Cumaru Is the New Sandalwood

By Rodrigo Uchoa, special for Brazil Stock Guide

For a generation that tracks its carbon footprint as carefully as its steps, smelling good is no longer enough; a fragrance must also behave itself. The new fragrance consumer – disproportionately young, urban and very online – wants bottles that can be refilled, ingredients that do not raze forests and a story that can be told in three slides on Instagram. Conveniently, one of the world’s great biodiversity superpowers, Brazil, specialises in exactly this sort of scented storytelling.

According to consultancy Precedence Research, the global perfume market is worth about US$ 60.7 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach US$ 101.5 billion by 2034, growing at nearly 6% a year. Mass fragrances still account for roughly 57% of sales, but the premium segment is the fastest-growing, and men’s fragrances are the quickest-rising end-user category. In other words, the most dynamic corner of the market is composed of men willing to trade up – and increasingly willing to pay for values as well as vapours.

Premiumisation is colliding head-on with sustainability. Euromonitor notes that in Western Europe, premium fragrances now make up around 83% of market value and grew 12% in 2023, while products carrying “natural” and “environmentally friendly” claims grew at 5% and a striking 22% respectively between 2020 and 2022. Refillable bottles, upcycled ingredients and carbon-lighter alcohols have moved from curiosity to commercial necessity. L’Oréal has rolled out multi-brand refill stations in British stores and brands from Coty to Chanel are tweaking packaging and solvents to shave off emissions.

The younger nose is also a more inquisitive one. Mintel’s “Future of Fragrance” research finds that roughly one in three younger consumers say they are questioning the safety and environmental impact of fragrance ingredients and expect brands to be transparent about sourcing. Analysts there talk of an “empowered” beauty shopper who wants products to align with personal ethics as much as aesthetics.

On the prestige side, Larissa Jensen of Circana (formerly NPD) points out that luxury fragrance sales in the US have been growing in double digits, even as inflation bites, because consumers treat them as “affordable indulgences” they are reluctant to give up. If a 150 euro’s bottle is going to be bought anyway, the argument goes, it might as well soothe the conscience as well as the ego.

From disco woods to blue seas – and beyond

This column will stick, for now, to the masculine end of the shelf; a closer look at women’s perfumery will have to wait for another instalment. That said, the walls are already crumbling: unisex perfumes – once a niche curiosity – are now marching straight through the men’s aisle.

For decades, men’s fragrance followed a fairly linear plot. In the 1960s and 70s, scents like Guerlain’s Vetiver – all crisp woods, citrus and good grooming – set the template for the serious, suited male. The 1990s then went to the opposite extreme: Calvin Klein’s CK One (1994) turned translucent tea and citrus into a global unisex manifesto; Issey Miyake’s L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme and Armani’s Acqua di Giò made aquatic, “blue” freshness the smell of office towers and beach holidays alike. Fashion houses ruled the counter, and the name on the box – Dior, Armani, Hugo Boss – mattered more than the name of the perfumer.

The 2000s brought niche perfumery and its cult icons. Le Labo’s Santal 33, launched in 2011, became so ubiquitous in certain cities that American writers dubbed the rush-hour subway the “Santal Express”. When Estée Lauder acquired Le Labo in 2014, trade press noted it as a turning point: big beauty writing cheques to acquire small brands whose main assets were craftsmanship, sustainability rhetoric and a gender-fluid fan base.

Now, the narrative is shifting again. The premium segment is growing fastest; natural and “eco-friendly” claims are leading innovation; and men are increasingly happy to borrow from the unisex or even traditionally “feminine” side if the story – and the sustainability credentials – are compelling.

Enter Brazil, stage left, smelling of forests

If the new luxury is ethical, Brazil has a head start. A report on the Brazilian fragrance-ingredients market notes that local champions such as Natura &Co, O Boticário and others are building complex perfumes with exotic native extracts like tonka bean (cumaru), açaí oil and copaíba, often in partnership with global fragrance houses and with an emphasis on vegan, clean-label and sustainable sourcing.

Cumaru – the seed of Dipteryx odorata, better known internationally as tonka bean – is native to northern Brazil and neighbouring countries. European brands happily explain to customers that tonka (cumaru) is harvested by local and Indigenous communities in the Amazon, with fair-pricing schemes that support rural livelihoods and discourage deforestation. Its smell – a warm, almond-and-vanilla hug with hints of caramel and tobacco – has already become indispensable in modern fougères and gourmands. “Cumaru is the new sandalwood” may be an exaggeration, but only slightly.

Other Amazonian ingredients are equally photogenic. Priprioca, a root long used in northern Brazilian rituals, yields an earthy, woody-spicy note with a folktale attached. Breu branco, a resin burned in churches and river villages, adds mineral, incense-like facets; copaíba, a resinous oil, contributes a balsamic, sensual depth. In the right hands, this is not just raw material – it is narrative gold.

Natura’s new Alta Perfumaria line, aimed squarely at the global luxury consumer, builds entire compositions around such pairings. 740 Sândalo Breu Branco combines classic sandalwood with breu branco, while 875 Vetiver Capitiú marries vetiver with capitiú, an Amazonian shrub with spicy, fresh nuances. Earlier creations like Ekos Alma blend cumaru and copaíba with breu branco and priprioca to “translate the richness of the Amazon rainforest” into a woody-spicy parfum. The positioning is clear: French structure, Brazilian soul – and a detailed footnote about biodiversity programmes.

Small houses, big stories

Alongside the giants, smaller Brazilian labels are learning to weaponise sustainability with considerable elegance. Amyi, a São Paulo niche brand, talks openly about vegan formulas, IFRA-compliant safety standards and supplier traceability; the company favours ethically sourced naturals and high-grade biodegradable synthetics, and says its perfumes are all registered with regulator ANVISA and certified vegan and cruelty-free. The brand also trumpets its packaging choices: less than 0.5% plastic, only reforested wood and participation in Brazil’s “Eu Reciclo” recycling-offset scheme.

Crucially for the male and unisex market, the juices themselves are hardly hair-shirt. Amyi 4.20, a “green fougère”, opens with tomato leaves and citrus, flows through cool geranium and rests on oakmoss, vetiver and ambery musks – a modern twist on the classic barbershop idea that wears as easily on a banker as on a barista. Other Amyi creations highlight “upcycled” ingredients: a mandarin fraction derived from bitter-orange peel that would otherwise be waste, or recycled lemon oil with a freshly picked character.

Becquer Fragrances Lab, another Brazilian outfit, positions itself as “fine fragrances” at accessible luxury prices. Its line-up of eau de parfum sprays – with names such as Chaos Paulista, Not Vanilla and Original Leather – is presented in recyclable glass and plastics, with the company explicitly flagging “embalagens recicláveis” as part of its value proposition. The brand’s manifesto speaks of luxury as “the essential, not the inaccessible” and of helping customers “leave a trail of presence” – language that dovetails neatly with the global appetite for niche-but-not-snobbish scents that transcend gender labels.

Taken together, these houses – plus long-established players like Natura and O Boticário – are starting to look suspiciously like a nascent “Brazilian school” of perfumery. Industry observers already talk of a distinct Brazilian identity in personal care, built around sensorial exuberance and local botanicals. Just as Middle Eastern perfumery is associated with oud and incense, and French with iris and abstract florals, Brazil is quietly staking its claim with resins, roots and beans that come with GPS co-ordinates somewhere along the Amazon.

A new base note

For global prestige perfumery, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The big conglomerates are already buying or partnering with the likes of Le Labo and Natura to import credibility in “slow” perfumery and sustainability. But as Gen Z’s idea of masculinity becomes more fluid – and its patience for greenwashing more limited – the industry may find that the future of men’s fragrance smells less like blue laundry musk and more like a forest at dusk.

If so, the next blockbuster “signature scent for him” may well be built on Brazilian cumaru, coloured by priprioca and sweetened with the knowledge that somebody’s reforestation fund is better off for it. For a young man choosing between yet another anonymous “sport” flanker and a bottle that smells good, looks good on the shelf and tells a climate-friendly story, the decision may be simpler than marketers think.

And if he cannot pronounce priprioca on the first try, that is just another reason to keep leaning in – to the counter, to the tester strip and, eventually, to whoever asks why he suddenly smells so interesting.

Brazilian Fragrances

Amyi 4.20
Green fougère with tomato leaf, citrus, geranium, oakmoss and vetiver.
https://amyi.co/products/amyi-4-20

Natura Ekos Alma Eau de Parfum
Woody-spicy composition built around cumaru (tonka bean), copaíba, breu branco and priprioca.
https://www.natura.com.br/p/eau-de-parfum-ekos-alma-50-ml

Natura 740 Sândalo Breu Branco
Classic sandalwood paired with Amazonian breu branco resin.
Eau de Parfum Natura 740 Sândalo Breu Branco 50 ml

Natura 875 Vetiver Capitiú
Vetiver blended with capitiú, an Amazonian shrub with fresh, spicy facets.
https://www.natura.com.br/p/eau-de-parfum-natura-875-vetiver-capitiu-50-ml

Becquer Fragrances Lab
Brazilian fine fragrances positioned as accessible luxury, with recyclable packaging.
https://becquer.com.br