I’ve spent some $$$ on craft cocktails in dimly lit rooms filled with vintage speakers and rare records, yet I’m far from a "vinyl head." In these listening bars, there is a feeling that you need to be an expert just to exist in the space. We usually think of these lounges as being only about the sound, but what if the music is actually secondary to the overall system? This is an exploration of how sound, taste, time, and space work together to shape our mood.

We tend to think of taste as a closed-loop system between the mouth and the nose, but the physiological reality is far more "wired." There’s a new frontier of sensory design. We are seeing the collapse of the wall between what we hear and what we consume. Products like the Lollipop Star are turning candy into a hardware device, using bone-conduction to play music through your teeth while you taste the flavor.

Beauty was never meant to be discovered through a screen alone. It’s tactile. When beauty education majorly moved online, touch disappeared and was replaced by comparison and fatigue. Brands are rebuilding experience through stores and events, while creators gain access through PR and trips. The luxury isn’t the product anymore, it’s being chosen to experience the creation story.

Pistachio perfumes were everywhere in 2025. But the sweet, dessert-style scent trend is starting to change. Perfumers are looking to experiment more with fresher, more savory smells. It feels a lot like what’s happening in food right now. There’s also an interesting angle on the reduction in appetite and turning to food-smelling perfumes. This piece looks at how food trends turn into fragrance trends, and what that means for what we’ll be smelling in 2026.

Dining in 2026 is all about the experience. I gathered data from top industry reports (OpenTable, EHL, AF&CO. + Carbonate, dsm-firmenich, and more) to break down what's actually happening. Experiential dining is up 46%. People are paying for the story, the interaction, the memory. Flights of everything, one-hit-wonder restaurants, prix-fixe menus; people want to sample & explore. And discovery is shifting: Reddit is now the #2 site by search traffic, & 44% of people plan to use AI for restaurant discovery. Here's everything you need to know about where dining is headed next year.

Something fundamental has shifted in how consumers measure value. It's no longer about what you buy, it's about what you feel. Across industries from fragrance to hospitality, from fine dining to beauty retail, I derived that experience value equals emotional impact divided by time spent. Welcome to the Experience Economy 2.0, where brands across sectors are shifting from products and services to holistic sensory experiences that engage emotions, memories, and multiple senses simultaneously.