Bite Me! The Gourmand Fragrances That Are Turning the Genre on Its Head
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Petit fours and pavlova. Macaroons and madeleines. Bonbons and Bavarian cream. Cake. Custard. Marzipan. This may read like a fantasy postprandial selection for someone possessed of a raging sweet tooth, but in fact these are just a few of the confectionary-inspired notes being served up in an array of new perfumes. Consider them comfort food for the nostrils. Cavity risk: zero.
In 1992 fashion designer Thierry Mugler told perfumer Olivier Cresp he wanted a fragrance that would remind him of the Strasbourg funfairs he enjoyed as a child. Cresp went to a supermarket and bought cookies, then made history. Angel, the perfume he created for Mugler, introduced a sweet note reminiscent of cocoa and cotton candy—swirled with jasmine and a mammoth hit of patchouli—that was so distinctive and wildly popular it spawned an entirely new olfactive family, gourmand. Anyone who lived through the ’90s and early aughts will recall the wave of sugar-spiked fragrances that followed Angel’s tour-de-force debut, and egregiously cloying iterations (Victoria’s Secret body sprays, we’re looking at you) prompted a backlash like a bellyache after a binge. Fresh, airy fragrances (think Clinique Happy or Chanel Chance) and clever, less obvious gourmands (Viktor & Rolf’s iconic Flowerbomb) moved in to clear our collective palates.
Now foodie fragrances are selling (and sometimes smelling) like hotcakes once again. According to industry news hub Perfumer & Flavorist, searches for gourmand fragrances surged 77 percent in 2024. The pandemic-era #perfumeTok-fueled success of Maison Francis Kurkdjian Paris Baccarat Rouge 540—a scent with a hefty dose of ethyl maltol, the same candylike ingredient used in Angel—seems to have whetted our appetites, leaving us with an insatiable hunger for spritzes that make us say yum.
Just as our tastes in cuisine have shifted, gourmand fragrances have evolved, with perfumers experimenting with new note combinations to cook up complex, surprising compositions. For Guerlain’s radiant Tobacco Honey, perfumer Delphine Jelk took an exclusive extraction of honey from beehives in Calabria and paired it with blond tobacco leaves to capture the essence of golden nectar. Arquiste founder Carlos Huber enlisted master perfumer Calice Becker—the nose behind Dior J’Adore—to work her magic on Almond Suede, in which the scent of marzipan drenched in orange blossom honey is contrasted with a smoky, suede facet reminiscent of the interior of a handbag.
Lev Glazman, co-founder of the sumptuous boutique hotel the Maker in upstate New York and maestro of its namesake fragrances, ensconced the aroma of cinnamon butter in magnolia flower and boozy vanilla Bourbon to create the brand’s new eau, Dream. And despite being inspired by a Willy Wonka–style vision of heaps of cake and Chantilly cream, it smells gorgeous, not gluttonous.
In practice, gourmand notes can present a challenge: how to encourage addiction (always a perfumer’s goal) without going too far. It’s tantamount to toeing the line between indulgence and indigestion. “The trick is to contrast the sweet notes with something beautiful and elegant,” says perfumer Jérôme Epinette, whose new Choux Choux fragrance for niche brand Liis smells like the brittle skim of brown sugar atop a crème brûlée, brightened by a delicate lemon facet. “If you don’t do it correctly, the sweetness becomes fatiguing, and that’s a problem. When you have a fragrance that smells sticky, you just want to wash it off.”
Most gourmand fragrances are at their best after they have settled into skin, and they are often composed with musk or amber notes to give them a warm, glowing dry-down that reads more impalpable presence than walking patisserie.
Some, too, are more literal than others. Maison Margiela Replica Afternoon Delight was concocted by master perfumer Carlos Benaïm to recreate the aroma of a warm madeleine from a French bakery in Tangier, and its vanilla-rich fresh-baked cookie scent is about as olfactorily photorealistic as perfumes get. Fendi La Baguette, meanwhile, although inspired by the scent of buttered bread sprinkled with sugar (a favorite treat of Delfina Delettrez Fendi’s twin sons), dresses up the simple sweetness at its heart with sophisticated lashings of orris and leather.
“There’s something very high-low about gourmand fragrances,” says D.S. & Durga co-founder and perfumer David Seth Moltz. “A lot of the synthetic molecules you might use are stronger and less expensive, but then you bolster them with natural materials, like vanilla and orris absolute, that can be very expensive. I think that’s also why the gourmand category hits the perfect spot on a Venn diagram. Perfume enthusiast nerds are interested in them because some of the notes can be atypical, like tobacco or chocolate, while mass market consumers love them because they just love sweet stuff.” He also posits that a demographic raised on Instagram tablescapes would naturally gravitate toward edible-smelling perfume, a sniffable signal of consumption both literal and metaphorical. “Music used to be the thing, but by the time we were young adults, you had to know Alain Ducasse and watch Top Chef,” Moltz says. “Food has become the touchstone of our generation.”
It cannot be a coincidence that the gourmand renaissance began during the disquieting days of the pandemic, nor that vanilla has become the defining perfume note of the 2020s, when the news cycle has been relentlessly fraught. The scent of vanilla increases dopamine levels in the part of our brains associated with reward and pleasure, while at the same time calming anxiety by reducing what’s called the startle reflex. As Jelk points out, vanilla-like notes are even found in breast milk—making its dulcet scent the first one we ever loved. Perhaps by indulging in sweet perfumes, we are seeking, in small but significant ways, to self-soothe, to enrobe ourselves in something that creates a buffer between ourselves and the world around us. Surely we could all use a little less startle reflex these days.
“Gourmand notes feel protective,” Epinette says. “They feel cocooning and comfortable. After Covid we’re all talking about wellness, which traditionally would make you think of scents like citrus or lavender or eucalyptus. But gourmand fragrances promote wellness too. They make you feel good. They bring back happy memories. They make you smile. I think everybody is looking for that.”
This does raise a question, though: Can a gustatory scent be hot? The notion of smelling like food—or, indeed, wearing something that brings personal comfort, the rest of the world be damned—seems to turn one of the primary purposes of perfume on its head. Fragrance, after all, is a dance of the seven veils, one of humanity’s great tools for seduction. Should someone want to lick your neck after they nuzzle it?
“Gourmand fragrances are like a hug or a kiss from someone you know and love,” Huber says, “but they can also feel appetizing, racy. They are meant to be innocent, almost childish, but they feel like they are meant to be experienced by more than one person.” Vanilla, it transpires, has been considered a potent aphrodisiac since antiquity. (Waiter, bring two forks!)
Not a dessert person? Even if you’re committed to florals, fresh scents, woods, or ouds, surely you cannot help smelling the appeal. If a fragrance could calm you down, make you feel safe, and amp up your sex appeal…well, why wouldn’t you succumb?
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
Shop Gorgeous Gourmands
ALMOND SUEDE
Maison Margiela 'REPLICA' Afternoon Delight Eau de Toilette
La Baguette
You Rêve
Choux Choux
Tobacco Honey
Photography by Kyoko Hamada. Food Styling by Maggie Ruggiero. Prop Styling by Chelsea Maruskin.
This story appears in the December 2024/January 2025 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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