When it comes to buying perfume, I’m the type of person who judges a book by its cover. I can usually tell whether something is for me just by reading the product description. One word that invariably leads me to abandon my cart? Gourmand — scents built around edible, dessert-esque notes like vanilla, caramel, chocolate, or coffee.
Gourmand perfumes have been everywhere for a while now: a recent trend report found that 42% of beauty shoppers have a preference for this fragrance category, driven by our collective appetite for things that feel comforting and nostalgic. Still, I’ve always wrinkled my nose at “sweet treat” gourmand scents, as they can skew too saccharine and juvenile for me. That all changed when I discovered perfumes that feature rice as an ingredient.
Having grown up in China, I find the smell of steamed rice deeply nostalgic, and it helps me feel connected to my culture. It was the aroma that signaled dinner was ready, and everyone in the family was expected to gather around. As the youngest person at the table, it’s my job to serve the rice, and I have fond memories of that humid, welcoming scent wafting into my personal space as soon as I lifted the lid of the cooker.
In perfumery, rice is a component that’s equal parts wearable and highly versatile, depending on what it’s paired with. “Rice brings a soft, comforting quality to a fragrance, but more importantly, it adds texture,” explains Su Min, co-founder of Korean fragrance house Elorea. Rice is a key note in the brand’s Cloud Daze eau de parfum for a reason: “It has a gentle, understated sweetness that feels smooth and almost skin-like rather than sugary.” This, she says, helps blend all the notes harmoniously.
Ahead, find 10 unique rice gourmand perfumes that I never get sick of — and have serious potential as the next IYKYK editor-favorite fragrance.
Glossier You Soie Eau de Parfum
The best way to describe Soie — the newest addition to the ever-expanding Glossier You perfume universe — is “vacation in a bottle”. Depending on your body chemistry, different notes will pull more strongly on your skin: for some people, the creamy, coconutty goodness of rice milk and tiare water (derived from a type of Tahitian gardenia) really jump out, drawing comparisons to the scent of summer sunscreen and the beach. On me, the first blast smelled a lot more marine, thanks to ambrox, a synthetic molecule that smells like sea salt. Once the perfume settles, it has a drier, sappy profile that reminds me of rice paper. The scent takes me back to sailing trips, and for someone who wants to be near a body of water all the time, it’s deeply compelling.
Ormonde Jayne Champaca Parfum
This is the OG rice perfume, created by British perfumer Linda Pilkington in 2002 when she first launched her niche fragrance brand, Ormonde Jayne. Inspired by her trips to the Indian subcontinent, Pilkington sought to recreate the smell of basmati rice and chai in bustling markets, pairing savoury basmati rice — an unusual note at the time — with honeyed champaca flower, woody bamboo, zesty green tea, and spicy pink pepper. I reach for Champaca a lot in the summer: the tea-like quality feels refreshing in the heat, while the toasted rice gives the pretty florals a more muted depth. It’s a sophisticated, office-friendly scent that never gets boring.
D’Annam Mango Sticky Rice Eau de Parfum
D’Annam — a perfume house hailing from Vietnam — is making some of the most interesting fragrances right now, often spotlighting ingredients rooted in Asian heritage, from Vietnamese iced coffee to Chinese oolong tea. Its latest scent, Mango Sticky Rice, pays tribute to Thailand’s popular dessert, opening with juicy whiffs of mango before settling into resinous sticky rice. It stays just on the right side of sweet and syrupy, and, much like chowing down on the actual dessert on the streets of Bangkok, smelling it never fails to bring a smile to my face. If you prefer something more neutral, the brand’s White Rice Eau de Parfum — with orris, tonka bean, and white musk — is about as photorealistic as it gets.
Kilian Moonlight in Heaven Parfum
I’m not normally drawn to coconut-forward scents, but Moonlight in Heaven is the exception. Tuberose — my favorite heady floral note — sits at the heart, bringing a bright femininity, while rice and lactonic notes kick the sexiness up an octave. This is offset by a medley of tropical fruits: juicy mango, sunny coconut, and zingy grapefruit and lemon. I can smell the fruity ingredients almost immediately, but as it dries down, the fragrance becomes less edible, leaving a sensual trail on the neck and wrists. The best way I can describe it is frolicking between the sheets at a five-star, private island resort — and who doesn’t want to smell like that?
Zara Romance D’Iris Parfum
Ever since Zara began collaborating with Jo Malone CBE, the iconic perfumer and founder of Jo Loves, the retailer has become one of my favorite destinations for perfumes that smell far more expensive than they are. Case in point: Romance D’Iris, a delicate floral beauty that reminds me of Versace Crystal Noir Eau de Toilette, but comes in a larger bottle for under $70. The bouquet of iris and heliotrope leaves a velvety, powdery first impression, while the rice top note adds a slightly vegetal soapiness that keeps it from feeling too traditionally feminine. The longevity is also impressive: I sprayed it on a silk scarf and could still smell it two days later. At this price point for a parfum — a concentration that typically contains around 20 to 30% perfume oil — it’s an absolute steal.
BornToStandOut Dirty Rice Eau de Parfum
Smelling this perfume brings up the core memory of running my hands through buckets of dry rice grains while grocery shopping with my grandma as a child. This is a barely-there, unisex number that isn’t cloying in the slightest, and will be a big hit with anyone who loves skin scents. In other words, it’s a must-try for fans of the original Glossier You. The starchy basmati rice comes through immediately, while milk and almond evoke a familiar embrace with a loved one. The peony reads more like fresh skin than an obvious floral, and it fades quickly, leaving behind a soft, musky warmth. Cetalox (an ambery synthetic compound) further amplifies that second-skin effect.
Diptyque Lilyphéa Eau de Parfum
When it comes to rice perfumes, the more obvious choice from Diptyque would be L’Eau Papier Eau de Toilette, a gorgeous scent inspired by ink and paper that includes a rice steam accord. But I recently had the chance to sit down with Natalie Gracia-Cetto, the esteemed creator of Lilyphéa — one of my all-time favorite perfumes and my signature scent — and learned that rice secretly plays a role here, too. According to Cetto, the fragrance contains a newer, high-quality vanillin, a molecule typically associated with vanilla’s sweet warmth, extracted from rice. “The result is a powdery vanilla that is less sweet and almost animalistic and more vaporous; it’s very different from vanilla flavoring we are used to in gourmand,” she says, adding, “It makes for an unusual combination with the green, sappy notes of violet stem.” I think of the crunchy, dewy leaves of water lilies when I smell this, which is precisely what I want to smell like every day.
Dedcool Mochi Milk Eau de Parfum
If you’re a fan of mochi — the chewy Japanese rice cake dessert — this one is for you. Mochi Milk nails that sweet, powdery rice-flour quality you get when you bite into fresh mochi, but it’s not overly literal. Peach nectar gives it an airy fruitiness, while marshmallow, amber, and sweetened rice milk create the dreamy, “sleeping on a cloud” effect promised on the bottle. Sandalwood, jasmine petals, and incense add a little texture and grassiness, reminding me of wet strawberry stems. I always crave something sweet after the first spritz. It also projects surprisingly well: I can still smell it on myself on a packed train, which is exactly the kind of pick-me-up I need on a miserable commute.
Creed Love in White for Summer Eau de Parfum
Many perfumes are described as “refreshing,” but nothing hits quite like this effervescent creation. This is the summer edition of Creed’s Love in White, a bestseller that was reportedly former First Lady Michelle Obama’s favorite fragrance — enough of a reason to put me onto any scent, to be quite honest. The combination of iris, bergamot, and freesia is so crisp and clean, it makes my skin smell like I’ve just stepped out of a shower. Rice water adds a soft “mushiness”, enveloping the fragrance in a cuddly, intimate warmth, while apple and cranberry bring a juicy brightness. To me, this is the olfactory equivalent of sipping a glass of fruit-infused water straight from the fridge on a hot summer afternoon.
Elorea Cloud Daze Eau de Parfum
Elorea is an emerging K-fragrance brand with a knack for turning traditional Korean ingredients into elegant scents. In Cloud Daze, the key note is makgeolli — a rice wine made by fermenting rice, water, and nuruk, a natural starter. This gives the scent a creamy, lightly tangy, almost effervescent quality. That detail makes a big difference. “Rice on its own brings a soft, clean, and comforting sweetness,” says brand founder, Min. “But when you interpret it as rice wine, you introduce that subtle fermented quality, which adds dimension and lift.” This allows the scent to feel alive on the skin, rather than staying purely sweet. Cognac adds even more booziness to the opening, while dalgona (the Korean honeycomb candy you may remember from the pandemic-era coffee craze) brings a grounding finish.
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