The Best Sweet Perfumes At MECCA
January 1 | 2 minute read
Words by Christie Sinclair
Originally published on | January 16
If you are what you spritz, then we’re all battling a serious sugar addiction! Sweet perfumes are back – but the new generation are more like grown-up gourmands, with more depth and body than you might remember from your first fragrance encounter.
So, what defines a sweet perfume? Anything with sugary, ‘edible’ notes such as vanilla and caramel, chocolate or fruit. The overall effect is a warm, comforting trail, like caramelising sugar as a cake rises in the oven, or just-picked berries bursting with juice.
To balance the sweetness, complementary notes like spice, wood, florals and citrus are often added for a more mature, well-rounded composition that’s far from the cotton-candy cocktails of the late 2000s.
So, what are the scents we’re all craving right now? Read on for the best sweet perfumes at MECCA.
Best vanilla sweet perfume
Diptyque Eau Duelle EDP
There are scents you spritz, enjoy and forget about – and then there are the others, like this one from Diptyque, that will permeate your thoughts and have you lifting your wrist to your nose too many times to count! With a soft, sheer sweetness alongside spicy, incense-like notes of pink pepper and bergamot, it’s a vanilla that will win over even the most vanilla-averse.
Best floral sweet perfume
Byredo Mojave Ghost EDP
Imagine this as the fragrant embodiment of ’90s Meg Ryan: sparkly, cheerful, with a distinct air of freshness and a certain feistiness at all the right moments. It’s a lighter take on a sweet perfume, bottling a combination of pear, sandalwood and unusual floral notes inspired by the rare ghost flower of the Mojave Desert.
Best cult sweet perfume
Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 EDP
The defining scent of the decade! Once you’ve smelled it, your nose will detect this iconic Maison Francis Kurkdjian fragrance everywhere. The sweetness comes from the ingredient ethyl maltol, which gives it the rich, jammy, addictive burnt-sugar note – a lasso that has pulled the entire world into submission.
Best coffee sweet perfume
Maison Margiela REPLICA Coffee Break EDT
Coffee lovers know there’s nothing quite like the feel-good hit from your first sip of the day – except this scent, which captures all the glorious nuance of the real experience. And like most coffee orders today, this blend is decidedly more complex than your average latte, featuring notes of milk mousse, Sri Lankan sandalwood, cedarwood, lavender, spearmint and orange flower.
Best gourmand sweet perfume
Floral Street Sweet Almond Blossom EDP
The pomello, passionfruit, vanilla and apple blossom in this summery Floral Street number paint a story of a tropical holiday where there’s no concept of time – and absolutely no guilt about whiling away the day on a sun lounger, cocktail in hand. It’s just the thing if you’re longing for an escape but your annual leave balance says otherwise.
Best trending sweet perfume
D.S. & DURGA Pistachio EDP
Pistachios – who knew they were so on-trend?! Ever since Brooklyn fragrance house D.S. & DURGA released this showstopper, we’ve been seeing (and smelling) it everywhere. With top, heart and base notes of pistachio, it’s unmistakably, well, pistachio – but the addition of cardamom and roasted almonds give it an almost amaretto kick on the dry down. Yum!
Best classic sweet perfume
Ellis Brooklyn Sweet EDP
Do you find yourself hovering near the lolly jar a little more often than you should? This classic sweet perfume from Ellis Brooklyn might just be enough to save you from the 3pm slump, sans sugar crash. Centred around pear and marshmallow, it has a fluffy, powdery opening that could almost lean too far into candy land, if it weren’t for the addition of ambrette and bergamot.
