Indonesia's perfume industry today

Written by Rahma Yulita | Read in Indonesian

4,000 years ago, perfumes were only used for religious ceremonies. The Ancient Mesopotamians, for example, burned fragrant incense for their rituals.

Perfume was used in medicine in the 10th century and was a commodity exclusive for the nobility during the reign of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I in England, but today, it is a secondary need inseparable from our daily lives.

Almost everybody in this world uses perfume to complete their look. This is proven by the emergence of perfume brands offering various scents or unique aromas.

In Indonesia, the perfume industry is one of the fastest-growing industries, partly thanks to the existence of e-commerce.

The journey of perfume in Indonesia

The journey of aromatics in Indonesia began in the era of Hindu-Buddhist kingdom. Just like how the first perfume appeared in the world, perfume in that era was also used as part of religious rituals, made by blending natural ingredients, such as flowers, leaves, seeds and woods.

Then, during the Islamic kingdom period, perfume was used by rulers as a symbol of wealth and prosperity.

In the 19th century, perfume made in Indonesia started to grow through perfume factories built by the Dutch. Many of the ingredients were imported from Europe. At that time, Indonesians mainly used fragrance oils with strong scents, such as nyong nyong oil.

After Indonesia's independence, the perfume industry began to develop. National-scale perfume companies emerged one after another, offering quality local products.

Fast forward to the present day, Media Indonesia reported that the sales of perfume, cologne and fragrance products doubled compared to the previous year.

Data from Google, Temasek and Bain Company showed that the e-commerce sector grew to US$59 billion (or around Rp922 trillion) in 2022, with the perfume industry as one of the drivers.

Junior Brand Manager of Kitschy Beauty, Siska Syafira, said the industry’s growth was also driven by brands whose original business was in other sectors but then expanded to perfumery, such as Kitschy Feels.

Kitschy Beauty is an inclusive beauty brand that initially offered skincare products. Now, Kitschy also has a perfume line called Kitschy Feels.

"If you look at it now, perfume brands are not only dedicated brands that purely sell perfume. Now, several brands such as fashion brands and skincare brands like Kitschy have started to expand there," Siska, as she is familiarly called, explained.

She added, "Because Kitschy Beauty itself was born and launched from the skincare variant, then as another step we entered the world of fragrance."

Siska said the perfume industry is growing at a rapid pace, and this can be seen from the high number of new brands flocking to the market. "If you say it's booming, I agree, because there are really so many of them and almost every month we can see new brands emerging. Or maybe almost every month we can see these fragrance brands launching new scents."

The negative stigma of local perfumes is rubbed away by time

The period 2017-2018 witnessed the rise of many local perfume brands. Unfortunately, at that time there were still many negative stigma surrounding local perfumes: identical to bottled refill perfumes, have a pungent synthetic smell and the aroma is too strong but not very pleasant.

Those stigma made people less inclined to local perfumes. As time went by, the local perfume industry grew with the presence of new brands.

Entering 2020-2021, the industry developed even faster. One of the local perfume brands, HMNS, has not only amassed popularity among young Indonesians, but also managed to market its product, Ambar Janma, in Paris.

Now, such a success is undoubtedly influenced by how each brand positions itself in the ever-changing market. Kitschy Beauty does it by inviting muses who fit the brand's persona to further expand its target market.

Marketing strategy is also a key that determines how a perfume brand can be accepted by the market, as well as to get rid of the negative stigma that marred the industry in its fledgling days. Today, we can find more topics on and more people talking about local perfumes, including on social media platform X.

Siska said that this time, Kitschy Beauty invited Rania Yamin as the muse for the launch of its latest perfume product. Previously, they chose Nadin Amizah as their muse.

"For our collaboration with Rania, the preparation took more than a year until it was finally launched. We thought that we wanted Kitschy to have a voice and Rania to have a voice. The feel of Rania can still be found in Kitschy, and at the same time Kitschy also won’t lose its feel," she said.

Consistency and innovation are the main “scent”

"I believe that releasing a product is much easier than maintaining it so that it is sustainable," said Siska. This is one of the concerns that needs to be solved for perfume brands that seek to survive amidst the fierce competition.

The industry is growing at lightning speed, but it doesn’t mean that perfume brands can abandon quality and customer needs just to be able to release products in a short time.

"The movement is quite fast, so people are racing to release scents as quickly as possible. As a brand, we must have a USP that can differentiate us from other brands. Don't lower the quality standards and release anything recklessly because it would seem rushed," she added.

Maintaining quality is not only done from the product side, but also from the brand side. That is why Kitschy Beauty often participates in offline events. Siska sees offline events as a good opportunity to find out firsthand what customers need. Accordingly, brands would be able to improve and innovate in order to provide better services and products.

"Not only from the product side, but also us as a brand, how we can communicate with customers. That's why we have keywords that we hope can help our audience better understand our perfume."

Local perfumes can now compete with foreign brands. Siska said that local brands have good quality and are competitive in price. Plus, they are thriving because they are willing to make improvements to meet customer needs. "Since the industry is still growing rapidly, and we do not close our ears to suggestions, as well as having quality to offer, I am quite confident with the development of local perfumes," she concluded.