Boy Smells

Boy Smells was founded in 2016 by partners Matthew Herman and David Kien in Los Angeles, initially as a candle company before expanding into fine fragrance. The house positions itself under the banner of "genderful" — rejecting the binary divisions that have long structured perfumery marketing. Its Eau de Parfum line includes titles such as Tantrum, Hinoki Fantôme, and Violet Ends, each built around unexpected ingredient pairings that collapse sweetness, musk, and woodiness into compositions that feel simultaneously intimate and public. Herman and Kien collaborate with external perfumers to develop each scent, maintaining an art-directed aesthetic across packaging and campaign imagery. The brand occupies an unusual market position: accessible enough in price to reach younger buyers, yet conceptually ambitious enough to interest experienced collectors. Stockists include Nordstrom, Net-a-Porter, and its own direct channel. Boy Smells has done more to normalise gender-neutral fragrance at a mass-adjacent price point than almost any other American house of its generation.