Dwayne Johnson announced three new fragrances this week under PAPATUI, his men's care brand that became the number one men's skincare line at Target within its first two years on shelves, bringing his first-ever cologne collection to the market at $39.99 per bottle.
Good Morning America covered the launch Tuesday. All three scents are available at Target. A discovery kit featuring all three in smaller sizes is $19.99.
The fragrances are P-01 Leather and Woods, P-07 Amber and Cypress and P-21 Smoke and Bourbon. Johnson developed them alongside world-class master perfumers with a specific objective that has defined the PAPATUI brand since its 2024 launch, deliver the quality that men are used to seeing at $100 or more, at a price that removes the hesitation.
"As a fragrance enthusiast, I've always believed fragrance has the power to instantly shift your mood, elevate your mindset and give you the confidence to walk into any room, and own it," Johnson wrote on Instagram when he announced the collection.
The timing is deliberate. Father's Day arrives later this month. A three-scent cologne collection under $40, from one of the most recognizable names in entertainment, positioned at Target during the peak gifting window, PAPATUI has done exactly this kind of well-timed launch before.
What Is PAPATUI?
PAPATUI launched on March 10, 2024 in 1,900 Target stores after four years of development.
The concept Johnson built it around was a gap he kept encountering: men who privately asked him about skincare, about what to use, how to start, what actually works, who would never have that conversation publicly because the culture around men's grooming made it feel awkward to admit caring about your skin.
He spent four years working with dermatologists, scientists and formulation experts to build a line that addressed what men actually needed without requiring them to understand the difference between a toner and a serum before they could use it.
Every PAPATUI product launched at under $10. The accessibility was not accidental, it was the entire point. A man who has never bought a face moisturizer is not going to spend $60 on his first one. He might spend $9.99.
The strategy worked. Within two years of launch, PAPATUI had become the number one men's skincare brand at Target by sales volume, a position it held from February through November 2025 according to IRI/Circana data.
Glossy named it the 2024 Men's Beauty Brand of the Year. GQ, Men's Health, the New York Times, the LA Times and Forbes all covered it. March 2026 brought the acne care expansion, a three-product line including a 2% salicylic acid facial cleanser and pimple patches, because acne, Johnson said, is the top skincare concern men report.
The fragrance collection is the natural next step in a brand that started with face wash and has been filling out every dimension of a man's grooming routine one category at a time.
The Three Fragrances And What They Smell Like
The fragrance collection was developed with master perfumers to create scents that communicate who the PAPATUI man is, someone who takes care of himself, who has a specific presence in a room, who chooses quality without being defined by price.
P-01 Leather and Woods is classified as a Fougère, a fragrance family built around aromatic herbs, woody notes and a clean, fresh structure that is one of the most popular in men's perfumery.
The opening notes are bright bergamot, cardamom and crisp apple, a fresh, energetic start. The fragrance develops through smooth lavandin, violet leaf and grounded patchouli.
The name captures the arrival point, leather and woods, the settled confidence of a scent that has moved past its opening into something more established. Johnson described it as "champion confidence, bottled."
P-07 Amber and Cypress is the warmer, more contemplative scent in the collection, amber providing the sweet, resinous depth that makes fragrances feel expensive and lasting, cypress adding a sharp evergreen clarity that prevents the amber from becoming heavy.
It is the fragrance in the collection most likely to work as an evening or occasion scent while remaining wearable daily.
P-21 Smoke and Bourbon is the boldest of the three, a fragrance built around smoky, woody base notes with the warm vanilla and spice character of bourbon making the smoke approachable rather than harsh. It is the scent for someone who wants their fragrance to announce something specific about them.
The combination of smoke and bourbon notes is the kind of choice that separates a fragrance company trying to play it safe from one that is confident enough to go somewhere interesting.
All three are Eau de Parfum, the higher concentration designation that distinguishes them from lighter Eau de Toilette formulations and that contributes to the longevity on skin that makes the $39.99 price point feel like a genuine value proposition against designer fragrances in the $100 to $150 range.
The Grandfather Who Gave The Brand Its Name
PAPATUI was not a name chosen by a branding agency for sound and marketability. It was chosen by a man paying tribute to the person who showed him what masculinity and self-care looked like before either of those concepts had the cultural cachet they have now.
Johnson's grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, was a Samoan professional wrestler and cultural figure who trained Johnson's father Rocky Johnson and who introduced young Dwayne to the world of professional wrestling from childhood.
He was, by Johnson's account, someone who understood that taking care of himself, how he looked, how he presented himself, how he maintained his body, was not vanity but respect. Respect for himself and respect for the people he encountered.
"My grandfather was one of my heroes," Johnson has said of Maivia. "He epitomized true masculinity and self care before self care became a popular term."
Maivia was also the inspiration for Johnson's voice role as the demigod Maui in the Moana films, the character whose name and spirit draw on the same Polynesian cultural heritage that PAPATUI represents.
The brand's name comes from that heritage. The fragrance collection that just launched is the latest expansion of a brand built on a grandfather's example.
Why This Launch Matters For The Brand
Fragrance is a specific kind of category expansion for a men's care brand. Body wash and face wash are functional products, they are bought for what they do. Fragrance is bought for what it communicates, about taste, about identity, about how a person wants to be perceived and remembered.
A brand that successfully enters fragrance has crossed a line from functional grooming to personal expression.
PAPATUI entering fragrance at $39.99 with Eau de Parfum concentration and master perfumer development is a statement about where the brand sees itself. It is not positioning PAPATUI as a mass grooming brand expanding into cheap cologne.
It is positioning PAPATUI as the brand that delivers the quality and the experience of prestige fragrance at the price of accessible fragrance, the same value philosophy that made the skincare line successful at Target.
The men's personal care market is projected to grow from $19.2 billion to $52.1 billion between 2026 and 2036.
The fragrance category within that market has been one of the fastest-growing, men who started buying quality skincare products in their twenties are now buying quality fragrance. Johnson is bringing PAPATUI into that trajectory at the moment when the brand has the credibility to compete there.
Father's Day is this month. The discovery kit is $19.99. The cologne is $39.99.
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