Clean has taken on a new meaning during the pandemic. “Clean enough,” just isn’t good enough, anymore. As a result, consumers are spending more time cleaning their homes and enjoying the fragrance experience that comes with it.

“Fragrances really give consumers a feel-good moment,” observed Donna LaNeve Fortino, marketing manager, Robertet. “Covid has played havoc with people’s mental states. Consumers are looking for mood enhancement at home, so fragrance will continue to play an important role in the household cleaning environment.”

Analysts predict the cleaning trend will continue as the pandemic enters its third year. According to IRI, sales of household cleaners rose 4.6% to more than $4.6 billion in food, drug, mass market, military and select club and dollar retailers for 52 weeks ended Sept. 15, 2021. As one would expect in a pandemic, spray disinfectant sales led the way with a gain of nearly 39% to almost $745 million.

Meanwhile, all-purpose cleaner sales did a bit better than the overall household cleaning segment, with sales up 4.8%. In the all-purpose cleaner category, sales of Procter & Gamble’s Microban jumped nearly 90% for the period. But OdoBan posted the biggest surge, with sales soaring more than 190%. Apparently, after spending almost two years at home, consumers want to eliminate musty, unpleasant odors.

Bryan Zlotnick, chief operating officer, Alpha Aromatics, agreed.

“The household disinfectant and cleaner market is still growing,” he said. “People are spending more time at home; they want it to smell pleasant and clean.”

At the same time, Alpha Aromatics’ customers seek something that smells different. In the disinfectant category, there are requests for citrus and lavender, and mint mixed with citrus.

“It has to smell natural and evoke a feeling of clean,” he said.

Julie Movsessian, director of marketing, Sozio Inc., pointed out that household products must smell clean and fresh to strengthen the efficacy and to emphasize the cleanliness of the space. Therefore, citrus and fresh scents are still top sellers.
 
“The bases used in household products can have different pH levels and active ingredients. They can even carry a strong malodor,” she noted. “The fragrance needs to be specifically designed to be used in such products. It is a real challenge for the perfumers to encompass strength and price, as most of these products are sold on the mass market.
 
According to Movsessian, for the past several years, the fragrance landscape has shifted to offer more experiential and sophisticated scents revealing a more pleasing aspect of these products instead of having them for functional purpose only.

“We’ve seen some floral, fruity and even sweeter scents added to new product launches,” she explained.

But not everyone agrees that assessment. According to Zlotnick, both linen and floral notes connote the idea that odors are covered up, rather than eliminated.

Cindy Yu, fragrance marketing manager, Orchidia Fragrances, explained that today, household brands have the added task of creating a safe, relaxing atmosphere for the home.

“With wellness and mental health at the forefront, we continue to see mood-boosting citrus notes such as, grapefruit, bergamot, and yuzu popular for home cleaning products especially in dishwashing liquids and surface cleaners,” she told Happi.

Yu said incorporating natural essential oils such as, lavender, sage and eucalyptus also align with consumer desire for products that aid in relaxation and stress relief, all while elevating the home cleaning experience.

Movsessian noted that as wellness is taking over every industry, the household market is no exception. As a result, JE Sozio sees fragrance with benefits being the new purchasing driver for consumers at it helps them complement their wellness routine with relaxing, energizing or comforting scents made with powerful essential oils. Another trend, in this more inclusive era, consumers are looking for brands and products addressing their needs and way of living.

“The booming trend of genderless scents is expending into the household market where we see more fragrances with a woody and aromatic twists taken from the masculine fragrance profile,” said Movsessian.

According to LaNeve Fortino, traditional citrus scents are more complex with the addition of herbal notes such as eucalyptus, sage and verbena. In a nod to consumers seeking escapism, coconut notes found their way into household cleaners such as Clorox Scentiva wipes, sprays and liquid cleaners. Similarly, Reckitt rolled out Lysol Disinfectant Spray in a Coconut Water & Sea Minerals variant.

“They provide an indulgent, emotion-lifting clean,” she explained.

For those more interest in Western, rather than Pacific climes, Way Out West, a new fragrance option from The Laundress, can now be found at the Container Store. The scent was created with Grammy award-winning artist and self-proclaimed laundry aficionado John Mayer. The concentrated detergent’s scent features accords of amyris, black pepper and neroli surrounded by warm, woody notes of cedar, sandalwood and musk. The Container Store stocks laundry detergent (housed a 100% PCR bottle) and the fabric spray, a refresher product with the same scent.

Perhaps more than any other laundry brand, Gain is built on a fragrance experience—a move that’s paid huge dividends for Procter & Gamble, the No. 1 player in the US laundry care market (see story here). For the 52 weeks ended Oct. 31, 2021, Gain Plus Aroma Boost liquid laundry detergent sales soared nearly 55%. That’s an incredible jump in a category segment that rose just 0.3% in the past year, according to IRI.

That surge helped make Gain Plus Aroma Boost the No. 2 liquid laundry detergent variant in the US, behind P&G’s Tide. Clothes washed in Gain Plus Aroma Boost keep their scent for up to seven weeks, according to observers.

Clearly, “Gainiacs” are obsessed with the original scent, but over the years, Procter & Gamble has upped the scentsation with Moonlight Breeze and Lavender & Calm Chamomile variants. Within the fabric softener category, Ganiacs can try Fiercely Fresh, Botanicals Orange Blossom Vanilla, White Tea Lavender Midnight Bloom or Spring Daydream variants.

CleanWell not only uses thymol as the active ingredient in its cleaning formulas, it is the basis of the entire company.

“We wanted to create cleaning products that use plant-derived ingredients, and that’s just what thymol is,” noted Ramona Roof, director of marketing, CleanWell.

She explained that thymol is an antibacterial agent derived from various botanical essential oils, so it has a distinct, herbal smell. CleanWell formulates with other citrus essential oils to complement that herbal scent rather than cover it.

“Some cleaning products, especially very traditional brands, have a synthetic or unpleasant odor, or give off caustic fumes because they’re made with bleach, ammonia or other noxious chemicals,” Roof insisted. “Using Thymol as our active ingredient allows us to kill 99.9% of the germs, microbes and viruses but with a product that smells like a fresh herb garden!”


A Milestone for CPL Aromas

Fifty years ago, CPL Aromas was started by two brothers, Terry and Michael Pickthall. Today, Terry’s sons, Chris and Nick, serve as CEO and COO, respectively, of the privately-held fragrance house.

“There is a place in the industry for an independent, fragrance-only company serving the mid-market,” explained Nick Pickthall.

The company boasts 35 perfumers, 18 offices and five factories around the world, with more investment underway. Pickthall explained that CPL Aromas continues to invest in its people, facilities and technology which includes several novel concepts. AromaFusion, for example, uses unique, undistinguishable ingredients which cannot be precisely replicated. AromaSpace relies on gas chromatography/mass spec technology to produce a chemical composition which is compounded or adjusted to recreate the odor of the plant or other source. CPL Aromas perfumers use the raw data to create a fragrance which can be used as a base from which to expand or as a scent to inspire other creations. And Aromacore is a fragrance release technology for the fabric care sector. All of the technology is patented and IP protected.

CPL Aromas celebrates its golden anniversary this year, but Pickthall is most excited about the company’s unique EcoBoost fragrance concentration technology. According to CPL Aromas, EcoBoost uses just 10% of the normal fragrance dosage with no compromise in strength or quality. Using this technology, clients across the fine fragrance, personal care and household fragrance markets can create enticing fragrances while drastically reducing their packaging, transport, energy and disposal costs, according to CPL Aromas.

“EcoBoost lowers the impact of fragrance on the environment,” said Pickthall. “It is the most sustainable ‘green’ fragrance.”

EcoBoost fragrances often have fewer raw materials and shorter formulas. That results in less processing, fewer unnecessary ingredients, less sourcing requirements of materials and less labelling.

According to Movsessian, the continuing conversation on sustainability will open new opportunity for innovative products that are “better for the environment” from packaging to ingredients.

“Fragrances are not excluded from this conversation, Sozio has already taken this path to help companies do better for a brighter future for our planet through clean fragrance seal and biodegradable scents,” she said. “Natural options will remain important as consumers keep caring about what’s in the products they are buying and using. We see this market growing becoming more specific with certified fragrances (by) Cosmos, Ecocert and ISO. Last but not least, as we’re still recovering from the Covid pandemic, it’s now time to adjust and find ways to live safe and healthy in this new world. Cleaning and disinfecting are part of everyone’s routine and EPA products will keep driving purchasing. Sozio is already a leader in offering EPA registered fragrances and intends to pursue this advantage by offering more olfactive options.”


Reading Labels

CleanWell’s Roof rightly notes that scent is such a personal thing and everyone has their own preferences when it comes to how they want their home to smell.

“Overall, consumers’ palettes have grown more sophisticated,” she said. “You’re seeing trendier or niche fragrances like bergamot, cardamom, jasmine, winter forest–you get the idea. Refined fragrances aren’t limited to high-end candles or lotions anymore. You can get them from your cleaning products as well.”

As thymol is CleanWell’s hero ingredient, the company is focused on only using scents that will complement it.

“Citrus scents work really well for us in that they pair with the thymol scent to give a nice finish but one that doesn’t linger,” she explained.

According to Roof, many brands use scent as the focal point of their products.

“Interestingly, though, as frequently as I see these newer scents included in household cleaning products, I equally see products that are fragrance-free or unscented,” she told Happi. “Sometimes consumers don’t necessarily want more smells competing with what they already have in their home, so they may opt for products with subtle or no scent.”

Roof pointed out that unscented products may have more, rather than fewer, ingredients. This may seem counter intuitive, but the base formula for all cleaning products has some scent.

“To make a product that is unscented, meaning free of a smell, the manufacturer will likely have to add scent neutralizers. A product that is fragrance-free or has no added fragrance may have a smell. This could be an important distinction for a shopper looking to reduce nonessential ingredients from their daily product interactions.”

At the same time, she said one of the biggest changes CleanWell has seen as a result of the pandemic is that consumers are more interested in exactly what ingredients are being used to make the products that they bring into their homes.

According to Roof, since March 2020, there has been this intense focus on keeping the home clean. In turn, consumers are reading product labels more closely.

“It’s what keeps your family safe; you safe,” she said. “But as consumers started using cleaning products more and more–instead of the weekly cleaning schedule–they noticed skin, eye, and respiratory irritation.”

Roof said these irritations are likely, in part, to the scents and residues of their cleaning product or a mix of them.

“Consumers are now more diligent and making more deliberate decisions about what types of products, ingredients, and scents they’re willing to bring into their homes,” she said.


Making Cleaning Fun

As a result of the pandemic, more consumers understand the difference between cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting. It is all serious business, but fragrance can put an element of fun into the entire process.

At the recent Good Housekeeping/American Cleaning Institute “Cleaning Is Caring Summit,” Gary Dechert, R&D senior director, North America, fabric care, Procter & Gamble, noted doing laundry can seem like an overwhelming task. There’s the gathering of clothes from every room in the house, carrying clothes to the first floor or basement and sorting them. According to Procter & Gamble’s research, the least enjoyable part of doing laundry is the folding of clothes and putting them away.

The good news? “The laundry process itself is fairly delightful,” insisted Dechert. “You have great smelling detergent, maybe scent beads, maybe a dryer sheet. The process itself is kind of fun in some ways.”

And much of that fun can be attributed to product scent. According to Dechert, 60-65% of household chores fall on one person. Over the course of a year, more than 100 hours of incremental work falls on that one person in the home. But evidence suggests that when parents get their kids involved in the cleaning process, it pays more important benefits than just a cleaner home. Parents self-report that their kids’ well-being improves directly as a result of being involved in the cleaning process.

Procter & Gamble has tracked a lot of consumer behavior during the pandemic and found that there was more opportunity in the home for other members to step up and take some of the burden of household chores off of the primary cleaner.

“At the start of the pandemic, we saw that there was a lot more laundry being done in the home,” he recalled.

Dechert attributed that increase to consumers seeking reassurance that things were clean. Then, as more people were working from home, they had time to throw an extra load of laundry into the washing machine.

“Going forward, research would say that after a period of stress, people seek relaxing behaviors,” he noted. “After work, that might mean a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate.”

But in the case of cleaning, that could mean a more sensorial product. For example, using a fabric enhancer because the consumers want to enjoy the smell of their clothes differently. Or maybe it’s a decision to use a more sensorial product when cleaning the floor. Post-pandemic, consumers may realize that they like always having clean clothes on hand because they did laundry more often during Covid.

“They’ll realize they don’t have to wait for the weekend to have clean clothes,” Dechert reasoned. “As a result, some of the habits experimented with, will stick post-pandemic.”

In fact, P&G asked survey respondents to change up their laundry routines. Rather than leaving all those loads for the weekend, consumers did laundry every day.

“We found that the vast majority of people stuck with the daily task. They valued the routine, as opposed to being stuck in front of the machine all day on Saturday,” said Dechert. “They got a little bit done during the week and now their weekends were free. Families went to the park together. They had more family time.”

According to Dechert, the lesson, for caregivers and families alike, is that if you take time every day for household tasks, it leaves you more time for your family.

The chore gap exists. According to ACI’s recent survey, 82% of women report feeling they are responsible for the majority of household cleaning. In comparison, 54% of men report owning the responsibility.

P&G executives are mindful of this gap and trying to close it, by thinking about who is being featured in advertising copy. More ads feature men and families taking part in the cleaning process, versus the traditional “mom-only” approach.

“We have the responsibility to move the conversation forward,” he explained. “In many markets globally, that’s been a huge cause campaign for us.”

For example, the Ariel brand in India is making it a focus to talk about sharing the chores and sharing the load. That has a profound impact on the outcomes of everyone in the family.

“Whether it is the scents we are picking, the talent we are showing in copy, designing the packages and products to be more accessible to more people,” said Dechert.

Accessibility could mean lighter packages or making dosing lines easier to read.


What Works & Why

As consumer preferences gravitate more toward fresh, natural aromas, heavy sweet florals are moving out of the spotlight, according to Yu.

“Instead, fresh herbal aromas and bright citrus blends shine through recent product launches,” she said.

But whatever they’re buying, many suppliers agreed that supply chain issues remain a problem. Yu noted that many industries have been affected by supply chain issues and it has made manufacturing as well as on-time deliveries all the more challenging. Supply chain issues coupled with raw material shortages, and rising inflation costs have created unprecedented challenges for sourcing. Costs are being driven up from all aspects including raw materials, packaging, and freight.

Zlotnick insisted, however, that finding workers is his biggest challenge.

“The market is there, the orders are there, but finding employees has been the toughest issue for more than a year,” he explained.

With supply chain issues, suppliers can plan accordingly by over-ordering. But finding workers and training them takes time.

“These are skilled positions to make and compound fragrances,” said Zlotnick. “There is a learning curve involved, and it’s been tough to get people in the door.”

New employee wages are on the rise, but they’re not keeping up with inflation. Ingredient prices are rising anywhere from 8% to 15%, according to Zlotnick.

“But everyone understands what’s going on. If you’re honest with people and not trying to gouge them, they understand.”

Customers have also come to understand and expect that orders may be held up for a week or two and make plans accordingly.


Expansion Plans

CPL Aromas may be turning 50, but it’s not showing any signs of slowing down—let alone standing still. The company is building a factory—its sixth—in Malaysia.

“It will be our biggest and most automated factory in the world,” boasted Pickthall. “We operate in Malaysia already with a sales office. The country is a good hub to China, South Korea and Singapore and has an excellent workforce.”

In another example of not showing its age, CPL Aromas has two more factory announcements in the weeks to come.

Orchidia Fragrances opened a state-of-the-art facility in Europe, which enables the company to support and serve the needs of its customers on a global basis.

During the early days of the pandemic, Alpha Aromatics added a clean room. Most recently, in November, the company added a 25,000 square foot warehouse to store extra materials.

Going forward, LaNeve Fortino expects all cleaners, multisurface cleaners especially, to continue making gains, both in liquid and wipe formats.

“Realistically, I think the market will continue to grow in 2022. I see no slowdown in orders,” said Zlotnick. “Fragrance is very resilient.”

He is confident the market will continue to expand, noting that in the early days of the pandemic, hand sanitizer sales helped overcome a slowdown in core business sales. But now, the entire business is growing again.

Pickthall is bullish about the future of fragrance as well. He acknowledged that global logistics are terrible at the moment, but the market keeps moving ahead.

“I was a bit surprised at how quickly fragrance came back,” he told Happi. “Home care, candles and cleaning products kept the market moving forward during the pandemic. More recently, fine fragrance came back.”

At the same time, Pickthall acknowledged how well existing customers pivoted to online during the pandemic, as well as how many digital startups were born during the pandemic.

“Household cleaning products have remained a key part of the consumers’ strategy to staying safe and healthy,” Yu concluded. “As hygiene and safety remains a consumer focus, there will be increased focus for air care and surface cleaners.”

And that means an even bigger focus on household fragrances.