Vanilla: Taken literally, it refers to the sweet spice derived from the vanilla flower; taken figuratively, it describes something painfully ordinary, standard, and uninteresting. It's a mouth-watering noun and a pejorative adjective. It's also one of perfumery's popular notes.
The past year has witnessed a surge in interest in gourmands, fragrances that feature edible notes. Typically, gourmands take the form of dessert-like scents — and there are few notes that more succinctly sum up sweet treats than vanilla. As such, the soft, creamy smell plays a starring role in a spate of recent (and recently popularized) perfumes: Parfum de Marly's Althaïr, Jousset Parfums' Accident à la Vanille, and Snif's Crumb Couture are just a few examples.
Often, vanilla fragrances conjure comfort: the warmth of freshly baked cookies, the familiarity of your childhood kitchen, the delight of eating dessert. But brands are beginning to subvert vanilla's homey connotations, fashioning the syrupy note into something sexier. In short: vanilla fragrances are no longer "vanilla."
Take, for example, Tom Ford's latest perfume, Vanilla Sex, described as "the epitome of sensual pleasure." A press release continues: "Vanilla, one of the most sought-after ingredients in modern perfumery, assumes a role that is anything but ordinary — and far from innocent."
The perfume cheekily turns the term "vanilla sex" — read: tame, uninspired sex — on its head. Hints of plastic and indolic (fecal) florals lend the scent a funky, animalic feel (quite the opposite of a flaky pastry).
Tom Ford isn't the only one giving vanilla a kinky makeover. In September, D.S. & Durga launched Deep Dark Vanilla, a surprisingly dry vanilla perfume that Fragrantica reviewers likened to the forest floor and smoked meat. The fragrance was accompanied by equally un-vanilla visuals: A hand, gloved in black latex, hovers in front of a white orchid dripping in viscous liquid.
Perfumery is slowly chipping away at the bland, boring vanilla we've constructed in our cultural imagination. Subversion has never smelled this good.
