Strawberry- and bubblegum-scented lip gloss had its big moment is the '80s when brands thought girls bought the sticky stuff to get boys to kiss them. By 2012 the marketing of makeup is way more tuned in, but that didn't stop the trend from expanding past fruit and candy. Think: Now you can get lip products that smell like craft beer, hot Cheetos, wasabi, or a stick of butter. And even more recently, the cult-popular makeup brand Too Faced has been making bronzers, eyeshadows, and blushes that smell like they were made in a bakery.
The Too Faced sweet-smelling Peaches and Cream compact and the Chocolate Bar eye palette are downright mouth-watering. (To the point where one little girl actually ate her aunt's Chocolate Bar palette thinking it was real!) It got us thinking: Why scented makeup? Turns out, the answer is both nostalgic and psychological.
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In a recent interview with Forbes, Too Faced founder Jerrod Blandino spoke about how he went from working behind an Estée Lauder makeup counter to launching a $1.45 billion beauty brand. In the interview, Blandino was asked how he came up with the idea to make makeup that, with one whiff, can be mistaken for dessert. His answer? It all started back in the '80s.
"It really came from being a kid and I remember when I worked really, really hard I’d get a scratch-n-sniff sticker and how much that thrilled me," Blandino explained. While the inspiration was simple, Blandino says that the purpose of scented makeup runs a lot deeper.
"When I was behind the counter, I thought it was so funny that women would always first look at a color, whether it be a lipstick or a shadow or even a brush, and then they would smell it," he said. "It’s a sensorial, emotional business we’re in. It was just another way of incorporating wonderful ingredients but taking it to that next level and giving it an extra push and also incorporating the scents that we love."
As Blandino says, makeup's about breaking the rules. So why not wear the stuff that smells like a scratch-n-sniff sticker? After all, we can all agree that Too Faced's chocolate bronzer is a thousand times better than butter-flavored lip balm.
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