Wait, people are paying big money to smell like milk?
Words by Harriet Pudney
“Act now if you want to smell like breakfast before everyone does.”
Fragrance is so personal you’d almost think it would exist outside of trends. You wear a scent right on your skin, people smell it when they hug you or when they borrow a piece of your clothing. Catch a whiff of an old friend or ex-partner’s perfume in the street and you’ll be transported, back in their company just for a moment. Scent can be potently emotional.
But it’s also an aesthetic choice. You choose your perfumes to say something about yourself, to reflect how you’d like to feel and how you’d like to be perceived. Like makeup, hair or clothing, scents go in and out of fashion. And if you’ve been paying attention to PerfumeTok, you might have seen the latest trend rising through niche fragrance is… milk?
We like nosy people. Don’t be shy, head to our Beauty section for more.
Jess Tate, co-founder of Lore Perfumery on Melbourne’s Brunswick Street, says it’s a trend she first identified earlier this year and sees as still on the rise. Think of it as a side-step to the inescapable vanilla and salted caramel scents that have been permeating the air for the last few years.
“There’s a very comforting factor to milk,” Jess says. “Subconsciously we link it to our mothers – people instantly feel nurtured and safe. The world is so precarious, so people are turning to notes that make them feel safe and happy. It takes us back to that feeling of unconditional love.”
Liz O’Brien, buyer at Adore Beauty, agrees that it’s a trend based around feelings of comfort and security. “People are slowing down and returning to the home,” she says, adding these milky notes fall into the gourmand family which, on the whole, has been doing “tremendously well” for the past five years.
Liz’s personal favourite example of a milk scent is literally called Milk, from the US-based fragrance house, Commodity. With notes of sesame, warm marshmallow and tonka bean alongside its cold milk accord, there’s a lot to like.
View this post on Instagram
“I actually really love it. It’s comforting, warm and nostalgic. It just feels like a hug in a bottle,” she says. “It gets comments, I think because it’s both unique and familiar.”
However, some scents in this realm are a little more layered and confrontational. Jess’s first example is Sécrétions Magnifiques from Etat Libre d’Orange. Made to smell like the human body, here milk is joined by sweat, saliva, blood, sperm and adrenaline.
“Everyone smells it a bit differently and some are absolutely repulsed – it’s not for the faint-hearted. But it does have this kind of dirty allure,” she says.
While it’s less comforting than many scents, Sécrétions Magnifiques shows us another side of the trend’s appeal. It’s all about the body: warm, human and mammalian, even if it’s not always squeaky clean. For a less aggressive expression, Jess recommends The Ghost in the Shell, also from Etat Libre d’Orange, or Acca Kappa Dolce Treviso. Both include milk notes in a more approachable form, with the latter smelling of tiramisu. Hard to resist.
View this post on Instagram
These scents, along with Liz’s other pick of Kayali Pistachio Gelato 33, all come from niche fragrance houses.
“Gourmands have been around forever, they’re not going anywhere, but the trending notes will shift and change. What we haven’t seen yet is milk notes in mainstream perfumes,” she says, adding that this likely isn’t a coincidence. Niche perfumes as a whole are booming, as we’re all driven to find a scent no one else has.
“Selling fragrance almost isn’t what it smells like, it’s what it reminds you of. Does it smell like an apple or does it smell like spring? It’s the experience you’re searching for, and people want to differentiate themselves,” Liz continues.
So if the larger movement is towards smelling like no one else, what should perfume heads look for? Jess says milk notes have some competition when it comes to fragrances that smell good enough to eat.
“Those lactonic notes are still growing, but I personally think that fruits are going to take over. It will be done interestingly and with a darker edge to them – not so much sweet, pretty and playful, but darker, maybe with a leather note.”
Similarly, Liz says to look out for anything that smells like raspberry jam, as a note has just been developed that smells exactly like a fresh jar of Bonne Maman. “Milk I believe will stay niche, but that raspberry jam note has mass appeal,” she says.
There you have it. Act now if you want to smell like breakfast before everyone does.
For more on milk scents, try this.
Liked this? You’ll love these...
