Over the last decade, skincare led the gains within the prestige beauty industry, fragrance was challenged as consumer usage declined, and Boomers drove demand and influenced innovation within the industry. However, 2015 marked a turning point for the beauty industry, driven largely by shifts taking place within skincare and the heightened importance of Millennials, according to data from global information company The NPD Group.

Today the fragrance category is outperforming skincare, skincare and wellness are becoming more intertwined, anti-aging is becoming less prominent, and the lines are blurring between makeup and skincare. For the first time, the fragrance category contributed more annual dollar gains than skincare. [...] In 2015, NPD found that young Millennials in particular are using more fragrance and less of them are using facial skincare products.

— Read more at Category and Generational Shifts are Altering the Prestige Beauty Landscape, NPD Reports at NPD.

For the year to date through the end of November, fragrance sales were 4 percent ahead in the prestige category, compared with 3 percent ahead at the same point in 2014. [...] This solid trend provided needed hope for the business, considering that 20 percent of annual fragrance sales are made in the two weeks before Christmas.

— From Prestige Beauty Outshines Last Year’s Performance at Women's Wear Daily. Top sellers this year on the men's side: Dior Sauvage, Ralph Lauren Polo Red Intense and Armani Acqua di Gio Profumo. On the women's side:  Gucci Bamboo, Chloé Love Story and Versace’s Eros Pour Femme.

Pricier perfumes, with their big names and bigger ad budgets, have fared far better, with premium fragrance sales in the United States climbing 16 percent since 2000 to a record-high $5.2 billion last year. But for mainstream scents, a less-smelly America, and the rival products that have allowed it, has undermined their entire industry.

— US sales of mass market fragrances have dropped by half since 2000. Read more at Modern life smells so good it’s killing the cheap perfume industry at The Washington Post.

Nearly 80% of men who make fragrance purchases plan to do so ahead of time, and two-thirds of them also know what brand they plan to purchase according to the 2014 Men’s Fragrance Track Report issued by The NPD Group, Inc.

— From the latest NPD Group report on fragrance usage by men; read more at A Man and His Cologne at Happi.