# How to Smell Through a Screen

> ASMR sprays, compliment monsters and perfumes you can listen to: how sound sells scent online, and how to watch PerfumeTok with a clear head\.

**Published:** 2026-11-12
**Author:** maja\.marczak

Last week we talked about buying perfume with your eyes. This week, let's talk about your ears.

## **Turn the sound on**

Quick question: have you ever replayed a perfume video just for the sound of the spray? That soft *pfft*. The click of a heavy cap. The clink of glass on a marble shelf. If yes, you're not weird. You're the exact person a whole genre of content is made for.

![16.png](https://s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud/fraghead-production/ucmkf9ry2m0000a40t17wrn4ib/i/m/450c8815-7e14-4faa-9c93-678fc39b4864.webp#?fileId=140647&border=1)

## **Perfume's biggest problem online**

A creator can show you a dress, a lipstick swatch or a sofa. Nobody can show you a smell.

That makes perfume one of the hardest products to sell on a screen. So brands and creators have learned to describe it through every other sense: sound, texture, emotion and story. As one guide to PerfumeTok puts it,[ since viewers can't smell through their screens, creators lean on vivid descriptions, ASMR-style close-ups and real emotional reactions to help people imagine the scent](https://www.scento.com/blog/perfume-tok-explained-why-fragrance-goes-viral).

## **The science: why sound and texture work**

**ASMR is real, for some of us.** In 2018, researchers at the University of Sheffield measured what happens in the body while people watch ASMR videos. People who experience ASMR saw their[ heart rate drop by an average of 3.14 beats per minute, a calming effect comparable to music or mindfulness](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180621101334.htm). The catch: the pleasant feelings only showed up in people who actually experience ASMR. So if spray sounds give you tingles and your friend just finds them annoying, you're both right.

**Music sells scent.** Fragrance giant IFF and the Paris sound research institute IRCAM ran a study which found that[ the likelihood of buying a fragrance online jumped by 58% when it was paired with music](https://beautymatter.com/articles/iff-launches-sound-logo-amplifying-sonic-branding). Your ears were shopping too.

And across beauty, this is no longer a trend, it's the baseline. According to IPSY,[ sensoriality in beauty products is almost a given in 2026, the way "clean" or "sustainable" was in 2020](https://www.ipsy.com/blog/sensorial-beauty-social-media).

![17.png](https://s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud/fraghead-production/ucmkf9ry2m0000a40t17wrn4ib/i/m/7b213356-0f9f-409a-96e5-a312855fdc1c.webp#?fileId=140648&border=1)

## **Anatomy of a viral perfume video**

Next time you scroll PerfumeTok, look for these building blocks. Once you see them, you can't unsee them.

1. **The spray.** A close-up, the mic right next to the nozzle, one clean spritz. Pure sound, zero words.
2. **The first spritz reaction.** Eyes close, a pause, then the face. It's a performance of smelling, and it works because we read faces faster than words.
3. **The compliment monster.** "A stranger stopped me in the supermarket to ask what I'm wearing." Social proof, packed into one sentence.
4. **The vibe description.** No notes, just a mood: "smells like a rich girl's cashmere jumper" or "a summer evening in Positano."
5. **The texture shot.** Liquid swirling in the bottle, a drop sliding down glass, an oil beading on skin. Your brain fills in the feel, and then the smell.
6. **The shelfie.** Instagram's favourite format: a curated row of bottles that says less about any one scent and more about who you are.

None of these let you smell anything. All of them make you feel like you almost can.

## **PerfumeTok vs. the perfumer: a mini glossary**

The community has built its own language for describing scent through a screen. Here's how it maps to the classics.

![Fragplace Thumbnails v2-selection.png](https://s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud/fraghead-production/ucmkf9ry2m0000a40t17wrn4ib/i/m/5313ddb9-bb25-43ff-af64-a39ea9cf3df5.webp#?fileId=140649&border=1)

## **Perfumes you can listen to**

Some houses have taken sound beyond the spray and given their scents a soundtrack.

[Spicebomb Infrared Eau de Parfum by Viktor&Rolf](/fragrances/28712/brand/fragrance) was given its own[ sonic identity, created with IRCAM Amplify, to extend the heat and spice of the scent into sound](https://dlmdd.com/article/music-scent-and-multi-sensory-marketing/).

[Orphéon Eau de Parfum by Diptyque](/fragrances/23551/brand/fragrance) named after a Paris jazz bar loved by the house's founders, launched with a[ collaboration with jazz quintet Ezra Collective and an in-store event with Superfly Records in London](https://beautymatter.com/articles/scent-and-sound-the-new-frontier-of-immersive-experiences).

[Ephemera by Unsound](/brands/4142/ephemera-by-unsound) is our favourite one closer to home. Kraków's Unsound festival worked with perfumer Geza Schoen and musicians Ben Frost, Tim Hecker and Kode9 to[ translate noise, drone and bass into three scents](https://www.lsnglobal.com/article/view/16949). Perfume you could, in theory, hear.

## **How to watch PerfumeTok with a clear head**

Sensory content is fun. It's also very good at skipping the part of your brain that asks questions. A few habits help:

1. **Notice what's being described.** Is the creator talking about the scent, or only about their reaction and the compliments?
2. **Check for #ad.** A paid partnership isn't a bad review, but it isn't a neutral one either.
3. **Look for a second, third and fourth opinion.** One viral video is a vibe. Ten honest reviews on Fragplace are a pattern.
4. **Mute it.** Watch the same video without sound. If the excitement disappears with the spray noise, you know what was doing the selling.

## **Your turn**

**Describe your signature scent without naming a single note.** No vanilla, no bergamot, no oud. Just the mood, the place, the feeling.

We'll share some of our favourites on Instagram at @fragplace.official.

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Canonical: https://fragplace.com/en/blog/how-to-smell-through-a-screen