Perfume Conquers the Red Carpet: Brands Bet on Awards Season
At the 2026 Golden Globes, fragrance becomes an accessory: perfume brands are placing their creations with the stars through stylists.
On the red carpet, a previously invisible accessory is gaining significance: fragrance. For the 2026 awards season, perfume brands are increasingly using the major award ceremonies as a stage. At the 2026 Golden Globes, the house Parfums de Marly worked with the hairstylist Renato Campora, who used one of the brand's hair perfumes as the finishing touch for actress Amanda Seyfried's hairstyle.
The move is part of a growing trend. The brand Phlur led the way at the 2025 Golden Globes. Parfums de Marly itself first tested the strategy at the 2025 Met Gala, when the house passed its hair perfumes on to guests such as the musician Tyla and the actress Joey King via stylists.
From sponsorship to olfactory staging
For a long time, the red carpet was dominated by fashion, jewellery and make-up. That fragrances are now claiming a place too has a practical reason: hair perfumes are applied visibly by stylists and can thus be incorporated into the stars' preparations, which are documented in any case. For the brands, this creates an association with glamour and considerable media attention without a conventional advertisement.
Behind the development lies the continuing boom in niche and premium perfumery. Brands are looking for visibility beyond conventional advertising formats – and awards season offers them a stage on which fragrance is, for the first time, perceived as a statement in its own right.