Mostly marketed differently. There’s no separate chemical category called “unisex”, the fragrance itself is built the same way regardless of who it’s aimed at, it’s the bottle design, advertising and branding that changes to remove gendered signals.

What perfumers actually do differently, if anything

Some perfumers, when specifically briefed to create something unisex, do lean towards note families that test well across a broad range of people, transparent musks, soft woods, gentle ambers, avoiding anything that’s become very strongly associated with one gender through decades of advertising. But this is more a design choice than proof of a genuinely separate category; the ingredients and techniques used are exactly the same ones used in any other perfume.

Why the distinction matters less than people think

If a “men’s” fragrance smells wonderful on you, it’s not somehow chemically wrong for you to wear, and the same goes in reverse. Unisex marketing has done real good in normalising this, but it hasn’t invented a new type of perfume, just removed some of the packaging friction. Our unisex fragrance guide and complete guide to perfume cover this honestly.