Erin Lutz dreams about perfume – both literally and figuratively. Not only is it her personal passion, the thing that sparks joy within her; it’s become her profession and expertise, too.
With her professionalism, discipline, and clear enthusiasm for fragrance, Lutz is one of PerfumeTok’s most trusted voices. Her content merges careful education with lush olfactive description, resulting in colorful storytelling that is at once informative and entertaining.
Born in Palm Harbor, Florida, Lutz moved with her family to Atlanta, Georgia at 10 years old. She has clear scent memories dating back to childhood, when her dad would buy her mom the “5 for $35” body mists from Victoria’s Secret for Christmas. The scent that stands out in her mind is Pear Glacé, a comforting, sweet, and juicy burst of fruit.
In elementary school, Lutz began her fragrance journey with a selection of body care. In high school, she acquired her first eaux de parfum and toilette. Her two favorites were Vera Wang Princess and Paris Hilton for Women.
“Thinking back, I think my taste has just evolved,” she says, drawing connections between her current taste and her very first fragrances. “My favorite profile is a sensual, carnal, spicy floral – something that has depth and a very addictive quality, and that has a large dose of spice in it.”
It wasn’t until college that Lutz discovered the world of niche fragrance. With her considerable collection of designer-brand perfumes, she was known among her peers to always smell fantastic. Having studied abroad in Germany through Kennesaw State University, she found the period after her return to be a difficult adjustment, and turned to fragrance as a distraction and solace. She quickly stumbled on Demi Rawling, a popular digital creator in the luxury and niche fragrance space.
As Lutz’s interest in fragrance began to blossom, so did her career, and she began her first corporate job in human resources. Work became a kind of opportunity for experimentation – Lutz would wear whatever fragrance she was sampling, and often receive endless compliments on the sillage that followed her around the room. Baccarat Rouge by Maison Francis Kurkdjian and Delina by Parfums de Marly – two recommendations from Rawling – joined Lutz’s collection then, and have found permanent homes on her extensive shelves.
Lutz’s path to TikTok creator began slowly. “When TikTok first came out, I was very anti social media at the time. I like to read a lot, to spend time with family. I didn’t want to put myself on social media. One day, I decided to download the app. I started to see a lot of people filming ‘day in the life’ vlogs. That’s actually what I first started creating.”
With no intention of becoming a content creator beyond sporadic posts whenever inspiration struck, Lutz began incorporating fragrance into her vlogs. Her viewers began asking her questions about her scent of the day and personalized recommendations.
“I started to talk about layering – I like a large scent bubble,” says Lutz. “It kind of just snowballed, and I started building my collection. Fifteen turned into 50 which turned into 100. I now have an entire room.”
Growing up as a dancer, Lutz bounced around different friend groups, never quite finding her place. “I’ve always been that person that never fit into a group. PerfumeTok has become that for me. I felt like I had a voice in the community.”
In 2022, Lutz saw the possibilities regarding her social media accounts widen. Brands began to send her products to review, and she started getting paid for her work. She realized that people valued her opinion on scent.
“That’s all I wanted to talk about,” says Lutz. She would constantly ideate content inside her head, plan videos to film when she got home. That’s when she realized that it didn’t make sense to keep working at her corporate job.
“What it came down to was, I was so busy and I was getting a lot of deals and it was consuming me. As my fragrance light was shining, my corporate spirit was dying. I was constantly getting signs pushing me toward the fragrance world. That’s where I was supposed to be.”
It was not an easy decision. Lutz contemplated for months, unsure what the future held – but ultimately decided a leap of faith was necessary. Earlier this year, Lutz made the career switch from full-time corporate professional to full-time content creator, and her success is palpable. With just under 40,000 Tiktok followers (and 1.1 million likes) at the time of publication for this article, she is on an unstoppable upward trajectory.
Content creation has led Lutz toward opportunities of which she’d previously never dreamed. The day I interviewed her, she had just returned from the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes, France, a trade show that brings together brands, retailers, and professionals in the fragrance industry to network, build business, and smell new perfumes. Lutz shares her astute observations post-event: “Gourmands are taking a different twist – they’re becoming more elevated,” she says. Tonka bean and vanilla caviar are two notes she’s seen increase dramatically in popularity in recent months.
As a college-educated business professional, Lutz brings a shrewdness to her own content strategy and an insightful eye into the industry’s future. “It’s been exponential growth for the past year or two.” Although social platforms are oversaturated with creators like herself, Lutz doesn’t view any of them as competition, as she says there’s room for everyone. “I’ve trained for it, I’ve traveled the world for it. I’m making sure that brands trust me and my opinion and the way I present myself.”
One of Lutz’s differentiators is that she’s found a niche within the fragrance community: niche (perfume, that is). Niche retailers are specialized or independent houses that use rarer, often higher quality ingredients, releasing scents that are exclusive and unique rather than mass-appealing.
“When I smell a niche fragrance, I can connect to it emotionally in a way I cannot connect to a designer fragrance. Niche fragrances speak to me because they transport you to an experience the founder was going through at the time of creation, or their culture, or history.”
In terms of Lutz’s own taste, she prefers what she calls “a carnal floral fragrance.”
“I love a very deep, sweet floral and a woody base, something that has a very addictive quality but is also very feminine at the same time.” Her favorite scent of all time? Tubéreuse Astrale by Maison Crivelli, a cinnamon-tuberose-vanilla masterpiece by renowned perfumer Quentin Bisch. “He does a narcotic floral so well. Everything he does is exactly what I like,” says Lutz.
What’s next for Erin Lutz? She dreams of creating her own fragrance, partnering with a brand to release something truly special. She wants to grow as a creator, focusing on longform content for YouTube. “I want brands to know who I am and to trust me and my recommendations. I want to be one of the big names in the YouTube influencing space.”
For Lutz, fragrance is not just a day job; it’s her lifelong calling, the thing that excites her most and inspires every piece of content she creates.
“It can really add that extra element of luxury to your everyday routine. A spritz of something nice leaves a lasting impression on the people you’re around, adding more happiness and joy into the world – which we could all use.”
Erin’s SOTD at time of interview: Velvet Vanilla by Mancera Parfums
