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Eat Me, Drink Me: A Glimpse of Gourmet Perfumes

04/29/15 17:18:14 

by: Juliett Ptoyan

There is a widespread belief that the history of gourmand perfumes broke out in 1992 with the appearance of the great and powerful Angel by Thierry Mugler. However, it’s only partly right. We know thousands of excellent sweet, viscous and appetizing fragrances dated years or decades earlier, but our first meeting with dessert—cotton candy specifically—happened by virtue of a famous star-shaped bottle. Before that, the main confectionery component was vanilla: it provided softness, languor and viscosity. But what didn’t occur in anyone’s mind was the creation of something imitating lifelike sweets …

Once we’ve raised the matter, it should be noted that vanilla first appeared in perfumery in 1889 in Jicky. Its influence on the sybaritic European society could be compared with the strong impression left by Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons twenty years later. As things go nowadays, this perfume hardly fits the gourmet category—the competition is a bit much aggressive.

In Jicky this vanilla note was done by synthetic vanillin. Everything was good about this component except one peculiarity: it toned the color of fragrances, making them almost brown and the perfumers weren’t satisfied with that. Fifty years later vanillin was replaced by ethyl vanillin—a substance smelling gentler and coloring the tincture several times less. Later appeared narcotic Habanita, Opium, Shalimar, where vanillin is felt much more intensely, and many other variations on the theme. However, we reached dessert only in 1992, and the one who introduced us to it was the person we least expected. You must admit that Thierry Mugler bears little resemblance to an amiable candy maker from a fairy tale, huh?

His goal was to create a new perfume class and to shock the admirers of starched chypres. It turned out that the best way to succeed in that was to come down to earth. Nobody before Mugler dared to eternalize their memory about German trade fairs, Granny’s pies and chocolate sweets. And no one before Olivier Cresp created a composition based on ethyl maltol—a burnt sugar-scented substance. (We don’t countVanilia by L'Artisan Parfumeur as it contains not so many confectionary facets.) According to that, nobody except Angel could outsell Chanel №5 like it did. That period lingered for a while, just one year, but nevertheless.

There was everything unusual about Angel, from its fragrance to visual component. It also became the first light-blue colored perfume for women, thanks to the futuristic style of the brand. According to Mugler, a heaven-sent smell of burnt sugar, tonka beans and baked milk. OK, then.

In 1993 the perfume became a bestseller in Europe and USA. In a year came out fatal overripened Diamonds and Rubies by Elizabeth Taylor, poisonous Eden by Cacharel. Two years later Thierry Mugler presented A*Men which turned to be a masculine version of Angel. The center of attraction in this fragrance slips from the contents to the conception and the reason is not that the composition was decentish. It was more about a fox which is not taken twice in the same snare. So, four years passed between the presentations of fragrances for Her and for Him and it is an unthinkably long period of time by present standards.

For the moment Angel has 30 flankers, such as La Part des Anges managed by Rémy Martin experts, rich Liqueur de Parfum which illustrates the “alcohol” subcategory. In March Angel presented Angel Eau de Sucree limited edition: Dorothée Piot preserved the perfume structure but reshaped its nature. As a result, the “sugary water” seems to be more joyful. It also contains a bit of gloominess from the original version. Now the fragrance resembles a “Pavlova” dessert garnished with berry syrup and hot caramel.

dessert 'Pavlova' (a meringue dessert with fresh fruits)

Meanwhile, there appeared a vast number of “variations on the theme” which show not only caramel or burnt sugar notes, but many other desserts. For example, pastry cream of ethereal beauty from the Ladurée eclairs’ recipe, which you can find in Lira by Xerjoff. We also can feel harsh blackcurrant jam—homemade, of course—in smoky Enchanted Forest, and Coffee and Chocolate by Russian natural perfumer Anna Zworykina smells of craft bitter chocolate with orange zest.

The map of the gourmet perfumes can be considered as a menu in a restaurant with its own bakery and the best pâtissier in the city. Here we can’t see any French fries or hot dogs, but can easily try some medium rare steak (CB Beast by CB: I Hate Perfume), truffle pasta (Black Orchid by Tom Ford) or the freshest oysters (Sea & Sky by Tokyo Milk).

I mentioned pâtissier for a good reason: the best part of gourmet perfumes is strongly attracted to the confectionary delicacy. And that is perfect—you can always choose anything you wish: here we have fried pistachio ice cream (Tea Escape by Maison Martin Margiela), frail violet macarons (Violettes de Toulouse by Parfums Berdoues), scarlet candy apples (Nina l'Elixir от Nina Ricci) and a whole set with burnt sugar (the “sweet” seventh series of Comme des Garçons), bananas flambé (Banana Flambee Demeter), hot gingerbread (Jeux de Peau Serge Lutens), handmade truffles (Musc Maori Parfumerie Generale) …

The invited expert here is Pierre Guillaume: he does perfectly each of the spicy main courses (Fareb Huitieme Art Parfums with curry) and desserts, for example, croquant or praline (Aomassai and Praline de Santal).

Meanwhile, we get to the drink card.

Would you like some tea? Coffee?

So, what about Tea for Two by L’Artisan Parfumeur or strong Russian Tea by Masque Milano? Or maybe, you would like to have some milk with honey (Lann-Ael by Lostmarch)? It can warm you up unbelievably. Don’t you feel cold? Well, let’s have some alcohol-free Mojito Chypre by Pierre Guillaume, with seasonal strawberries. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Or perhaps, you prefer some cool tea by Jo Malone?

If you are not interested in tea and coffee, let’s look through the alcohol drink card which is quite conservative here. For example, scalding Apple Brandy and European-style Vodka on the Rocks by Kilian, whiskey on the rocks in surprisingly bright Tralala from Penhaligon's or honey-colored Tokaj wine (Eau de Hongrie by Viktoria Minya). What about cocktails? OK, let’s turn the page and see Crimson vodka (A Lab on Fire Rose Rebelle Respawn), a Pink Milk shake with grenadine (kitschy Jean Paul Gaultier Ma Dame) and Pina Colada in Comptoir Sud Pacifique Coco Figue.

Interestingly, the initiative of creation of any particular gourmand perfumes doesn’t always come from perfume houses. For example, in 2006, Duerr’s, one of the oldest British producers of jams and confits, celebrated 125 years and presented L’Eau de Marmalade with Sevilla oranges and cinnamon notes. This fragrance recalls the smell of their branded marmalade. In 2008 winemakers from Ginestet followed just the same way and presented three perfumes on wine theme: luminous Sauvignonne, softBotrytis and harsh Le Boise. Versinthe did it the same and released hempen floralAbsolument Absinthe (2006) which recalls absinthe by both smell and color. There are some mentions about the fragrance released by Stilton cheesemakers, but Eau de Stilton is rather a sketch than a completed portrait. That’s just as well, perhaps ...

Frapin took a step further and launched its own fragrance line. They immediately presented several perfumes dedicated to the brand. No wonder, that every perfume of the line has more or less cognac aspects.

We also have several collaborations between Demeter and Reese’s, Tootsie Roll and Hershey’s. These fragrances recall famous sweets like peanut butter cups, candy dots, etc.

Gourmet science became nowadays the last big trend which covered the distance from luxury to niche brands, not vice versa. Now the interest in the confectionary theme seems to be strong but erratic (however, such a situation has nothing to do with praline). Famous houses more often work with vague variations on a theme: it’s both hint at pistachio ice cream in La Petite Robe Noire Eau Fraiche and insinuations with hot caramel in Opium Black and well-muscled male bodies slathered with sugar syrup in L'Homme Ideal ... the #dessert hashtag gives us at least 20 fragrances in any chain store.

Why do we like gourmet compositions?

Those omnipresent British scientists have thousands of theories on this case: our childhood memories, unwillingness to break out of our comfort zones (disputable, because many people put comfort zone together with other olfactory characteristics). Also there is an opinion, that such category of fragrances stimulates the synthesis of endorphins. There could be thousands of reasons, but… First of all, they are lovely ☺

Tell me, what do you think of gourmet perfumes? If you like them, what was your first “dessert” perfume?

Juliett Ptoyan perfume journalist, colaborates with several glossy magazines, organizes perfume workshops and regularly writes for her own blog bouquetjuliett.ru