YSL Beauty and Kayali lead prestige fragrance sales as gifting picks rise

The clearest sign of where prestige fragrance is headed right now is a little unexpected: three of YSL Beauty’s four top April sellers were men’s scents, even as the brand took No. 1 in prestige fragrance with 8.8 percent share and placed four fragrances in the top 10. Myslf, Libre, Y Eau de Parfum and Myslf Le Parfum did the heavy lifting, which tells you current taste is split between polished signatures and easy, wearable woods. For gifting, that is useful: the best prestige bottle is not necessarily the prettiest bottle, it is the one that already feels familiar enough to wear tomorrow.

The safest buy for a woman who likes a recognizable, grown-up scent is Libre Eau de Parfum at $180, or $152 for the refill. Lavender, orange blossom, musk accord and vanilla give it enough softness to wear every day, but the bottle still reads like a statement, especially in a market that keeps rewarding refillable prestige. If she likes her fragrance a little sharper and less sweet, Y Eau de Parfum starts at $165 and MYSLF at $182, both refillable, and both are proof that women are increasingly borrowing from the men’s counter when they want something crisp, modern and expensive smelling.

Kayali sits at the sweeter end of the spectrum, and that is exactly why it keeps showing up in gifting conversations. Founded in 2018 by Mona Kattan, the brand is built around Middle Eastern layering rituals, and its Yum Boujee Marshmallow | 81 is all marshmallow, strawberry, coconut, freesia, vanilla and pink musk, priced at $150 for 100ml. It is the kind of present that works for the friend who already loves dessert candles, vanilla body products or anything that earns a compliment in an elevator; it feels playful, but not cheap. Kattan has said it followed Yum Pistachio Gelato | 33, which launched in 2023, and that sequel logic matters because Kayali has made gourmand fragrance feel like a franchise, not a fad.

The bigger backdrop makes the sales data even more telling. Circana said the U.S. prestige beauty market grew 2 percent to $16 billion in the first half of 2025, while Daash-linked reporting showed fragrance up 8 percent year over year as skin care fell 9 percent and makeup dropped 13 percent. That is why this moment belongs to scent gifts that feel current rather than risky: sweet gourmands for the person who wants to smell delicious, and refillable signatures for the person who wants one bottle to carry her through the year.