"Scent Library", which has ranked first in Tmall's domestic perfumes for three consecutive years, has recently been "ridiculed" on social media for "price increases."

The reason was that the brand released a series of revitalization actions in mid-August, including adjustments in various aspects such as brand name, product line, visual and packaging design, and price. Among them, the price change in particular has triggered heated discussions on the consumer side-the price of a 50ml bottle of eau de toilette has risen to 465 yuan, compared with 285 yuan three years ago, an increase of more than 60%.

A few years ago, many consumers paid more than 100 yuan for 50ml of scent library perfume.

Now, this brand, once labeled as "National Perfume", is trying to use brand updates to "bid farewell" to the era of parity.

But the problem also followed-when a 50ml bottle of perfume sold for 465 yuan, consumers began to ask: "Why don't I just buy the big-name commercial fragrance and salon fragrance that have good reputation, cheaper price and good smell?"

It is also worth asking, at a time when the fragrance category is attracting more and more attention, why can domestic fragrance brands such as Wenxian and Guanxia sell for 500 yuan or more, while the "high price" of the scent library is exchanged for it? The ridicule of consumers?

Say goodbye to "parity" and move towards "high-end"

Scent Library is determined to bid farewell to the past.

At present, the first tweets displayed on its Weixin Official Accounts and Xiaohongshu official account are information released on July 17 this year that the brand is about to be revitalized, and all content before this has been hidden.

Judging from the content released by its official account in the past month or so, as well as the products put on shelves in the Tmall flagship store, the main changes in the brand include the following:

The brand name has changed

The original English name of "SCENT LIBRARY" has been updated to "scentscape"-"Scent" stands for smell, reaching the body with 20,000 breaths a day, connecting people and daily life;"Scape" stands for the field where feelings occur, air, light, temperature, sound, and time constitute an experience moment in the same instant.

The combination of the two means "the moment when the smell interweaves with the complete sensory scene of the moment." This name change is seen by the brand as an upgrade from "collecting memories" to "re-experiencing daily life".

Vision and packaging have changed

The new Logo uses the two "S" in the name in the design to outline a sniffing nose silhouette, and the flowing curve symbolizes the trajectory of the smell across the air. The packaging design has also been revitalized simultaneously, and the overall style has become more concise and modern.

Tuyuan Scent Library Official Account

The product line has changed

After the renovation, the products of the Tmall flagship store have been greatly streamlined, focusing on the two core categories of perfumes and toiletries. The former aromatherapy, car fragrances and other categories have disappeared. The filing information shows that in 2026, the brand will simultaneously launch the "scentscape" series of new products, covering light fragrances, fragrant hand essence creams, fragrant vegetable shampoo and other categories.

Prices have also changed

This is the part that touches the most sensitive nerves of consumers. 50ml of eau de toilette has risen to 465 yuan, an increase of 63% compared with 2023; body wash and body lotion have been adjusted from 295ml to about 70 yuan, and the prices range from 125 to 165 yuan for 250ml. The capacity has shrunk by 18%, and the price has nearly doubled. At present, small samples and small-specification products are no longer visible in Tmall's flagship store, and the entry threshold for consumers has been greatly raised.

Interception of self-scent library Tmall flagship store

On social media, many former old users expressed dissatisfaction: "The price of changing the packaging will more than double","It's getting more and more expensive","I can't afford it","I don't have the desire to buy" and "I don't look like eating"."

Social media user comments

The former "national perfume",

How was it born?

To understand today's controversy, we need to first return to the starting point of the odor library.

In 2009, 24-year-old Lou Nanshi opened the first domestic scent library store in Sanlitun, Beijing, introducing the American perfume brand Demeter to China. From 2009 to 2014, Scent Library represented more than 20 brands around the world and opened more than 40 offline stores across the country.

At the beginning of 2014, Scent Library transformed from an agent identity to become an independent brand. However, at that time, products were mainly developed in accordance with European logic. The floral products such as lavender and sage launched were more "equal replacements" in line with market trends.

The odor library is truly remembered by people since the launch of the "Liangbaikai" series of fragrances at the end of 2017. This perfume, inspired by the memory of China's citizens, moved young consumers with its plain and simple taste, and quickly became a hit on social media. In 2018, it sold more than 400,000 bottles on the Double Eleven Day, with cumulative sales throughout the year. More than 1 million bottles, accounting for more than 30% of brand sales.

On Children's Day in 2019, the fragrance products co-branded by the Smell Library and the White Rabbit brand were once again released, and 25,000 units were sold within 20 minutes of the opening.

According to public information, the odor library's revenue in 2019 reached 480 million yuan; its own brand was established less than 4 years ago, and it received a valuation of 300 million yuan; it ranked first in Tmall's domestic perfumes for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019; In 2021, it was awarded tens of millions of dollars in Series B exclusive investment from Spanish perfume and beauty group PUIG, with nearly 80 stores across the country.

Scent Library's financing process, intercept and check on self-enterprise

In an era when cutting-edge brands such as Perfect Diary and Huaxizi were just just recognized by the public, the scent library was already widely recognized on the "unpopular" perfume track, which was inseparable from Lou Nanshi's keen commercial sense.

First of all, it created the "smell + memory"

At the same time as the launch of "Liangbaikai" in 2017, the odor library began to enter the markets of washing care, hand care, car fragrance, and home fragrance. Use hot perfumes to build brand awareness, and use high-frequency consumables such as body washes and body lotions to expand the user base and increase the repurchase rate. By 2018, the proportion of online care categories has exceeded from 10% to 50%.

This combination of "high awareness + high repurchase" supported the scale of Scent Library's business at that time.

Silence after the peak:

Why did the "National Perfume" stall?

However, all brands in the business world cannot escape the cycle, and the same is true for the growth script of the scent library.

In the second half of 2021, Lou Nanshi once revealed in an interview with Sister Dao, founder of Knife, that the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 disrupted the brand's rhythm and reduced the performance of nearly half of the odor library stores that relied on offline performance to zero.

Lou Nanshi recalled this experience and reflected that during the stage of rapid development of the brand, he was once entangled by traffic and deviated from his original course under the temptation of money and interests. This has also forced Scent Library to make strategic adjustments-giving up blindly chasing traffic and GMV, and instead rethinking "what a brand really looks like."

Smell Library Building

However, it is easy to turn strategy, but difficult to reverse market perception. In the process of the scent library re-discovering itself, the entire fragrance track is undergoing a profound reshaping of the pattern.

On the one hand, international brands such as YSL, Chanel, and Dior still firmly control the high-end fragrance market; on the other hand, emerging brands of domestic products have entered the market, and the rankings of China fragrance brands have been reshuffled.

Among them, Guan Xia has risen with oriental cultural narrative and private domain operations, and Wen Xian has established itself in the thousand-yuan price band with its Zen cool style and strong aroma water. They use original scents, visual systems and store space to allow local perfumes to have their own aesthetic system for the first time, and are also the first to target high-net-worth people who are willing to pay for the "brand premium."

At the same time, the rise of Douyin after 2020 has completely rewritten the competition rules for Fragrance Track. The "White Paper on China Perfume and Fragrance Industry" shows that affordable domestic brands account for half of the top 20 Douyin fragrances, with a brand change rate of as high as 40%. During this process, a number of fragrant black horses such as Fu Ruoli and Wuzuo broke out of the encirclement.

The competition faced by Scent Library has changed from "almost no opponents" to "besieged on all sides."

At the same time, after the "cool white open" and "big white rabbit", the odor library was no longer able to replicate the same magnitude of hit money. Although a series of fragrance products such as 2B pencils and freshly squeezed watermelon juice have been launched one after another, their sales volume and sound volume are far less than "cool and white".

According to third-party data, the online GMV of the odor library will fall by 46.1% year-on-year to 116 million yuan in 2025. From January to July 2026, it will continue to decline by 47.2% to 38.43 million yuan, and the average product price is only 53 yuan. Among them, the core categories traded were laundry beads, scented shower gel, body lotion, etc., and the perfume that used to start its business accounted for less than 15%.

Under the superposition of multiple factors, the "stall" of the odor library is no accident.

Why can Wen Xian and Guan Xia take the high-end route, but the scent library is ridiculed by the crowd?

In the collective "upward" trend of domestic perfumes, scent libraries are not the highest-priced existence. The price of Guanxia 30ml perfume is in the range of 498-798 yuan, and the price of Wenxian 30ml strong perfume is in the range of 980-1750 yuan.

It is also sold at a "high price", but the price of the scent library is even lower. Why do the "treatment" they enjoy different?

Brand origin determines the price ceiling

This is the most fundamental reason.

Guan Xia and Wen Xian have targeted the high-end market since their first day of establishment. Guanxia is positioned as "Oriental Fragrance" and uses an aesthetic system of restraint and blank space to build a complete brand language; Wen Xian has created a "Zen Cool" style, focusing on aroma water with a fragrance concentration of 15%-25%, and using China natural spices to establish professional awareness.

Their consumers knew from day one-this is not a cheap brand.

The starting point of the odor library is "a national perfume affordable to everyone", which has been firmly anchored in the "parity" range in consumers 'minds. Moving up from parity is more difficult than doing high-end from scratch. Because what we have to fight against is not competitors, but the inherent perceptions that tens of millions of consumers have formed.

Narrative ability: The former is "shaping", the latter is "consuming"

The high price of viewing summer and Wen Xian is based on a complete cultural narrative.

The names of every product named in Guanxia-"Kunlun Boiling Snow" and "Yihe Jingui"-are all building a perceptible and immersive eastern world; Wenxian's store space, visual language, and textual expression together constitute the "Zen Cool" brand universe. Consumers are buying not just perfumes, but a whole set of lifestyle imaginations.

The core narrative of the odor library is "odor + memory". From "Liangbaikai" to "White Rabbit", it has been calling on existing collective memories rather than creating new brand imaginations. This strategy is effective during the parity stage, and consumers feel friendly and down-to-earth. But when it reaches the high-end stage, it has become a burden: it makes people think that the brand "has nothing but nostalgia?"

In short, the former is constantly creating premium space, while the latter is constantly consuming existing assets.

Sense of scarcity: at your fingertips versus at your fingertips

For a long time, Guanxia has adopted the model of "limited sales + Mini programs". Every new product needs to be "snatched". This sense of scarcity is itself an integral part of the brand value. Wenxian started from the top business districts of first-tier cities, and entering the store itself is a kind of "circle certification."

And the smell

This article explores Aromatherapy, Scent, Perfume, Essential Oil, Fireless Aromatherapy, Aromatherapy Candle, Vine Incense Stick, Home Scent, Natural Aromatherapy, Diffuser, sharing the latest industry insights and offering practical references for enthusiasts.

Source: 品观网 (https://www.pinguan.com/)

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