Smell Like Pumpkin Spice With Starbucks' Latte Perfume

PSL is more than a season, it's a lifestyle—right?

Pumpkin spice drinks can be found at Starbucks well before the official start of autumn. So … it’s much more than a season, it’s a cultural sensation. That’s the message of a fresh campaign.

Starbucks Romania took things to another level this year by gifting Starbucks Rewards members with a perfume inspired by the scent of a pumpkin spice latte.

Agency Tuio teamed up with LUZI Switzerland Master Perfumer, Anton Jimmy Studer to create Eau de PSL. Pre-launch, lifestyle, fashion and beauty influencers scored a first sniff of the fragrance, along with an appearance from Romanian singer, Nicole Cherry.

“We followed the playbook of a real fragrance launch. Leading up, Starbucks and singer Nicole Cherry teased PSL as the ultimate fall accessory, without revealing the scent outright,” Tuio CD Ludwig Petre tells Muse. “That narrative—’Accessorize With Pumpkin Spice’—evolved into the reveal of a truly wearable accessory. Word-of-mouth took off. Some fans even guessed a fragrance was coming when we asked online.”

The unisex fragrance contains top notes of coffee, tea leaves and condensed milk; heart notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and cotton candy; and base notes of vanilla, tonka bean and musk.

More than 10,000 mini bottles were created and many locations ran out of their perfumes in less than a week. 

“Out of the ~10 perfume houses we approached, LUZI showed genuine excitement and incredible speed in ideation and production,” says Petre. “They immediately saw the potential of the project, and that energy made them the right partner. Demand has been extremely strong. We’re actively considering an extension with another production run and exploring other ways to continue the story.”