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The best sweet perfumes for a gourmand sugar high
Indulgent notes are coming of age this season. Here, we explore the appeal of a grown-up gourmand
What’s the first perfume you remember wearing? For many of us, the answer will be something soaked with sweetness and steeped in nostalgia. In the 1980s, Coty’s classic Exclamation scented shopping-centre corridors with clouds of vanilla and peach, while anyone who reached high-school age in the 1990s will know the saccharine signatures of Victoria’s Secret and Charlie. Come the Noughties, the celebrity fragrance industry was in full swing, with most falling back on tooth-melting notes of sugar and spice.
Gourmand perfumes haven’t always been the chicest proposition post teenhood, but today they’re truly coming of age, with a host of deliciously indulgent scents hitting the shelves, combining nostalgia with sophistication.
For Bee Shapiro, founder of Ellis Brooklyn, the gourmand perfume revival chimes with our collective desire for comfort. “I've always believed fragrance is tied to our current psychology. The world is in a state of flux, so what's more comforting than a touch of nostalgia – something lighthearted and fluffy and easy to digest? Sweet scents aren't super challenging in that they are very understandable. The notes also often reference the kitchen or a sweet treat — it's like a little indulgence but feels familiar as well.”
Our cravings for comfort might have led us back to notes of vanilla, caramel and honey, but – as with most things in beauty today – there’s also influence coming from the buying behaviours of Gen Z. “TikTok probably has been the single largest influence on fine fragrance in the last couple of years,” says Shapiro. Indeed, the social-media platform has encouraged engagement and interactivity far more than its predecessors, namely the generic aspirational #ads of the peak Instagram era.
“Unlike Instagram or platforms focused on static imagery, with TikTok there's opportunity to discuss, and bring to life how a fragrance actually wears,” she explains. “It's more like very consumable, short-form TV, and with the rise of #perfumetok, there is so much more fragrance knowledge being shared on the platform.”
Gourmand scents are a particular hit on the youth-dominated TikTok, where cult classics such as Kilian’s Love, Don’t Be Shy and Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge have found a new generation of fans.
As perfumer Kilian Hennessy adds, “social media can also be a way for niche brands to engage with younger consumers – even if they’re not the primary target”.
“The most gourmand scent I have created for Kilian Paris is Love, Don’t be Shy, a marshmallow accord blended with orange blossom and vanilla," he says. "To give you an idea of how gourmand it is, my desire here was to create a scent that would be so yummy that your partner would almost want to take a bite out of you. I know from the press that a certain celebrity singer was wearing it, and she isn’t a teenager anymore but a true glamour icon.” In response to Love, Don’t Be Shy’s new-found TikTok fame, Kilian created Princess: a scent with the same marshmallow accord, but a much more accessible price point.
So, how does one master the art of smelling both sweet and sophisticated? Take your pick from the new school of olfactory treats: from Tom Ford’s latest risqué reveal to D.S & Durga’s rebellious take on the genre, there’s something to satisfy every craving.
The gourmand perfumes to invest in now
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