bianco Latte, can last on the skin for 12 hours or more.

You'll also likely find a beast mode perfume in a highly concentrated fragrance. A typical perfume will have anywhere from 15 to 20 percent concentration of perfume oils (colognes and eau de toilettes have an even lower concentration, at two to 15 percent). However, a scent labeled as “parfum,” “extrait,” or “absolu” will have a much higher concentration at over 20 percent. Matière Premiere’s eau de parfums, for example, have an average perfume concentration of 20 percent, whereas the brand’s recently launched extrait collection has an average concentration of 30 percent, so you can expect the latter to pack a mightier punch. When you find a fragrance that not only has a high perfume oil concentration but is packed with heavy base notes, you have a beast mode scent on your hands.

If you want to be known as the main attraction, going “beast mode” with your fragrance is the surest way to command attention. To help you find a scent that will announce your arrival, I’m sharing the most nuclear perfumes worth adding to your collection. Many of the below are new beauty launches from over the last year, proving brands have been meeting consumers’ demand for stronger perfumes with higher concentrated formulas.

Vanilla "Beast Mode" Perfumes

Sandalwood "Beast Mode" Perfumes

Amber 'Beast Mode' Perfumes

Musk "Beast Mode" Perfumes'

Oud "Beast Mode" Perfumes

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