Perfumes for Pride

It’s not just Pride weekend in Amsterdam—it’s WorldPride. Is that more important than regular Pride? Jury’s still out. It does, however, mean the city is about to be overrun with rainbow flags, sweaty armpits, leather harnesses, glitter lodged in places glitter should never be, and at least one person earnestly explaining the hanky code to someone who didn’t ask.

Which brings us to perfume. Long before perfume became another luxury purchase to unbox on TikTok, it was a way of signalling identity, community and desire. A scented shortcut to saying who you are, who you’re trying to become, and occasionally, who you’d like to convince to come home with you. If you’ve spent any time online recently, you’ve probably stumbled across fragrance writer Derek Deng’s now-legendary Twink Fragrance Matrix. A piece of internet anthropology and objectively interesting gay perfume discourse. Certain bottles have developed reputations that almost outweigh the juice inside. Wear Tom Ford Ombré Leather and people start making assumptions about your emotional availability. Wear Glossier You and congratulations, you’ve accidentally become the most statistically lesbian person in the room. If you’re looking to blend in at Pride—or, more accurately, immediately communicate your entire dating history through scent—the Matrix has some answers. Bottom butch? Byredo Bal d’Afrique. Bottom femme? Parfums de Marly Delina Exclusif. Top butch? CK One. Top femme? Maison Margiela Coffee Break. The most lesbian fragrance of all time? Glossier You. For the gay men, Le Labo Another 13 turned out to be the Switzerland of perfume, beloved by almost everyone, while Dior Fahrenheit remains undefeated as peak masc energy.

But maybe smelling exactly like everyone else at the function isn’t the goal. Maybe you’ve already done your time in Another 13. Maybe Santal 33 has been retired. Maybe you’re looking for something that smells like a lesbian bar, a leather club, the morning after Pride, a molecular gender crisis or, yes, even poppers. Consider this your fragrance side quest.

JOUISSANCE × La Camionera
This one tops the list because it’s a fragrance inspired by—and created with—a lesbian bar. Created by perfumer Cherry Cheng in collaboration with East London’s La Camionera (Spanish slang for a butch lesbian), the scent is an olfactory portrait of the kind of place every city deserves: low-lit, intimate and quietly life-changing. It’s the smell of candlelight catching on stainless steel, incense curling through the room, first dates making polite conversation and second dates somehow ending in the exchange of house keys. The scent is based on the seductive vibe of the space itself. Low-lit, intimate, always with incense burning in the background. The fragrance tries to capture that warmth and combine it with a freshness that represents the youth and energy of the bars loyal clientele. The fragrance opens with lemon, sweet orange and bergamot before melting into an unexpectedly delicious heart of cinnamon, marzipan, cardamom and nutmeg. Jasmine lends softness, while sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, patchouli, castoreum and musk recreate the bar’s smoky, enveloping atmosphere. It bottles the comfort of belonging, the feeling of walking into a room where you don’t have to explain yourself.

Jean Paul Gaultier Classique & Le Male Pride Collector
In 1996, fifteen years after the death of his partner Francis Menuge during the AIDS crisis, Jean Paul Gaultier declared SAFE SEX FOREVER. The slogan appeared across his collections in tattoo-inspired lettering, turning fashion into a billboard for pleasure, protection and queer visibility at a time when few luxury houses were willing to do either. Three decades later, those same words return on Gaultier’s most recognisable creations: the delightfully kitsch, unapologetically body-shaped bottles of Classique and Le Male. For the Pride Collector’s Editions, the iconic torsos are covered in handwritten messages celebrating freedom, love and self-expression. Inside, the fragrance opens with a brisk burst of mint before softening into powdery mimosa and creamy almond. But the real story is on the bottle. Long before rainbow capsules became an annual marketing ritual, Gaultier understood that Pride wasn’t just a celebration—it was, and still is, a protest. SAFE SEX FOREVER remains as relevant now as it was in 1996.

Domesticca: 
Domesticca Yard is the fragrance of the day after Pride—the moment when the celebration returns home. Created by queer-owned perfume project Domesticca, Yard captures the beauty of ordinary things we often overlook: wet grass after a storm, crushed petals beneath your feet, the green scent of a garden still holding onto summer. Built around the nostalgic pull of petrichor, it doesn’t transport you somewhere far away—it brings you closer to where you already are. In a world of escapist fantasies, Domesticca believes in the magic of the everyday: the places, people and small rituals that make us feel grounded. Yard is the quiet morning after the parade, when the glitter fades but the feeling remains.

Eris Parfums Mx.
Some fragrances are genderless. Mx. asks why fragrance needed gender in the first place. Named after the gender-neutral honorific, ERIS PARFUMS’ Mx. is a celebration of identity beyond labels, blurring the lines between notes traditionally marketed as masculine or feminine. Fiery ginger, black pepper and saffron melt into creamy sandalwood, cedar, cacao and a softly animalic base, creating a fragrance that is rich, sensual and unapologetically expressive. Rather than chasing neutrality, Mx. embraces abundance, proving that a perfume can be romantic, woody and decadent without belonging to any one gender. In a world still keen to sort scents into “his” and “hers,” Mx. offers a far more interesting proposition: simply wear what moves you.

Toskovat — Born Screaming
The kinkiest cherry perfume ever made? Probably. Described by critic Bee Beardsworth as the “epitome of fucking in the bathroom,” Born Screaming is not interested in being a polite fragrance. It is a mix of cherry, Red Bull, latex, smoke and pearls, essentially tit boils down to smelling like a cherry-flavoured condom, created by David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi, and the fragrance is a perfect example of Toskovat’s fascination with the transgressive side of self-expression. The brand has built a reputation around scents that are  provocative, occasionally even confrontational. The opening is a collision of cherry, latex, plastic and blackberry, followed by smoke, florals and a strange, almost metallic softness. Beneath the shock factor sits something unexpectedly warm: pearls, ambrette, myrrh, patchouli and musk create a skin-like finish that makes the chaos feel intimate rather than alien. It is outrageous, but approachable; filthy, but playful; uncanny, but oddly comforting, Which, depending on your relationship with perfume, may be either a warning or the highest possible compliment. As one wearer described it: “Some faint hints of inflatable pool animal, which is a thing I actively desire in my day-to-day life.”  

Cuir Intense by Guerlain
If you know your leather, you know. Guerlain’s Cuir Intense is the fragrance equivalent of the perfect leather jacket: polished, confident and carrying just the right amount of attitude. Leather has always had a special place in queer style—from biker bars and club nights to a whole language of self-expression, desire and chosen identity—and this is the more refined, dressed-up cousin of that world. Smooth rather than brutal, smoky rather than sharp, Cuir Intense wraps leather in warm woods and amber for a scent that feels lived-in, sensual and effortlessly assured. Consider it the fragrance for anyone whose Pride look starts with a harness, a vintage jacket, or simply the belief that a little leather goes a long way.

Jil Sander
There’s a reason lesbians keep wandering into Jil Sander stores like moths to an impeccably lit architectural lamp. It’s not because the brand is “gay”—it’s because Jil Sander understands the appeal of restraint. The hottest thing a piece can communicate is sometimes that you have absolutely nothing to prove. That same philosophy now exists in fragrance. Jil Sander’s Olfactory Series 1 is a rainbow for people who prefer their colour palette in the form of a perfectly considered object: understated, intellectual and quietly outside the usual rules of gender. With six new additions, the collection now includes twelve unisex fragrances that explore simplicity as a form of expression. Shiso brings green clarity through juniper berry, sandalwood and upcycled key lime, while Sesame turns black sesame, cocoa shell and cedarwood into something warm, nutty and unexpectedly elegant.

Boy smells – Citrush Gold
Citrush became an internet sensation for its tongue-in-cheek nod to one of queer nightlife’s most infamous accessories: poppers. But the fragrance itself is all about the feeling after the rush. Bright pomelo and black pepper melt into warm, lived-in musks that capture that unmistakable end-of-the-night glow: skin warmed from dancing, a fresh spritz of deodorant doing its best, a vodka soda splashed down your shirt and absolutely no desire to go home yet. Not dirty, exactly—just deliciously human. Equal parts inside joke and genuinely addictive perfume, Citrush bottles the kind of queer nightlife memory that lingers long after the lights come up.

Droplet Incense Cones
Maybe you’re not out yet but still want a quiet reminder of who you are. Or perhaps you know someone who isn’t out, and you’d like to give them a subtle cue that they’re safe with you—without handing them something that screams Hi, I Know You’re Gay merch. Maybe your interiors lean more gallery apartment than glitter parade. Or maybe you’re simply committed to introducing a little queer subtext into your parents’ aggressively beige living room. Whatever the motivation, these incense droplets offer a delightfully understated alternative. Shaped like tiny coloured cones, Ripple’s new Droplets collection brings a wash of rainbow hues to your home without ever feeling novelty. Developed with fragrance expertise in Grasse and a distinctly design-led eye in London, each incense piece functions as both a decorative object and a scent ritual. Paired with its frosted glass holder, the effect is less “Pride merch” and more contemporary design object that just so happens to span the colours of the rainbow. No, it isn’t inherently queer, but neither is wearing green carnations or cuffing your jeans—until culture gives it meaning. Not every Pride decoration needs to be a rainbow flag draped over your sofa, sometimes it can simply drift through the room.  

Neandertal — Them
Forget “for him” and “for her.” Neandertal asks a far more interesting question: who exactly is them? The name alone has obvious queer associations. Paired with its sibling fragrance, Us, the two scents form a conceptual conversation about belonging, otherness and the shifting boundaries of identity—ideas that feel especially resonant during Pride. Them itself smells like the future, and that was the idea behind it too. Built around transparent woods, molecular musks, sea kelp, ambergris and the quietly earthy dryness of carrot seed, it comes alive on warm skin with an almost weightless, clean quality—the scent of freshly laundered linen drying in spring air, if spring happened a century from now. Rather than chasing nostalgia, perfumer Euan McCall imagines an optimistic future where technology and humanity evolve together. Even the bottle reflects that ambition: a sculptural object resembling a Neanderthal spear point, created using 3D scanning and printing technology.