This winter’s leading perfumes are a study of texture. I’m talking about gentle, cocooning musks, velvety berries, dry woods, and silky ambers; scents that are enveloping but not overwhelming. “It’s the difference between wearing a plush sweater and being swallowed by a weighted blanket,” explains Gustavo Romero, co-founder of Team of Two Perfumers and Fragrance Alliance Network.
Gourmand scents stand out from previous winters due to the addition of savoury notes such as rice, salt, roasted nuts, sesame, and wood. “The season is leaning away from sugar-heavy formulas, especially the kind of sweetness that sits thick and syrupy on the skin,” says Romero. “There are winter gourmand perfumes that go in that direction, but the ones gaining the most traction now are the opposite: sweetness with structure.” As someone who used to avoid gourmands, I couldn’t be more happy about this transition.
There is also an increase in what perfumer Mabelle O’Rama refers to as “otherworldly” perfumes. “People want to escape to another planet or visit the cosmos through scent,” says O’Rama. They may now do it with chilling metallic, powdered iris, and airy musk notes. On the other end of the spectrum, perfumers are extracting green, earthy notes and applying them to create photorealistic renditions of a winter beach walk or strawberries blooming wild on the vine. “I expect we will get more and more of those real landscapes in fragrance,” says Christophe Laudamiel, master perfumer at Osmo.
Below, I’ve selected the best winter perfumes to add to your collection, ranging from an almond-infused gourmand to a zesty, serotonin-boosting amber.
Lunar Dust allows for an olfactory excursion to the moon. Cooling, powdery iris blends with white woods to create an ethereal and calm fragrance. Not only is it the brand’s best-seller, but it’s also one of my most worn perfumes out of hundreds, and one of the few I’ve repurchased.
“There’s a real appetite for perfumes that feel like fabric on skin: cashmere, suede, leather, clean cotton sheets,” says O’Rama. Suede anchors the sugary sweetness of marzipan almond in this scent, with touches of saffron, bergamot, and pink pepper adding an unexpected freshness.
Kayali is well-known for its seductively sugary gourmands (including one of InStyle’s favorite vanilla perfumes), but the firm has introduced a scent that is unexpectedly green and peaceful. It features a herbaceous matcha heart with a semi-sweet twist from caramelized praline and toasty vanilla. I like to think of it as a subtle, understated gourmet.
