Glossier you, me, and everyone we know
Do you smell like you if everyone else smells like you too?
When Glossier launched its debut fragrance Glossier You in 2017, the makeup pioneer offered a perfect distillation of a perennial perfume quest: a scent that is simultaneously wholly unique to you and universally appealing. The platonic ideal of the signature scent. You are the final ingredient in the perfume, Glossier promised — even the bottle design, with its thumbprint indent, implied it was waiting for you to pick it up. Glossier described You as a “a skin-scent enhancer—meaning it smells a little different on everyone.” A ready-made signature scent without all the work of searching for a perfume that is precisely you.
I don’t find that “it smells different on everyone” promise to be true of Glossier You any more than any other fragrance, but it makes for a good story. Such a good story apparently that affordable perfume brand Snif has all but ripped it off in the launch of its January 2025 launch, Me. “This shape-shifting scent reflects your skin’s unique chemistry,” reads the Snif Me product copy. “It’s not you, it’s Me.” Considering Glossier allegedly sells one bottle of You every 20 seconds, there’s plenty of You to go around.
Scent-wise, Fragrantica commenters compare Snif Me to Glossier You Rêve, the plummy gourmand flanker that Glossier released last year, more than the original (why dupe an eight-year-old fragrance that’s already inspired numerous copies when you can dupe one fresh off the market?). But the scent isn’t necessarily what’s being replicated with Me, rather the desire behind it.
Dupe culture is nothing new to perfumery. And the dupe model is only growing as more prevalent in beauty, as consumers openly seek out succesful dupes and brands are happy to quickly churn out product. But Snif Me dupes not so much a scent as an ethos: individuality in a bottle. The thing that is duplicated and sold at mass is you, or at least who you aspire to be.
And the promise of Me goes beyond smelling like yourself. With Snif Me, Snif promises, you’re not only you but “the best version of you.” It calls to mind the fictional ad copy for the shape-shifting substance in The Substance: “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You. Only better in every way.” A version of yourself optimized for mass appeal.
Glossier You is a mass success in part because there is comfort in being told something is for you, rather than taking the risk of choosing it on your own — even if it also happens to be for millions of other people. It’s the same desire that fuels much of your basic astrology; this advice was tailored to me and my exact life, and also 1/12th of the entire population. And like a good perfume, if a horoscope speaks to you then it speaks to you. You take from it what you will.
Glossier You hit on both the allure of individuality and mass popularity so well that Glossier has turned it into a pillar of the brand with flankers and body creams and candles. But for as much as fragrances rely on storytelling, a hit perfume can’t just be all marketing — it has to actually smell good enough to inspire repeat buyers. There’s a reason for Glossier You’s sustained popularity nearly a decade on: its soft musky iris smells familiar and comforting, but is abstract enough to steer clear of any one reference. Created by Firmenich perfumers Frank Voelkl and Dora Baghriche, it’s not quite as bombastic as Voelkl’s other blockbuster scent, Le Labo Santal 33, but it’s a compliment getter all the same. Devoted fans have struggled to find anything that fits them quite like You; who cares if everyone else smells like you as long as you smell good.
In Snif Me, an already mass-produced individuality is duplicated at large, like copy of a copy Xeroxed into a pixelated blur. Whether or not Snif Me can also dupe Glossier You’s commercial success remains to be seen. Like the veracity of a horoscope, only time will tell.