If you’ve noticed that your favourite “sweet” perfumes suddenly smell less like cupcakes and more like candlelit rooms, you’re not imagining it. Vanilla and amber—the traditional backbone of festive scents—have had a glow-up. The current wave is darker, a bit subversive, maybe even a little burnt at the edges. Perfumers are layering vanilla with smoky, salty, and spicy notes to give that familiar sweetness some bite. The result? A gourmand scent that feels more like a grown-up dinner party than a bakery.
Anton Denver, Jo Malone London’s global spokesperson and education director, reaffirms this when we catch him for a quick chat: spicy vanilla and warm amber are the unanimous winners for the festive season. In Mumbai for the launch of their new fragrance, Amber Labdanum, he believes the lean towards gourmand scents is also thanks to the festive nature of the year-end. “Food is such a big part of the season. We’re seeing more people gravitate toward vanilla, tonka, pears, and pomegranates—rich, edible scents with depth.” Another note he’s betting on for Diwali? “Jasmine has to be at the top of the list; if it’s missing, we’re clearly not in India,” he laughs.
The modern fragrance routine is a hyper-personalised one—with multiple products and layers of scents. A signature scent is not just a niche bottle of perfume but a complex symphony of scented body oils, creams, perfume primers, hair mists, and skin scents. The market for layering fragrance sets is on the rise, projected to go from $1.42 billion in 2024 to $2.94 billion by 2033, as more people explore personalised fragrance experiences. Denver believes the trick is to keep it simple. “There are no rules to fragrance or skin layering; simpler layers are easier and more effective,” he says. “As the season changes from summer into autumn, layering is the easiest way to make your fragrance feel seasonal and different each day.”
In all his years in the industry, he’s noticed some interesting ways people wear perfume. “Typically, when people wear fragrance, it’s on the pulse points. But the best place to wear it is in the décolletage area because right underneath is the heart, creating that warmth. The second place for men is the back of the shoulders. And for ladies, you typically wear it in the front but go towards the back of your neck to leave that trail that makes all the aunties turn back.”
