how to smell like a snack in 2024 🎀

Hi friends! Your resident gourmand girly is here with my favourite fluffy, delicious vanilla scents to help you start the year off smelling like a snack. I've only ever written one perfume post before (and I talk about the technical stuff about perfumes like notes and flankers in that, so you can read that first if you'd like to!) I don't know how many of my regular readers will actually be interested in something like this, but I have wanted to write about it for a long time, so to the one lovely friend who requested this, thank you for wanting to hear me gush about 13 vanilla scented things!

This will be a mixed post where I talk about shower gels, body lotions, body mists, and of course, perfumes. I love so many body mists, but they're not as strong as perfumes so they don't always have the same lasting power - my answer to that is layering. I shower with the Cinnamon Buns shower gel by Philosophy, topped with the Butta Drop Warm Cinnamon Shimmering body lotion from Fenty Beauty, which is the most delicious body lotion I have ever come across in my entire life. I love sparkly, shimmery skin, especially in the colder months when everything is a bit dry and dull, and this absolutely brings it so if you don't like a glittery glow, I wouldn't go for this, but if you're like me and you want to be a shimmery little cupcake at all times then definitely get this because the scent is so incredibly delectable. Anyway, both of those scents layered together usually gives me a pretty good base for any gourmand perfume as it all blends together and increases the longevity of the scent. I'm also going to give a notable mention to the Vanilla Buttercream hand lotion from Bath and Body Works, (stocked in Next in the UK), it's truly exactly what it sounds like and it's pure vanilla frosting and powdered sugar goodness, it makes me so happy whenever I put it on.

I discovered the Sol De Janeiro body mist in 71 back in July 2022, and I am still, if not more, obsessed with it to this day, especially now that I've figured out how to layer it. This is genuinely the most perfect thing I've ever smelt and if they ever make a perfume of it so that it does last even longer, I will buy 100 bottles of it. Saying that, I do find this one to be quite strong for a body mist. To me, it smells like buttery, caramelised popcorn - you can definitely smell the effects of the toasted macadamia and sea salt notes in a way that makes it so different from any other warm vanilla scent as it genuinely smells like something Butterkist would create. I'm obsessed, as in bottle on my vanity, and bottle in my bag at all times, level of obsessed. If you've ever hugged me and I've smelt like a baked good, it was this.

For more of a Spring vanilla, I also love the Sol De Janeiro body mist in 40, which is still vanilla based but in a much lighter, fruiter way, due to the black amber plum and creme de cassis notes. It's definitely different for me as I usually like a cosy vanilla, but I do love this for the sunny months. I've also heard people compare this one to Vanilla Woods by 7 Virtues - not sure how close of a dupe it is, but that one is super expensive so definitely recommend this if you're a fan of that, but not a fan of the price tag!

On to another highly complimented scent of mine, I discovered the latest YSL Black Opium flanker, Black Opium Le Parfum, at the beginning of last year and completely fell for it. It has the usual Black Opium DNA, but with less coffee, and triple the vanilla. It's so well blended, super creamy, lasts forever on me just like the original, and it's the perfect winter evening scent to cosy up with, or go on a night out with (to be clear, I wear it year round but I exclusively wear gourmand scents so...) This one is on the pricier end unfortunately, but it's a must have for me. If you like the original Black Opium but wish it were a little sweeter, this is the one for you. If you're trying to find it in a store and lose it amongst all of the many flankers, it comes in a black glossy bottle, unlike the signature glittery bottles, so it stands out and the smoothness of the bottle is definitely reflected in the scent.

Another gorgeous coffee-esque perfume that I've been loving for well over a year now is Dolce and Gabbana's The Only One. To me, this smells like a really lovely cafe that serves violet lattes, and is really warm and inviting. Some perfumes with a violet note can sometimes end up smelling overly powdery like vintage make up, which I'm not a massive fan of, but I don't get that with this. I think the caramel and the vanilla notes really smooth this perfume out, so what you get is a really sweet but sophisticated scent which I adore. This is one of the scents that I tested when I was looking for a wedding reception perfume in 2022, and I absolutely loved it but noted that it doesn't last forever on me, this is still the case but I have since bought the gift set which comes with the 10ml purse spray, so I can always top it up when I'm on the go! I love wearing this one on days when I'm going into the office, as it makes me feel put together and ready to girl boss the day.

Speaking of perfumes that were in my wedding rotation, I have to mention Kayali Vanilla 28 which I am still absolutely head over heels for, but it's the perfume that I wore on my actual wedding day, so I now only wear it on date nights so that it still reminds me of our wedding. I already spoke at length about this in my post linked at the start of this post, so I'm going to pull an extract from that post and put it here because I still feel the exact same way about it, but know that if I could wear this every day, I absolutely would. If you had to bottle up my personality, I feel like this is what that would smell like. It's sweet from the vanilla, but also rich from the brown sugar and tonka bean, so it's quite layered, and not too sickeningly sweet at all. It kind of smells like home-baked cookies, and I cannot get enough of it. The packaging is also absolutely gorgeous with the white and rose gold motif, so it was perfectly fitting for our wedding, as well as my overall vibe, in general. In case you haven't tried it, it reminds me of a more long lasting version of Victoria's Secret Bare Vanilla fragrance mist, which is absolutely divine.

One more gourmand body mist before we move on, I recently asked for the Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel body mist for Christmas, and I absolutely adore it. I have heard some reviews that it did smell off for a few years so I waited for my favourite fragrance girlies (Lauren Mae Fragrance and Ksenja on Youtube, plus Jessie Costantino and Caroline Stern on TikTok) to review this first so that I could be sure they had fixed whatever was making it smell like feet for a few years, and it turns out that they have definitely fixed it now because it is heavenly. I know that it's technically a Christmas scent, but I will be continuing to wear it all year, even if I only wear it to bed. (Yes, I do that - if you've never rolled over and smelled a cloud of pure sweetness and cosied up and gone back to sleep in it, I'm not sure if you've really lived). It smells like vanilla cookies, sugar, and whipped cream, with an added hint of something a bit festive in there, which really grounds it and makes it last a bit longer. This is one to treat with caution as it sounds like they do sometimes re-formulate it for the worst, but I can tell you that the 2023 version of it is definitely safe.

On to my bedtime scents, which are oddly all celebrity fragrances, not sure why that's happened but there we go! My three fragrances which I wear to bed and rotate between depending on my mood are Ariana Grande's Cloud, Sweet like Candy, and Sabrina Carpenter's Sweet Tooth. These are all gorgeous, whipped cream, ooey gooey, lactonic scents, so they're perfect for cosying up with in the middle of the night when you catch a whiff of them on your pillow, or your pyjamas. Cloud specifically has been compared to the ever famous and much more expensive Baccarat Rouge 540, but I haven't actually sampled that myself so I wouldn't be able to confirm that, but if that's the case, I would highly recommend Cloud as it is a huge bargain comparatively. Sweet like Candy and Sweet Tooth both come in gorgeous baby pink bottles, one featuring a pink pom pom on it, reminiscent of a vintage powder puff, and the other looking like a genuine pink chocolate bar, they're so girly and adorable and I love that in a perfume bottle design. They both feature sweet, vanilla, and powdery as their main accords with shared notes of vanilla, whipped cream, marshmallow, and cashmere wood, but I still think they're different enough to warrant having both of them in my collection. Honestly, cutesy girly fragrances are how most of us started our fragrance collections, so why stop now?