Gourmand Perfume Definition: the Secret of Smelling Edible and Delicious (2020 Update)
1-minute quick read:
- Definition of gourmand perfume
A new fragrance note that focuses on the depiction of edible gourmand scents with gourmand meaning caramel, vanilla, cake, and chocolate, etc.
2. Gourmand perfume notes
Gourmand notes fill the main structure, with other notes matched as embellishments, such as oriental or chypre.
3. Gourmand perfume list
Fruity gourmand perfumes:
- Dolce & Gabbana Sicily: banana
- Escada Taj Sunset: mango, coconut
- Creed Virgin Island Water: coconut+pineapple rum+citrus
- Urban Outfitters Lait de Coco: coconut
- Givenchy Insense Ultramarine: watermelon
- Burberry Brit Sheer: grapefruit, pineapple, lychee
- Goutal Paris Petite Cherie: pear-y peach
- Lancôme Trésor: peach
- L’Occitane en Provence Cherry Blossom: cherry
Dessert/cake gourmand perfumes:
- Prada Candy: caramel
- Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy: caramel dessert
- Dior Miss Dior Cherie: popcorn
- Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium: berries and almonds, caramel and vanilla, and creamy coffee
- Vera Wang Princess: vanilla
- Britney Spears Fantasy: cupcake
- Serge Lutens Jeux de Peau: bakery
- Aquolina Gold Sugar: creme brulee
- Tom Ford Black Orchid: fresh fruity, orchid, black chocolate
- Masaki Matsushima Mat Chocolat: floral chocolate, cake
- Laura Mercier Eau Gourmande Crème de Pistache: nut-themed pistachio brulee
Candy gourmand perfumes:
- Aquolina Pink Sugar: cotton candy
- Serge Lutens Louve: caramelized almonds
- Lancôme La Vie Est Belle: praline
- Jimmy Choo Jimmy Choo: toffee
Beverage gourmand perfumes:
- Hermès Hermessence Santal Massoïa: milk
- Donna Karan/DKNY Delicious Candy Apples Ripe Raspberry: cola
- Rochas Man: cappuccino
- Mugler A*Men Pure Coffee: coffee bakery
Untraditional gourmand perfumes:
- Demeter Fragrance Lobster: lobster
- Demeter Fragrance Fiery Curry: curry
- Demeter Fragrance Sushi: sushi
- Jean Couturier Coriandre: coriander
- Jo Malone Oat & Cornflower: oat
- Jo Malone Wild Strawberry & Parsley: parsley
- Jo Malone Carrot Blossom & Fennel: carrot, fennel
- Pork Barrel BBQ Que Eau de Barbeque: BBQ
- Mugler Womanity: caviar
- Pizza Hut Eau de Pizza Hut: pizza
- Burger King Flame-Grilled Fragrance: flame-grilled patty
Are you a fan of cream cheese cookies cake candy toffee gingerbread macaron popcorn chocolate ice-cream vanilla coffee…? Food’s scents always make us in a happy mood. And thanks to genius perfumers, we can easily gain this happiness through gourmand in perfumes without worrying about a plump belly or high calories.
Definition of gourmand perfume
Gourmand perfume definition: a new fragrance note that branched from oriental notes in the 1990s. They focus on the depiction of edible gourmand scents with gourmand meaning caramel, vanilla, cake, and chocolate, etc.
According to Francois Demachy, Christian Dior’s Perfumer-Creator and the nose behind the newest scent, the gourmand fragrance definition is “scents derived from sweet, edible things”, “notes of red fruits and also a side that’s kind of like caramel, cotton candy or even licorice.” He thinks gourmand scents are a very deep trend that’s existed for 10 to 15 years.
Yes, due to the sense of security and comfort they bring, gourmand notes have gained increasing popularity over the last two decades, not only ladies love them but gentlemen seem happy to share their passion too.
Sweet note ingredients including vanilla, benzoin resin, and tonka bean used to be the common ingredients in oriental fragrances. Guerlain Shalimar, born in 1925, is seen as the earliest and best vanilla gourmand perfume for its abundant but wonderful use of vanilla.
Today beauty houses define gourmand perfume with different ideas on their online menu collection. However, it was not until the birth of Thierry Mugler’s Angel eau de parfum in 1992 that the first gourmand perfume exactly appeared in fashion history.
Lots of vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and honey mingle into the intense sweetness. When they are ignited by powerful patchouli, the perfume explodes like a sweet bomb.
Thanks to Angel, one of the best caramel perfume’s overnight success, perfumers dropped aloofness down. They began to find inspiration from foods in life.
Gourmand perfume notes
Gourmand notes can sometimes have an unsophisticated side to them, so we needed to find a way to bring together these gourmand notes — which are heavy, but which are important in perfume-making these days.
–Francois Demachy
In fact, richness and depth are important for most perfumes. Perfumes with a fresh start, an intertwined middle note and a lingering base note are always known as completeness and quality.
Therefore, what gourmand perfume meaning is not devilishly sweet. In other words, gourmand definition perfumes hardly smell single sweet; instead, gourmand notes fill the main structure, with other notes matched as embellishments.
That’s why some gourmand perfumes are in the category of oriental families (e.g. Thierry Mugler’s Angel), while some are classified as the chypre (e.g. Jimmy Choo Jimmy Choo).
However, most gourmand perfumes smell sweet and fragrant with a hint of sexuality and seductiveness, which may not be suitable for day time formal social occasions. Maybe these sweet-smelling babies can be your best bet for a romantic date.
Gourmand perfume list
Fruity gourmand perfumes
Dolce & Gabbana Sicily smells fragrant with a tropical vibe. I guess it’s brought by the banana. It reminds me of the summer days when people were enjoying the beach.
In Escada Taj Sunset, mango and coconut are the most predominant scents, followed by the sour raspberry. The whole scent has a powerful tropical style, with strong sillage and longevity.
Creed Virgin Island Water is named after British Virgin Island, a Caribbean resort island known for its seafood, sand and rum. Soft creamy coconut + fresh sweet pineapple rum + light acidic citrus notes make up this tropical beauty in perfume bottles.
Lait de Coco perfume is also a coconut gourmand perfume from Urban Outfitters. It smells more linear than Creed Virgin Island Water, simply a creamy sweet coconut candy, with soapy/body wash scent in the base note.
Givenchy Insense Ultramarine is a men’s marine fragrance full of sunshine and joy. I mean the unique watermelon scent in the top notes instantly gives you the summer sea wave imagination.
Burberry Brit Sheer rallies several fruity scents such as grapefruit, pineapple, lychee. They fit harmoniously with each other, smelling sweet but fresh. Not bad!
Goutal Paris Petite Cherie starts with pear-y peach scent. Peach here smells greeny immature. And the astringent, slightly bitter grassy scent in the middle note neutralizes the sweet beginning, which makes this perfume so clear and natural that it surpasses other sweet fruity perfumes alike.
Lancôme Trésor is starred by peach: floral peach in the top, rose highlights in the middle. Anyway, the most obvious is still peach, together with some waxy scent that seems to be almonds which I didn’t find in the perfume pyramid though.
L’Occitane en Provence Cherry Blossom has a beautiful cherry beginning, followed by a burst of cherry blossom and honey. The greeny astringent cherry adds cuteness to cherry blossom, on the base of warm snuggling musk. Girly sweet, but not cloying.
Dessert/cake gourmand perfumes
Prada Candy is a gourmand EDP perfume that smells totally silky pure caramel, balanced by a hint of sour and salty scent to make the whole not too cloying. It’s linear caramel even in the drydown. Longevity: 8+ hours, and sillage is great too.
Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy is also a caramel note fragrance. The fruity note in the start shows just a while before totally gone, then it’s followed by a vanilla cake topped with pralines. The dessert sweetness does its work well making me fall into happiness.
During my search on Fragrantica pages, I see Dior Miss Dior Cherie has lots of food. Actually popcorn is the most obvious scent, followed by caramel and milky scent. The floral scent is smelt in the drydown, but I didn’t smell the fruity scent all the time.
Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium exactly matches gourmand perfume definition: it’s a complete blast of foods. The intense sweetness overwhelms me from the beginning berries and almonds, later caramel and vanilla, and creamy coffee in the end. Read Black Opium gourmand EDP fragrance review here.
Vera Wang Princess is one of the best vanilla perfumes at a cheap price ($32.99 for 3.4 oz/100ml on FragranceNet). It’s a simple pure vanilla chocolate ice-cream. My personal picture I get for this perfume is a blonde little girl with a pure heart, and naive sweet smiling on her face.
Britney Spears Fantasy is one of the best cheap gourmand fragrances ($29.99 for 3.4 oz/100ml on FragranceNet) that smells like a freshly baked cupcake laced with kiwifruit and pieces of silky, smooth, non-bitter white chocolate.
Serge Lutens Jeux de Peau is one of the best niche gourmand fragrances of bakery notes. The sweet scent derived from his childhood memories. By using wheat, milk, coconut milk, maple sugar, butter, licorice and spices, he roasted a delicious wheat butter bread for foodies.
Aquolina Gold Sugar smells definitely like a creme brulee, adding sweet marshmallow, condensed coconut milk, and fresh fruit. In my point of view, Aquolina is a great gourmand perfume brand. Most fragrances it launches are sweet, smooth and delicious dessert aromas that no girl would refuse.
Tom Ford Black Orchid has a fresh fruity beginning, which surprises me. Not long after, the orchid comes in great power. The black chocolate is cloyingly sweet and powdery, which gives me heavy nausea.
Masaki Matsushima Mat Chocolat starts off with a strong chocolate scent mixed with floral scent, and then it turns weaker when wrapped by cake scent. In the drydown, chocolate is still there, but it’s more like a milky scent.
Laura Mercier Eau Gourmande Crème de Pistache is a nut-themed pistachio brulee perfume. It has a pistachio brulee beginning. And when almonds and hazelnuts join the revelry, nut scent is getting prominent.
Candy gourmand perfumes
Aquolina Pink Sugar has the happy scent of cotton candy. Childhood days when you bolted candies are back. However, for some people, this scent seems too sweet to fit only for the younger crowd.
Serge Lutens Louve is not animallic; it’s nothing but a burst of caramelized almonds, stacked with a fruity and white floral scent. After an hour, the drydown becomes gentle powdery. Its warm gourmand scent is perfect for winter days.
Lancôme La Vie Est Belle is an overwhelming storm of praline, but patchouli and iris weaken the sweet side of praline and vanilla. It’s the first time I smelt “confidence” in a gourmand perfume. Guess this is Lancôme’s answer for “beautiful life” is about.
Jimmy Choo Jimmy Choo will greet you with a fruity syrup shell. When it melts, you’ll taste a real toffee topped with a smidgen of chocolate. The silky soft scent is really enjoyable.
Beverage gourmand perfumes
Hermès Hermessence Santal Massoïa’s milk scent is created in an art way by milky warm, smooth ingredients such as fig, sandalwood, and the starring Massoïa in this perfume. However, milk here is not gourmand to eat, instead, it smells calm and courteous.
Donna Karan/DKNY Delicious Candy Apples Ripe Raspberry is cola in a perfume bottle. Coming with a delicious acid raspberry scent, this cola perfume will refresh the hot summer days.
Rochas Man is a cappuccino scent cologne for men. Wait until the beginning smokey lavender is gone, and you’ll get a cappuccino with chocolate soaked in. Bitter, sweet, milky — definitely gourmand perfume definition; rather than the woody spicy note as Fragrantica sets it down.
Mugler A*Men Pure Coffee doesn’t smell like any type of coffee (drink), it’s more like the scent when you step in a coffee bakery shop. Now have a virtual afternoon tea party in mind? So if you are seeking a 100% real coffee scent, better view other options.
Untraditional gourmand perfumes
Fortunately, the perfumers didn’t limit “gourmand” to the sweetness swamp. They did their best to create some bizarre tastes that away from stereotyped gourmand perfume definition. I wish I had a chance to dabble into them!
- Demeter Fragrance Lobster: lobster
- Demeter Fragrance Fiery Curry: curry
- Demeter Fragrance Sushi: sushi
- Jean Couturier Coriandre: coriander
- Jo Malone Oat & Cornflower: oat
- Jo Malone Wild Strawberry & Parsley: parsley
- Jo Malone Carrot Blossom & Fennel: carrot, fennel
- Pork Barrel BBQ Que Eau de Barbeque: BBQ
- Mugler Womanity: caviar
- Pizza Hut Eau de Pizza Hut: pizza
- Burger King Flame-Grilled Fragrance: flame-grilled patty
Have you found anything that interests you? Try samples first to avoid pitfalls:
Find samples on The Fragrance Decant Boutique
How does it feel that the scent of you smells like being in a restaurant any time?
Is it Aquolina Gold Sugar or Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium that you’d love to gain sweets happiness from?
Which gourmand perfumes have you tried or heard of?
Let me know in the comment.
