Gourmand · Accord · Heart notes
Biscuit
Biscuit is a gourmand accord that recreates the smell of biscuits or cookies fresh out of the oven. It smells sweet and warm, with hints of butter, toasted grain and a little caramel. In perfume, biscuit usually sits in the heart and makes a sweet blend feel softer and cosier.
· Written by the FRAG team
What does biscuit smell like?
Biscuit in perfume smells like butter cookies or milk biscuits just out of the oven. There is a gentle sweetness, a buttery richness and a warm, toasted grain note. If you have ever been in a kitchen while cookies were baking for Lebaran, the first impression is much the same.
Biscuit is drier and more savoury than caramel or vanilla. The accord rarely stands out on its own, but it makes other sweet materials smell more like baked goods and less like candy.
How the biscuit accord is built
Biscuit is an accord, since baked goods cannot be distilled into a fragrant oil. Perfumers build it from several molecules: lactones for a buttery, creamy feel, maltol or ethyl maltol for the sweetness of toasted sugar, and vanillin for a soft, custard-like side.
The balance of these materials sets the character of the biscuit note. More lactones push it toward butter and milk, while more maltol makes it sweeter and closer to caramel. That is why a biscuit note can vary a little from one perfume to another.
Biscuit in a perfume
Biscuit usually sits in the heart, between the opening and a sweet base. It links materials such as coffee, cocoa or coconut with a vanilla and tonka bean base, so the blend reads like a single dessert.
Biscuit most often meets vanilla, caramel, milk, coffee, hazelnut and tonka bean. Biscuit with coffee and cream is a common way to suggest a layered coffee dessert. You find biscuit almost only in gourmand perfumes.
When to wear a biscuit perfume
A perfume with a biscuit note feels sweet and warm, so it is comfortable in the late afternoon or evening, in air-conditioned rooms or on rainy days. On a hot day, choose a lighter blend and spray lightly so the sweetness does not feel heavy.
