What Does Elon Musk's Perfume Smell Like? "Burnt Hair," Explained

Elon Musk is the latest celebrity to launch a personal care product. While he’s joining fellow rich and famous folks like Travis Barker and Brad Pitt in the beauty space, the Tesla founder is taking a slightly different approach from his peers. Rather than focusing on ingredients or formulas, he’s turned a punny tweet into a fragrance. Musk, whose Twitter bio now reads Perfume Salesman, called “Burnt Hair” the “finest fragrance on Earth” in a tweet shared on Tuesday, Oct. 11 that unveiled his newest business venture. On its website, the Burnt Hair fragrance is explained as “the essence of repugnant desire.” That doesn’t quite reveal what Musk’s perfume smells like, but that hasn’t stopped it from flying off the shelves. Musk has reportedly already sold 10,000 bottles of Burnt Hair at $100 a pop which means he’s already made a cool $1 million in less than 24 hours.

Though consumers have yet to get their hands on Musk’s musk, based on the reviews and the few tweets the billionaire has shared about the product, it seems like Burnt Hair smells like the combination of charcoal, singed flesh, and barbecue. The perfume’s website, where it’s available for pre-sale, does have reviews that hint at the power of the fragrance, if not its base, middle, and top notes. One of the two reviews currently listed calls it “just like leaning over a candle at the dinner table, but without all the hard work.” Yum.

The second Burnt Hair perfume review assures curious shoppers that they’ll, “Stand out in a crowd! Get noticed as you walk through the airport!” Aside from the Burnt Hair reviews, which could be real or fake, the only other hint about what’s waiting for you inside this frosted glass bottle is Musk’s first tweet about the idea of launching the fragrance. On Sept. 27, he tweeted, “‘Burnt Hair’ — Scent for Men by Singed.” Some fans believed this was simply a “punny” joke featuring a bit of wordplay. It might have been too if it was tweeted by someone who wasn’t one of the world’s richest men.

The reviews and the idea for the fragrance itself seem to be written in a definite tongue-in-cheek tone. But despite the “gag gift” vibe, Burnt Hair is a very real, not to mention pretty pricey, product. Still, selling eccentric products through his Boring Company is nothing new for Musk. As Reuters reports, in 2018, Boring Company offered flamethrowers for sale. Each one cost $500 and, after a (literal) fire sale, the current richest person in the world walked away $10 million richer.

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There’s no word on how long Musk plans to continue selling Burnt Hair, so if you’re feeling so inclined, you should probably sign up for the perfume’s preorder ASAP. Boring Company will be shipping out Burnt Hair, according to the site, between January and March 2023. Until then, both Musk’s supporters and haters will be left in suspense as to what exactly this perfume smells like unless, of course, the mogul plans to send out samples to select influencers.