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Almas Anfar Kathuria Gives Gen Z The 411 On Choosing Scents

Almas Anfar Kathuria is pushing fragrance toward personality, dessert-inspired scents, accessible luxury, collectability, and a perfume wardrobe made for every vibe.

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By DUBAI4 min read
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Almas Anfar Kathuria puts personality, sweet scents, collectability, and accessible luxury at the heart of perfume.

Almas Anfar Kathuria is a Dubai-based entrepreneur, third-generation perfumer, couture designer, philanthropist, and owner of the Northern Warriors cricket franchise. Born in Mumbai, she represents the third generation of a fragrance family whose business began in 1950 under her grandfather, Haji Anfar Ali, before her father, Shahid Anfar Ali, expanded the company throughout the GCC from 1988.

She now leads the relaunch of Al Anfar Perfumes and directs ventures spanning fragrance, couture, beauty, pageantry, hospitality, philanthropy, and professional sport. Dubai readers have a clear reason to care because perfume already holds a major place in UAE beauty, gifting, personal style, and everyday luxury. Her latest fragrance direction targets a younger buyer who wants personality, variety, collectability, visual appeal, and several scents for different outfits, occasions, and moods.

Almas Anfar Kathuria Wants Perfume To Have Main Character Energy

Kathuria’s newest fragrance thinking goes big on personality. She has spoken about younger perfume lovers appreciating originality, humor, personality, and visual storytelling, and her current development work follows that lane from scent concept to packaging, branding, color, and presentation. Perfume becomes something playful rather than one serious bottle saved for rare occasions. The idea is closer to choosing accessories according to the day, outfit, or social setting. Kathuria has also said she wants people collecting several bottles, debating favorites, sharing unboxings, and treating fragrance as something worth talking about.

That changes the buying question. Instead of searching for one permanent signature, shoppers can ask what personality they want a scent to project. A fresh choice can suit daytime plans. A richer profile can suit dinner. A sweeter bottle can fit another mood entirely. Kathuria has directly connected different outfits and occasions to different fragrances, giving the perfume wardrobe idea a clear place in her strategy. For buyers who already rotate fashion, beauty looks, playlists, and accessories according to vibe, fragrance fits naturally into the same behavior.

Dessert Notes Are Getting Superstar Treatment

Then come the names that instantly hijack attention: chocolate oud, strawberry, caramel, chocolate, and espresso. Kathuria has said she personally developed those concepts because fragrance should surprise people before they even spray it. Her point is simple. Sweet perfume can be colorful, memorable, unexpected, and addictive, and she wants dessert-inspired profiles treated like headline acts.

Chocolate oud is especially striking because it pairs a material deeply associated with Middle Eastern perfumery with a gourmand cue familiar to contemporary beauty culture. Espresso pushes fragrance toward café territory. Strawberry and caramel lean into sweetness and instant recognition. The appeal sits in the contrast. These are names people understand immediately, yet the finished compositions still leave room for curiosity once they reach skin.

The One Bottle Rule Is Losing Its Grip

Kathuria’s comments also push against the idea that a buyer needs one signature fragrance every day. She has argued that someone should be able to own strawberry, caramel, espresso, and chocolate oud instead of choosing only one. Her reasoning links fragrance directly to changing outfits and occasions. That collector mindset explains why smaller formats, playful concepts, and approachable pricing matter.

A seven-day mini fragrance concept has also been explored around this broader direction, pairing different bottles with different days and moods. Miniatures can lower the commitment required to experiment and invite testing, switching, gifting, displaying, and collecting. The result is a fragrance habit driven by rotation, which can make perfume shopping feel closer to curating a wardrobe than committing to one identity.

Scent Culture Meets A New Kind Of Flex

Dubai gives this strategy serious cultural relevance. Fragrance is deeply woven into life in the UAE, from oud and bakhoor traditions to contemporary luxury perfumery, gifting, hospitality, malls, boutiques, beauty routines, and personal presentation. Al Anfar operates from Dubai and organizes its current fragrance world around oud, amber, floral, musk, and modern gourmand profiles. Kathuria’s direction therefore sits between regional scent heritage and playful contemporary collecting culture.

That mix suits Dubai especially well. The city thrives on highly visual retail, luxury experiences, personal styling, international influences, and beauty products that double as lifestyle statements. A perfume bottle can sit on a vanity, travel in a handbag, become part of a gifting ritual, match an evening look, or join a growing scent shelf. In that environment, fragrance can function as personal expression with zero need for a long explanation.

Almas Anfar Kathuria Is Betting On Accessible Luxury

Price is another major part of Kathuria’s thinking. She has said younger customers deserve beautiful fragrances without emptying their wallets and has linked affordability directly to owning several scents. That matters because the collector model becomes harder when every bottle demands a major financial commitment. Accessible luxury supports experimentation and lets shoppers move between strawberry, espresso, caramel, and oud-led choices according to the day.

The bigger takeaway is a perfume philosophy centered on choice. Kathuria’s current direction treats fragrance as flexible, expressive, collectible, and personal. Dubai already understands perfume as part of personal presentation. Her strategy pushes that relationship toward a more playful wardrobe mentality, where the question stops being which single bottle wins forever. The better question is which scent gets the assignment today.

October 2026 Is About to Smell Absolutely Iconic

GET READY because October 2026 is bringing the kind of fragrance launch Gen Z dreams are made of! Maison Umama, Florayne, and Scent Charms are officially stepping into the spotlight with an irresistible explosion of pink, gourmand, and floral scents designed to turn heads, spark obsessions, and make every single spritz feel like a full-blown main-character moment.

 

This is luxury turned ALL THE WAY UP, as in delectably alluring, wildly collectible, and gloriously accessible without breaking the bank! With three unforgettable fragrance names leading the charge, the collection is racing toward its first massive Gen Z moment, and the countdown to October 2026 starts NOW.

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Dubai.News Newsroom

The Dubai.News editorial team — covering Dubai & the UAE, on the ground.