How Fine’ry Became One of the Fastest-Growing Fragrance Brands

Three pairs of Fine'ry's perfumes and body mists are arranged on and around a pile of white stones. The jewel-toned scent bottles are two different heights, with the body mist being about twice as tall as the perfume. The three scents are Rosa Lina (in lavender bottles), No Prince Required (in black bottles), and She's a Goodie (in blue bottles). — **The Fine'ry brand was created to be luxury-coded but affordably priced.** — Fine'ry

Why it matters:

For the past decade, prestige fragrance sales soared while mass marketers were left out of the boom.
The lack of perfume testers and locked shelves stalled scent sales.
Maesa, a beauty incubator, created Fine’ry, an affordable luxury scent that’s now the fastest-growing fragrance brand at Target, and has kicked off a heady moment of success for ‘masstige’ perfumes.

Over the past decade, consumers snapped up luxury fragrances as indulgent treats, while mass-market scents were largely overlooked.

Contributing to their decline were locked displays and a lack of innovation—key barriers that stifled sales growth.

Oshiya Savur, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer for beauty incubator Maesa, saw those constraints as an opportunity rather than a challenge. “One would say ‘don’t go there,’” she told CO—, referring to the mass fragrance business. “But in the case of Maesa, we’re an incubator, and white spaces are where we play. When we see a non-existent, or declining, or sleepy giant CPG [consumer packaged goods] category, we run toward it.”

In February 2023, Maesa launched Fine’ry, a collection of luxury-for-less fragrances at Target. “Fine’ry is a brand created with beautiful luxury codes [markers] and an affordable price for the mass consumer,” Savur explained.

Bringing a prestige fragrance experience to a mass audience grabs TikTokers’ attention: ‘It created instant virality’

Fine’ry is one of several beauty brands incubated by Maesa, which also helped create Frenshe, Kristin Ess, Hairitage, and Flower.

For Fin’ery, each scent was developed by master perfumers and crafted from quality ingredients with premium glass packaging but priced at $30 for an eau de parfum and $15 for a body mist, according to Maesa. The body mist encourages trial and potential trade-up to the perfume. Fine’ry also meets consumer demand for clean formulas that are vegan, cruelty-free, and free from parabens.

Beyond the products, Fine’ry disrupted the traditional in-store space on shelf at Target, adding product testers usually associated with prestige brands. “Fine’ry had ‘pick me up’ value—you want to pick it up [and] test it out,” Savur said.

Social media content creators took notice. “When we launched at Target, we started getting all this UGC [user-generated content], and some prominent TikTokers picked up the brand,” she recalled. “They were telling people to run, don't walk, to Target to get the brand, and it created instant virality.”

It was the right product, at the right time, and in the right place. Today, one Fine’ry unit is sold every 10 seconds, according to Maesa.

As a marketer, you realize that an out-of-stock situation simply means your brands are in demand. You get your supply chain going—there is a close partnership between supply chain and marketing— and you fuel the heat. Oshiya Savur, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer for Maesa

Target said Fine’ry is its fastest growing a number one fragrance brand. Circana named Fine’ry’s The New Rouge as the top single fragrance launch in mass in 2024, as the overall rise of affordably priced “dupe” scents of upscale perfumes (of which Fine’ry is one) is credited with helping the growth of the entire mass fragrance industry.

Stoking a mass fragrance boom and consumer fandom: ‘As a marketer, you realize that an out-of-stock situation simply means your brands are in demand’

Mass fragrances grew 8% in the first quarter of 2025, according to Circana, twice as much as the U.S. prestige perfume business.

Fine’ry’s launch success was beyond expectations, resulting in out-of-stock. “As a marketer, you realize that an out-of-stock situation simply means your brands are in demand,” Savur said. “You get your supply chain going—there is a close partnership between supply chain and marketing— and you fuel the heat. There is a cult following for this brand.”

During the time Maesa built up its inventory, the company opened lines of communication with fans. “We found there was a lot of love with users that built up demand,” she said.

Emboldened by the success, Maesa and Target doubled down on community building, in-store presentation, and product development.

“The idea that ‘everyone deserves to feel fine’ really resonated with consumers. We lean in on our inclusivity strongly with this brand. Overall, it is a beautiful mix coming together with an amazing retailer that disrupted mass fragrances,” she said.

Oshiya Savur is the Chief Brand and Marketing Officer for Maesa, the business incubator that helped create a number of beauty brands, including Fine'ry. — Oshiya Savur

Fine’ry’s marketing blueprint: Earned media drives buzz and AI saves millions

Although the original Fine’ry collection was genderless, Maesa recently expanded into the men’s grooming aisle at Target with nine new scents and a different package—black ombre versus jewel tones for the original collection. “We’ve expanded into the men’s aisle, and it’s exciting to see the success,” Savur added.

Men are a driving force in the fragrance revival as they stretch beyond deodorants and shaving cream.

In addition to the men’s debut, Fine’ry added three new scents in its core fragrance aisle, bringing the total scents to 27.

Selling scents online has traditionally been challenging since consumers can’t sniff the juice. Social media support, however, has mitigated the issue. “There are three playgrounds where marketers typically play—paid, earned, and owned [media marketing]. Earned is the most important because we target influencers, and that's how we created our brand’s desire,” Savur explained. “The best type of marketing is word of mouth.”

Maesa also leans into generative AI to create its marketing. The sheer volume of content required to resonate with consumers today is costly.

The reduction in costs from AI helps Fine’ry maintain accessible prices.

“We invest a lot of our time in branded content,” she said. “But instead of doing shoots that cost millions of dollars, we’ve been able to save generating through AI.”

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