We turned WGSN's Top Trend into a fragrance

WGSN is the global leader in trend forecasting across fashion, beauty, food, and beyond.  With over 90% accuracy, the company helps brands capitalize on consumer behaviors and lifestyles to identify white-space opportunities for innovation. 

This year, WGSN experts have been tracking the emerging "sea of sameness" – a cultural flattening caused by rapid optimization and algorithmic aesthetics. It raises a larger question: if everything can be optimized, what still feels human?

For brands, that tension creates a new challenge: how do you build emotional resonance in a world of infinite sameness?

The answer may lie in our senses.

Scent is the moat

By tapping into trust, sensory intelligence, and emotional connection, WGSN views this tension as an opportunity to establish or deepen brand resonance.

In a world where intelligence is ubiquitous and choice is increasingly delegated to machines, differentiation will shift to how experiences regulate attention, respect emotional agency and feel genuinely human.   —WGSN, Creative Intelligence team

As visual culture becomes increasingly optimized, sensory experiences offer brands a way to create memory, intimacy, and emotional distinction. That's where Osmo comes in; our scent creation platform, powered by Olfactory Intelligence, helps brands design multisensory experiences to connect with their audiences on a deeper emotional level.

The macro trend of 2026

WGSN’s Top Trend for 2026 is “Unserious Everything” – a response to a culture overwhelmed by stress, uncertainty, and overstimulation. Building on the rise of “Glimmers,” the trend embraces humor, play, nostalgia, and irreverence as tools for emotional release and self-expression.

We’re already seeing it everywhere: toy-inspired accessories, hyper-playful fashion, whimsical beauty, and maximalist design. But until now, this cultural shift hadn’t been translated into scent.

Scent made for the moment

In a special collaboration for spring 2026, WGSN partnered with Osmo to explore how fragrance innovation and trend expertise could intersect. The goal: turn Unserious Everything into a unique scent.

Using Olfactory Intelligence, Osmo translated WGSN’s cultural signals and visual inspiration into a fragrance designed to evoke the emotional world of Unserious Everything. The result was immersive, surreal, and instantly nostalgic.

The scent of Unserious Everything

The scent of a pink-blue cloud drifting past warm skin — fluff, musk, and melted sugar, alongside something deeper and stickier. Cotton candy dissolves into mashed berry, maple syrup, and a resinous base like the waxy surface of a vintage toy. You’re stepping into a pastel dreamscape: sweet, gloopy, and oddly familiar, like sunscreen worn overnight after a day at the beach.

Key notes include cotton candy, berry, maple syrup, sweet balsamic accords, tropical musk, earthy wax, and sun-warmed skin.

Scentsorial Futures: an Osmo Scent Salon

To bring this concept into the real world, Osmo and WGSN hosted a special Scent Salon at Paul’s Cocktail Lounge in NYC – an evening designed to explore how future trends can become immersive, sensorial experiences.

Guests smelled the Unserious Everything fragrance, and sipped on "Osmopolitan" cocktails. The highlight of the evening was a fireside chat featuring Osmo's Founder & CEO, Alex Wiltschko, and WGSN's Director of Creative Intelligence, Quentin Humphrey.

Connection through fragrance innovation

Designed to embody feelings of joy and humour, this collaboration is a novel way to transform WGSN trends into sensorial experiences. As brands search for deeper emotional connection, scent is emerging as a new language for culture itself.

About us

Your brand has a distinct voice. A distinct visual identity. What about a distinct scent?

Osmo transforms the science of scent into a platform for creativity. Powered by our proprietary Olfactory Intelligence — the combination of AI, neuroscience, and master perfumery — we’ve taught computers how to read, map, and create with scent.

This breakthrough powers Osmo Studio: the scent creation platform that enables brands to translate a memory, emotion, experience, or identity into a custom fragrance. Whether inspired by text, imagery, or an entire brand world, Osmo Studio transforms creative vision into scent.

Built on innovative technology and trained by legendary perfumers, Osmo puts the future of fragrance design in your hands.

Discover Osmo Studio