D2C

Yusuf Bhai and his ilk will make you smell like a millionaire. But will it last?

Parvathi Benu

Pranav Balakrishnan

Nikhil Patwardhan

December 15, 2025 | 17 Min Read

In India’s fast-growing perfume trade, street chemists, social-media stars and ambitious entrepreneurs are bottling aspiration for a fraction of the price, challenging global luxury houses and redefining what it means to smell successful.

Coco Chanel, the French fashion designer who revolutionised women’s clothing in the 1920s, once called perfume “the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory”. She was talking about original bottles that sold for serious money. She probably never imagined that one day, in the narrow lanes of Mumbai and the Instagram feeds of millions, her No. 5, which she launched in 1921 as one of the first perfumes to use aldehydes, would be reborn at one-tenth the price, sold by men who probably learned chemistry on YouTube.

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