Gourmand fragrances: still a gourmand specialist 5 years later

As Sarah probably gets most praise for her gourmand fragrances and has often been referred to as a specialist in that area, when I came across something she had written in 2021 where she explains what they are and where they came from, and what she uses to make them, I thought I’d have a read.

Read on to find out what the breakthrough gourmand fragrance was and what Sarah believes is the ultimate gourmand.

You’ll see it written gourmand and gourmande, which is because French has masculine and feminine words. Parfum is masculine so you’d have un parfum gourmand, but fragrance is feminine so you’d have une fragrance gourmande.

The word originally meant a person who loves to eat and drink, often too much - with some slang additions we shan’t go into - but in perfumery it is used to describe something that smells so tasty you could close your eyes and picture it on the dessert trolly.

The key material that tipped sweet ambers into the gourmand sugar bucket was ethyl maltol. Vanillin, ethyl vanillin, creamy lactones and fruity materials had been around for almost 100 years, but ethyl maltol gives the distinctive candy floss (cotton candy) aroma, with hints of hot sugar and caramel.

The modern breakthrough fragrance was Angel, from Mugler, which is legendary in the perfume industry because it wasn’t discontinued. It took years before it became popular; these days, if a perfume doesn’t sell its first batch within a year it will be taken off the shelves to be replaced with something more popular. Because Angel finally made it, it kicked off a trend, each scent outsweetening the next.

For me, the ultimate gourmand is Prada Candy; the bottle is perfect and it is totally unpretentious. 

I’ve accidentally become known as a maker of gourmand fragrances. I didn’t do it on purpose, but started to read about myself and 4160Tuesdays as gourmand specialists. Looking at our list of fragrances I begin to understand why.

• What I Did On My Holidays has vanillin and ethyl maltol.

• The Great Randello is a gourmand chypre, and I was aiming for the aroma of afternoon tea at Liberty in around 1890, including leather chairs and tobacco, with raspberry jam scones and creme brulee, provided by strawberry furanone. (I possibly overdid it a bit.)

• The Sexiest Scent on the Planet smells of lemon meringue pie, and the materials which make that happen are bergamot and vanillin.

• New York ‘55: ethyl vanillin, raspberry ketone, ethyl maltol.

• #MrsGlossMadeMeDoIt has ethyl maltol with vanilla and rose.

• Over The Chocolate Shop: cocoa extract and hazelnut CO2 extract.

• Mother Nature’s Naughty Daughters: hazelnut, raspberry ketone, maltol.

• Lemon Sherbet: ethyl vanillin

• Crikey! Coconut Caramel: Homofuraneol, Methyl Laitone, Octalactone

To name a mere fraction.

When Francis Kurkdjian released Baccarat Rouge 540, gourmand fragrances started to take themselves very seriously. (Incidentally New York ‘55 got five stars in Stylist’s Best Beauty Awards when BR540 got four, but there’s something about a nice high price that reassures people that they’ve bought the right thing.)

Beauty journalists seem to be under the impression that the sweetness comes from “Amberwood”, but it’s good old ethyl maltol. While no one says that sweeties are for girls and woods are for men, I was quite astonished to find how popular Baccarat Rouge is with men, people who wouldn’t have been seen dead in Prada Candy. A nice square bottle with a huge price tag seems to win them over - please excuse my cynicism - especially if there’s a rumour that the sweetness isn’t candy floss, it’s “Amberwood”. (It’s not.)

What else would we use to make a fragrance smell as if we’d bought it from a cake shop? Coffee, coconut, caramel, cream, fruits, tonka, almonds, praline, boozy notes, crystallised rose petals and violets?

Which are your favourite gourmand fragrances, or the ones you’d cross a room to avoid? Which sweet taste would you like to be bottled?

As this was written years ago, there’s probably more Sarah would add to this today, and there are plenty more 4160Tuesday’s gourmand fragrances, but I found it an interesting read all the same.