Whatever Happened to Burnt Hair, Elon Musk's Perfume?

In October 2022, Elon Musk launched a perfume called Burnt Hair through The Boring Company. The bottle behind this ownership account really does smell like burnt hair. Other buyers documented deliveries in July 2023, about nine months after the launch. The packaging makes almost as much of an impression as the scent.

The launch

Burnt Hair appeared as a real perfume from Musk’s tunnel company in October 2022, in the middle of his on-off deal to buy Twitter. He tweeted “Please buy my perfume, so I can buy Twitter”, changed his Twitter bio to “Perfume Salesman”, and posted that 10,000 and then 20,000 bottles had sold within two days. Those figures are Musk’s own; nobody independently confirmed them. Its name and presentation committed to the joke: the box calls it “The Essence of Repugnant Desire.” The name underneath is Singed.

By July 2023, buyers were publishing accounts of the bottles they had received. A BGR ownership review dated July 17 describes opening one and finding a much less appealing scent than the carefully presented packaging might suggest.

So what does it actually smell like?

Honest answer from someone who owns a bottle: it smells like burnt hair. Not metaphorically. Not “smoky in a way that’s reminiscent of.” Literally: when you spray it, the room briefly smells like someone held a lighter under a strand of hair. It’s somewhere between a salon accident and a campfire that ate something it shouldn’t have.

The ingredients and warnings are printed on the back of the card included with this bottle:

The card lists denatured alcohol, aqua, parfum and isoeugenol. That’s a legal declaration, not the formula. Isoeugenol is one of the fragrance allergens that EU-style labelling singles out by name, so its place on the card may be a declaration rather than a clue to what makes the smell. It does smell relevant, though: it’s a clove-like, slightly smoky molecule.

Why Does Burnt Hair Smell So Bad?

Because hair is protein. It’s mostly keratin, which is rich in cysteine, an amino acid that contains sulphur. When hair burns, that sulphur comes off as hydrogen sulphide and other sulphur compounds, the same family that gives rotten eggs and skunk spray their smell, along with smoky, bitter breakdown products from the rest of the protein. Wood smoke has no sulphur in it, which is why a campfire smells pleasant and singed hair doesn’t.

Perfumers already have the smoky half. Birch tar, cade oil and guaiacol give the smoke in leather and campfire perfumes. A burnt-hair perfume needs the sulphurous, protein-like edge on top, which is exactly what perfumers usually spend their time avoiding.

Other owners describe it differently. The BGR reviewer found an unpleasant mix of musty heat, scorched doll hair and locker-room odour. In community reviews, one buyer describes a spoiled, burnt-meat impression after opening a bottle that had leaked. Another owner dislikes the smell but says they do not regret the purchase. As a collectible joke, the attraction can be different from liking the perfume itself.

Stunt, joke, or actual product?

All three, in roughly that order. To me, the name and packaging make this much easier to understand as a publicity product and conversation piece than as a perfume bought for an elegant drydown.

It’s also genuinely a joke product. The box says Singed underneath the name. The included greeting card opens with “Hey there, SmokeShow” and tells you your purchase is “going to be Lit ** (but not (lit)erally)”:

The pun-laden card flips over to the warnings panel (the ingredients image above), which includes a flame pictogram, a GHS-US signal word and precautionary statements. The juxtaposition is the whole joke: a perfume specifically named after combustion, packaged with comedy on one side and printed fire warnings on the other.

But underneath the trolling, the thing is also a real product. The bottle is well-designed (a faceted crystal-cut cap on a teardrop body, faintly suggestive of a flame). The packaging has the familiar details of a presentation perfume: heavy black box, embossed silver lettering and an individual greeting card. The photos show what came with this bottle, including its warnings.

What happened after

The original launch was in October 2022, and BGR’s owner review documents a delivered bottle in July 2023. That puts the account about nine months after the launch.

When checked in October 2026, the original Boring Company perfume URL redirected to the company’s shop rather than the old perfume listing.

For someone looking at a secondhand bottle, the practical questions are its condition and what is included. The cards and box are part of the object’s appeal. Distinguish a sealed bottle from an opened one, and a seller’s asking price from evidence of a completed sale.

Where it fits in celebrity perfume history

Celebrity perfume can involve a famous name, a commercial fragrance partner and a scent intended for regular wear. Burnt Hair’s presentation takes a different approach. Its most memorable feature is the joke printed on the bottle and carried through the box.

That is what makes it interesting to keep on a shelf. The scent in this bottle delivers an unpleasant singed impression, but the cards reward a closer look: comedy on one side, flammability warnings on the other.

I would treat it as a piece of 2022 internet memorabilia before considering it as a fragrance to wear. If you want an everyday perfume, begin with a sample of something you enjoy smelling. If you want Burnt Hair, the packaging and the story may be the point.

Sources

• The Boring Company’s original Burnt Hair URL, checked October 2026; redirects to the shop.
• Burnt Hair owner and wearer comments.
• BGR’s July 17, 2023 ownership review.