Gone are the days when gourmand fragrances were defined by soft rose, sugary vanilla, or candyfloss caramel. Brands and perfumers are now digging into the kitchen pantry for bolder, saltier inspirations like coffee, cocoa, cardamom, clove, truffle, tomato leaf, basil, rice, carrot, and even fermented soybeans.
One recent example is singer-actor Selena Gomez’s cosmetics company Rare Beauty that has taken its first swing at a fine fragrance brand, Rare Eau de Parfum, which landed at Sephora.com and the brand’s website in August this year. It is warm and spicy with notes of creamy caramel as well as pistachio, peppery ginger, and pink pepper, making it the first venture in a new category for the brand since its 2020 debut.
Some of the ‘edible’ yet earthy ingredients are pushing fragrance into an entirely new olfactory landscape, one where comfort meets curiosity and nostalgia smells a lot more like spiced vegetables than flowers. Jang by Elorea, an Oriental floral fragrance for women and men is one such example with top notes like soybean that pays homage to traditional fermented sauces that form the foundation of Korean cuisine. Similarly, Indian brand Lavie Luxe’s Pearl perfumes comprise a blend of jasmine and pink pepper, while Plum’s Oh So Pistachio perfume features notes of pistachio, cardamom, and cocoa besides peony, hazelnut, rum, tonka, and sandalwood.
Brands are now coming out with perfumes that can also be deeply personal. Dear Diary, founded by actor Rashmika Mandanna earlier this year, is one such example. Her first release evokes her childhood in Coorg’s coffee estates with warm, spicy notes anchored in south Indian roots with pink lotus and bergamot orange, blending the sweet with the savoury in an emotional way. She explains: “Perfume is memory. I don’t remember most things but perfumes bring back special moments. With Dear Diary, I wanted everyone to carry their stories with them to feel comforted, connected, and unapologetically expressive.”
A bold new bouquet
Mainstream and niche brands alike are embracing the unusual. Notes like hazelnut, sesame, pecan, chili, leather, and smoke are taking centre stage. Tom Ford’s Lost Cherry, a cherry-plum liquor fantasy with amaretto depth, remains a cult favourite. So do Maison Margiela’s By the Fireplace and Jo Malone’s Nutmeg & Ginger that is rich in clove, saffron, and cardamom, redolent of kitchens, spice cabinets, and rainy evenings.
Similarly, White Rice by d’Annam is a floral fragrance with top notes being rice and pandanus, while A Mochi Atelier In Tokyo by Zara has pear, rice and sandalwood. Then there is Black Orchid Parfum by Tom Ford in truffle and plum, while Bad Boy Cobalt Elixir by Carolina Herrera is more robust with hints of sage, black truffle, and resinous woods.
This trend is resonating because fragrance lovers now seek uniqueness and emotional connection. Ingredients like pink pepper, ginger, clove, and nutmeg are now cult favourites, while gourmand twists like almond, pistachio, and hazelnut are adding texture and novelty to classic floral and woody blends. Spices are versatile, genderless, and full of personality, everything the new generation of perfume-wearers is looking for.
Ishita Misra, co-founder of premium perfume brand Fonzie Folksy, explains why spices are having a moment. “Spices aren’t background notes anymore, they are the story. Cardamom, cumin, and saffron are layered and twisted to evoke identity, memory, and mood. Evenfall, our bestseller, mixes cumin, saffron, oud, and leather, it’s mysterious and bold, with an emotional punch,” she says.
Praveen Kenneth, founder of Beautiful India, sees fragrance as a storytelling tool. “We use 28 rare ingredients from 22 countries. Our scents go beyond ‘pretty’ as they stir something inside. From red apple to cardamom, rum to cocoa and elemi gum, we’re blending memory, culture, and emotion,” says Kenneth.
While consumers are increasingly open to unconventional fragrance notes, fragrance lovers are curious, well-travelled, and seeking scents that feel unique, personal, and emotionally resonant. “Ingredients like cardamom or cocoa might seem unexpected in perfumery, but when thoughtfully blended, they spark intrigue and offer a fresh sensory experience that truly stands out in a saturated market,” adds Kenneth, whose brand is currently available in Paris, Milan, Vilnius and soon in Dubai and Miami.
Science meets storytelling
At the cutting edge, experiential retail brands like Singapore-based Scentopia are using neuroscience and personalisation to change how people discover fragrance. Building on the success of the perfume-making experiential destination in Singapore, its founder and managing director, Prachi Saini Garg, this year, expanded her vision to India to launch Scentzania, a chain of immersive, AI-powered fragrance studios across cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Scentzania will guide visitors with personality quizzes, scent notes, and memory triggers to create a one-of-a-kind perfume.
As an olfactory artist, Garg has worked on fascinating museum briefs and recreated the scent of blood, a prison cell, or even forgotten historic objects, and believes that bold notes challenge people and connect them deeply. “Unusual notes like pepper, ash, or even ‘brick’, which smells like rain hitting clay walls, aren’t about elegance, they’re about evocation. A bold scent can take you back to your grandmother’s trunk, a temple, or a street after rain,” Garg says.
However, she warns, “No one wants to smell like Sunday biryani. It’s all about illusion and balance. Pepper adds zing but not the scent of a spice rack,” she adds.
While Garg’s classification of scents into citrus, fresh, floral, woody, and oriental is designed to help users understand their own preferences, she explains how many shy away from oriental (spicy) notes unless guided, “When people do pick them, the results are distinctive. But it’s about making the scent feel safe and explorative.”
The experiential wave
From conceptual labels like Comme des Garçons and Perfumehead to digital-first disruptors like Snif, Vyrao, and Elorea, fragrance is no longer just about smelling good. It’s also about standing out. Like Odeur 10 by Comme des Garcons challenges traditional perfume conventions, inspired by the scent of hydrogen peroxide, to capture a sense of clinical comfort and purity.
So whether it’s matcha, ube, or even salty seaweed, consumers are using scent to express identity, heritage, and mood. And sometimes, it’s about preserving a feeling that technology can’t digitise. A case in point is Ford’s Mach-Eau, a scent made to mimic petrol, designed for EV drivers who miss the emotional kick of a gas-powered car. Kenneth says, “Fragrance lovers today are curious, well-travelled, and emotionally attuned. They don’t want off-the-shelf scents, they want stories.”
As social media continues to drive micro-trends, scent is emerging as one of the most intimate and expressive forms of self-definition. Fragrance today is emotional, evocative, and even uncomfortable. Needless to say that the future of scent is not ‘pretty’ but personal.
NOSE FOR THE NEW
- Unusual gourmands: Rice, truffle, tomato leaf, carrot
- Spice revival: Cardamom, pink pepper, saffron, cumin
- Nuts and seeds: Pistachio, sesame, hazelnut
- Opposites attract: Cherry + coffee, leather + rose, saffron + honey
- Emotive atmospherics: Brick, rain, incense, petrol
