Best Of
11 Sweet Perfumes You Need To Try
Sweet perfumes are far from all the same. These eleven go from caramel and praline to coffee, almond and whipped cream. Start with Mugler Angel to smell where it began, Kayali Vanilla 28 for brown sugar, and YSL Black Opium if you like coffee.
Why Do Some Smells Seem Sweet?
Because we learned them that way. The nose has no sugar receptor, so a smell can’t literally be sweet. Vanilla, caramel and strawberry seem sweet because we’ve almost always met them in sweet food, and the brain fuses the smell with the taste. It works the other way too: a vanilla smell can make a drink taste sweeter than it is.
Perfumers draw on a short list of those learned-sweet molecules. Vanillin is vanilla. Ethyl maltol is caramelised sugar and candyfloss. Coumarin, from tonka beans, is almond and hay. Heliotropin is soft almond powder. Mugler’s Angel put a huge dose of ethyl maltol into a perfume in 1992 and started the gourmand family; most of the perfumes below are its descendants.
| Perfume | The sweetness | What’s with it |
|---|---|---|
| Mugler Angel | Praline, caramel | Patchouli, red fruits |
| Lancôme La Vie Est Belle | Spun sugar, praline | Iris, patchouli |
| Prada Candy | Caramel | Musk, benzoin |
| Kayali Vanilla 28 | Brown sugar, vanilla | Tonka, amber woods, patchouli |
| YSL Black Opium | Vanilla | Coffee, white flowers |
| Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb | Vanilla, amber | Rose, jasmine, orchid, patchouli |
| Dior Hypnotic Poison | Almond, vanilla | Jasmine |
| Valentino Born in Roma | Bourbon vanilla | Jasmine, cashmeran |
| Jean Paul Gaultier La Belle | Vanilla | Pear, vetiver |
| Ariana Grande Cloud | Praline, whipped cream | Lavender, pear, coconut |
| Britney Spears Fantasy | Cupcake | Lychee, kiwi, white chocolate |
11 Sweet Perfumes
Mugler Angel
Angel (1992), by Olivier Cresp and Yves de Chirin, is often credited as the first modern gourmand. Mugler lists bergamot, praline and patchouli leaf, with red fruits and vanilla. The sugar is so loud that it would be sickly on its own, and patchouli drags it somewhere darker: chocolate with soil on it. Smell it once even if you never buy it: everything else on this page makes more sense afterwards.
Lancôme La Vie Est Belle
La Vie Est Belle (2012) is an iris accord, patchouli, vanilla and spun sugar. It’s Angel’s idea made gentler: the same sugar over patchouli, but iris makes it powdery and soft. Where Angel is chocolate and earth, this is a sponge cake dusted with icing sugar.
Prada Candy
Prada Candy is a caramel accord, white musk, benzoin resin and vanilla. Benzoin is a warm, vanilla-scented resin with a slight incense edge, and with musk it turns caramel into something that smells of warm skin. One wearer gets soft powder, smoked caramel and balsamic benzoin. It’s the sweet perfume you can wear to dinner without anyone guessing it’s candy.
Kayali Vanilla 28
Vanilla | 28 puts vanilla orchid and jasmine over vanilla, tonka, brown sugar, amber woods, musk and patchouli. Brown sugar is the point. It’s darker and more molasses-like than white sugar, and with patchouli and amber it makes the vanilla smell baked rather than raw. One wearer gets caramelised brown sugar and warm amber, a sweetened patchouli more than frosting.
YSL Black Opium
YSL describes the original Black Opium EDP through coffee, white flowers and vanilla. Coffee is the twist. Roasted and slightly bitter, it stops the vanilla from going syrupy and gives the whole thing a latte warmth. Le Parfum, Extreme and Over Red are separate compositions, and our coffee list has more like it.
Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb
Flowerbomb is peony, centifolia rose, jasmine, orchid and freesia over amber, patchouli and vanilla. It’s a bouquet that’s been dipped in sugar: the flowers come first, then the amber and vanilla take over. Pick it if you want sweetness with flowers rather than dessert.
Dior Hypnotic Poison
Hypnotic Poison is bitter almond, jasmine sambac and vanilla, and that short list makes it one of the simplest sweet perfumes around. Almond and vanilla together smell like marzipan; jasmine adds a heady, slightly indolic warmth underneath. It’s darker and stranger than anything else here, an evening perfume.
Valentino Born in Roma
Born in Roma for women is jasmine sambac, cashmeran and bourbon vanilla. Cashmeran is a soft, musky-woody synthetic that smells a bit like warm wool, and with jasmine it makes the vanilla feel plush. It’s the easiest of the group to wear every day.
Jean Paul Gaultier La Belle
La Belle is bergamot, green pear, vanilla and vetiver. Pear gives it a juicy, slightly crunchy opening, and vetiver gives the vanilla an earthy, smoky floor. That vetiver is why it doesn’t drift into candy. It’s the Le Male idea, sweetness kept in check by something dry, in the women’s line.
Ariana Grande Cloud
Cloud is lavender, pear and bergamot over coconut, praline and vanilla orchid, with a cashmere accord at the base. It’s whipped cream, light and airy. Lavender gives the sweetness a cool, herbal edge, and it’s much cheaper than the designer perfumes here.
Britney Spears Fantasy
Fantasy (2005) names a cupcake accord outright, with red lychee, golden quince and kiwi on top and a white-chocolate orchid accord, musk and orris below. The sour fruit is what makes it work: kiwi and lychee keep the frosting tart. It’s the most playful perfume on the page and makes no apology for it.
More Sweet Things
For caramel and fruit drops, see our candy perfumes. The vanilla list goes deeper into vanillin, and dessert perfumes add almond and marshmallow.
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