A Mouthwatering Guide to the Most Delicious-Smelling Perfumes
Welcome to the world of gourmand fragrances, where a scent might include notes of banana bread, matcha, apple brandy, or even aged soy sauce
They say the eyes eat first, but before we even see what we are eating, we often enjoy its aroma. The scent of a beloved dish, such as the gooey chocolate chip cookies your mom would pull out of the oven after school or the malty almond granita you had for breakfast while on vacation in Sicily, can evoke feelings of pleasure, happiness, and nostalgia. So it’s no surprise that gourmand perfumes and fragrances inspired by the edible world have skyrocketed in popularity. These scents lean on the extracts, essential oils, and notes of ingredients like vanilla, honey, coffee, fruit, and even aged soy sauce.
Food-inspired fragrances offer a big departure from more traditional floral, amber, and fresh scents, which rely on more botanical elements; a great gourmand will conjure olfactory memories of not just what amazing things you’ve smelled before, but tasted. Gourmand perfumes gained mainstream popularity in the 1990s, thanks largely in part to Thierry Mugler’s Angel, which smells of praline, red fruits, and vanilla. But they have been around for over a century, with many crediting Guerlain’s Shalimar — formulated a century ago, in 1925, and known for its generous use of vanilla — as the first.
Describing perfume is a lot like describing wine, or a complex dish; but instead of flavor notes, you have scent notes, or accords. The best fragrances, like the best dishes, are layered with lots of depth, which help make them memorable. These are the 14 best gourmand perfumes that will make you smell as good as your favorite foods taste.
For a fresh, subtly delicious scent: White Rice by d’Annam
There is nothing quite as comforting as freshly cooked white jasmine rice, a symbol of livelihood in Vietnam, where perfume house d’Annam originates. On the skin, the scent has a slightly sweet and gently nutty aroma — like a perfectly cooked bowl of rice. It’s a part of d’Annam’s collection dedicated to the elements of Vietnamese heritage, which also includes scents like Vietnamese Coffee and Pho Breakfast.
For the person who loves a morning pastry: Crumb Couture by Snif
Though this perfume is vegan, it still manages to smell like a batch of rich, buttery, freshly baked croissants, sliced in half and spread with a thick layer of the best berry jam. The fragrance is toasty with notes of black current, vanilla, tonka bean, and sandalwood and is the ideal scent to wear to brunch.
If you’ve been loving the pistachio trend: Yum Pistachio Gelato by Kayali
Pistachio-scented fragrances had quite the moment last year, and this one from Kayali is one of the best. Founder Mona Kattan was inspired by a trip to Rome to create a perfume based off of one of her favorite desserts: pistachio gelato. This scent is for people who love a sweeter perfume, with its notes of pistachio and hazelnut, but also sugary ice cream toppings like whipped cream, marshmallow, and even cotton candy.
A spritz of spritz: Italian Citrus by DS & Durga
DS & Durga, founded by husband and wife duo David Seth Moltz and Kavi Ahuja Moltz, has always been at the forefront of creating boundary-pushing gourmand perfumes such as their popular but controversial pistachio perfume or their wonderfully spicy coriander scent. The brand’s Italian Citrus perfume smells as if you are sipping a cold, effervescent Aperol spritz while sitting on one of Italy’s famed rocky coastal beaches after a day of sweating in the sun. The citrus is a mix of blood orange, lemon, green mandarin, and chinotto, which is made from the bittersweet juice of the myrtle-leaved orange tree.
Freshly baked banana bread, but make it luxury: Nanatopia by BORNTOSTANDOUT
This Korean perfume house is not afraid to push the boundaries with scents and get a little weird. If you are particularly fond of bananas in all formats, then Nanatopia is for you. It is mostly commonly described as smelling like a slice of thick-cut banana bread with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, but others describe the nose as essentially candy-like with notes of melted caramel. Regardless, the bottle will last longer than your afternoon slice from the pastry case.
If you love to smell your spice cabinet: Jaipur Chai by Ineke
This perfume evokes the scents of one of the chicest things you can do in this lifetime: drinking piping hot masala chai on a luxurious balcony while overlooking the pink-hued Indian city of Jaipur. The perfume has all the notes of a great cup chai: cinnamon, clover, cardamom, ginger, and nutmeg. The result is something that is comforting and warm yet a little spicy to keep everyone on their toes.
If you put Maldon salt on your cookies: Sea Salt Caramel by Bohoboco Perfumes
In the way that sea salt balances out the intensely sweet flavor of caramel with a bit of salinity on the tongue, it does the same thing for the nose. While the perfume has base notes of caramel and brown sugar, the heart notes of seaweed and top notes of sea salt and fresh lemon adds a breeziness to the scent, so that it’s light and not cloying.
The big, loud, romantic cherry classic: Lost Cherry by Tom Ford
It’s easy to mistake a bottle of Lost Cherry for a bottle of strong cherry liqueur, thanks to the vivid red shade of the perfume flask. While it’s easy for cherry-scented things to smell like cough syrup, this perfume takes a different path, one that is sweet but woodsy. This is not a gentle perfume, though: the intense notes of black cherry, bitter almond, and rose make it incredibly memorable.
If you love a complex cocktail: Apple Brandy on the Rocks by Kilian Paris
It only makes sense that Kilian Paris, the perfume brand founded by Kilian Hennessy, yes of that Hennessy family, would make a collection of scents inspired by liquor. Even the bottle is a tribute to Art Deco barware. This perfume has a fresh, crisp scent where the apple mixes with rum-like notes to create the apple brandy base. The “on the rocks,” is a blend of bergamot, pineapple, and cardamom that has a fresh, cooling effect on the scent.
If you want something nostalgically sweet: God Bless Cola by Versatile Paris
This vegan perfume smells like a cozy night at the movies with a large bucket of popcorn and an ice cold fountain drink that is almost too big to carry with one hand. It gets its buttery scent from a toasted popcorn essence and a hit of vanilla, while the cola notes help the perfume feel effervescent and fresh. Versatile Paris is a French perfume house, but it’s managed to make a scent that feels very nostalgic and very American.
If you live for your morning latte: Coffee Break by Maison Margiela Replica
This perfume sits somewhere between the intense roasting notes of a Third Wave coffee snob and the sugared-up concoctions Starbucks manages to come up with every month. It’s warm and cozy like a milky latte, with a strong vanilla note. Once on the skin, the perfume reveals unexpected notes of spearmint and lavender — but they only serve to enhance the cozy vibes, not distract.
A fruity body spray, but grown up: Strawberry Letter by Phlur
This perfume is a love letter to super juicy, sun-ripened strawberries. It’s fruity and floral thanks to the use of apple blossom and plum nectar and tonka bean — as if a Bath and Body Works scent grew up into a more refined version of its suburban mall self.
For a brainy but beautiful tea scent: Thé Matcha 26 by Le Labo
Matcha is inescapable right now, so you might as well wear it on your skin while you sip it at a coffee shop. Le Labo is perhaps most famous for its Santal 33 perfume, but this green-tea-inspired scent is creamy and deep, mixing cedar with bitter orange and a bit of fig for sweetness. It’s elegant, just like a properly frothy cup of matcha.
You want your signature scent to be truly memorable: Jang by Elorea
Perhaps the most culinary of the gourmand perfumes, Elorea — the Korean perfume house — turns to the Korean pantry for its Jang scent. Jang is a category of fermented soybean pastes that add a deep, savory flavor to dishes, and this perfume carries the same heft. And while you can pick up notes of aged soy sauce and charcoal, they are tempered with the softness of jasmine and ylang-ylang, creating a deeply complex scent.
