Caramel perfumes

Caramel is made, not extracted

No caramel material is harvested from a plant. The note is created from aroma molecules that recall cooked sugar, maltol and ethyl maltol among them, and it is supported by vanilla, benzoin, labdanum and roasted or nutty notes. The effect is a thick, round, slightly toasted sweetness, darker and more cooked than vanilla.

Where caramel sits in the pyramid

Most of the perfumes in our collection that list it put caramel in the base, the others in the heart or in the top. In the base it thickens vanilla, amber and woods. In the heart it can meet coffee, white flowers or patchouli. In the top it gives fruit and spice a syrupy, popcorn-like opening. Cardamom, pimento, cedar and vetiver cut through the sweetness, while benzoin, tonka bean and musk make it softer and creamier.

Caramel perfumes, from top to base

• Pernoire Poka leads with caramel popcorn, apple pie and cinnamon, then roasted hazelnut, labdanum and dried apricot, and ends on vanilla, musk, tonka bean and cedarwood. Pernoire calls it gourmand and ambery.
• Xerjoff La Capitale puts caramel in the top beside labdanum, peach and strawberry, with ginger, Iranian saffron, leather, amber and rose in the heart and benzoin, oud and Bourbon vanilla below. Xerjoff lists it as fresh and floral.
• Fragrance Du Bois Minuit et Demi holds caramel and coffee in the heart, between a top of cardamom, pimento and bergamot and a base of vetiver, cedarwood, cashmeran, vanilla, musk and Bourbon de Laire. Fragrance Du Bois files it as gourmand woody.
• Jo Milano Paris Game of Spades Royale opens on hazelnut and cacao, turns to jasmine sambac and cedar, and lands on caramel, ambroxan and moss. The family string of Jo Milano Paris begins with caramel, amber and woody.
• Reinvented Sacred Bond keeps caramel in a base of saffron, sandalwood, benzoin, vanilla, white musk and amber, below mandarin, bergamot and raspberry and a heart of jasmine, gardenia and rose. Reinvented calls it floriental gourmand.
• Lorenzo Pazzaglia Sugar Kisses lists caramel and toffee at the bottom with vanilla bean, cane sugar, benzoin, white musk and barricaded rhum, under cocoa butter, heliotrope, chocolate and roasted hazelnut higher up. Lorenzo Pazzaglia also lists caramel in the hearts of Van Exstasyx and Van Py Rhum.

How to judge a caramel perfume

First decide how sweet you want to go. Caramel with cardamom, pimento and vetiver, as in Minuit et Demi, stays dry and grown-up. Caramel with vanilla, cane sugar and toffee is dessert from start to finish. Fruit and flowers, such as peach and strawberry or jasmine and gardenia, turn it into a glossy sweetness rather than a bakery. Then read the brand's family words, since gourmand woody, floriental gourmand and fresh floral each promise a different balance. Rich caramel suits cold weather and the evening.