I never met my great-grandmother Olena, who passed away shortly after I was born, but I always felt as if she were a constant presence in my life. Partly it was due to the numerous recipe books that she left behind. The hand-bound sheets covered with Olena’s lacy handwriting detailed her techniques for stuffing a roast, making multilayer cakes or selecting fruit for jams and marmalades. The most intriguing of her recipes was the one she called “a dry perfume for gingerbread.”
Every European country has its own gingerbread recipe and a combination of spices that gives each regional variation its distinctive flavor. Olena’s Ukrainian version was scented with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, star anise, and a hint of saffron. When I blended it myself following her proportions, I realized that it was similar to the “gingerbread perfume” accord I learned making as a perfumery student, although my liquid version didn’t have the voluptuous richness of saffron.
Turning to my perfume library, I found that gingerbread accords can take just as many guises as the favorite confectionary. Some perfumers interpret it as light and delicately spiced, while others explore robust and fiery combinations. Guerlain Tonka Impériale, for instance, is a soft and sweet composition. The honey note hides a core of vanilla and tonka beans. The latter smell like roasted almonds and spiced cherries, and cinnamon and clove accentuate its plush warmth. Rosemary, on the other hand, keeps the perfume from turning cloying.
A darker take on gingerbread is Serge Lutens’s Five O’Clock Au Gingembre. It’s as if the perfumer Christopher Sheldrake decided to capture the classical English gingerbread, fudgy and rich with ginger, brown sugar and black treacle. The mouthwatering gingerbread accord is set against smoky amber for a gourmand delight. Sheldrake is responsible for another gingerbread inflected fragrance in the Serge Lutens’s line, Bornéo 1834. Dark chocolate and earthy patchouli are shot through with cardamom, ginger, and licorice. Its closest match at the patisserie would be kue lapis, a spiced Indonesian layer cake.
The most surprising gingerbread fragrance in my collection is Parfum d’Empire Fougère Bengal. Instead of blending gingerbread with sugary and creamy notes, perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato pairs it with lavender and immortelle. On skin the fragrance first edges towards sweetness, but as it develops, it oscillates between a dessert and a savory amuse-bouche.
Although it’s meant to evoke India, Fougère Bengal wraps me into a comforting scent reminiscent of my great-grandmother’s house and the wreaths of immortelle that decorated her small altar where the candles would be lit on Christmas Eve. Long after she passed away, these traditions have been kept by my mother. Olena’s dry perfume for gingerbread inspired me to search for a perfect spicy perfume, and yet what I found was another memory of her. And of course, a beautiful fragrance.
What are your warm and festive perfumes?
Photography by Bois de Jasmin
13 Comments
Noemi: Margiela’s By the Fireplace makes me think of when I was a girl and we roasted chestnuts in the fireplace in my mother’s kitchen. I still do it every winter when I am in my homeland Spain. December 16, 2024 at 9:25am
Hamamelis: It is always a joy when you write about your (great) grandmothers. I am wearing Parfum d’Empire’s Immortelle Corse today, it is warm and spicy, with saffron and a trace of apricot. It fits December, and lights up the dark days we are having here for quite a while. More festive would be Neela Vermeire’s Mohur Extrait, beautiful rose enveloped by cardamon, almonds, oud and sandalwood. Although I don’t like the name and what it is connected to, MFK’s Ciel de Gum fits the descriptive warm and festive. Warm, balsamic, gingerbread spices and rosewater, rich but not heavy. December 16, 2024 at 9:51am
Nenda Inasa Fadhilah: Another Indonesian pastry style that I would like to have is pandan cake. Unfortunately, it’s really rare to have pandan perfume. Closest thing will be Alien Objects “Pandan” December 16, 2024 at 10:01am
Donna: As for me, never mind the perfumes… well, okay, Opium comes to mind as such a lovely, elegant warm perfume, and I made a spicy carnation rose one that is yummy…
my mouth is watering, thinking of gingerbread with saffron.
Off to experiment with this idea! December 16, 2024 at 11:04am
Nancy Chan: Chanel’s Bois des Iles cone to mind! December 16, 2024 at 4:44pm
Figuier: Yes, Bois des Iles is definitely festive! Also Chypre Shot by Olfactove Studios, which is fruity and spicy in equal measure.
I want to make that lovely Ukranian gingerbread now – never thought of including saffron in a gingerbread/biscuit mix, but I can imagine it would be delicious! Thank you 🙂 December 16, 2024 at 5:04pm
Shan: in my country, christmases are hot, and we don’t really have the same traditions around this time of year but I’m very fond of gingerbread-y fragrances year round! At the moment I’m wearing Hammersmith Tea & Biscuits, which I think wonderfully fits the bill if this is a holiday scent to you 🙂 more hazelnut and ginger than pastry and black tea, but its very cozy. December 16, 2024 at 8:41pm
Aurora: What a lovely post, how wonderful that you can connect with your great grandmother through the recipe. One of my aunt’s made a terrific gingerbread, I did ask her to write it down but it’s misplaced somewhere in the cookbooks I have. December 17, 2024 at 5:28am
Julia: I love the perfumes mentioned and own two of them. My Mothers gingerbread that I plan to make for Christmas, is dark and moist, almost black with the amount of black strap molasses it uses and so rich. It’s a lot different from the usual pale gingerbread sold in the US. We serve it with whipped cream to offset the heavy and rich decadence of the cake. Not that whipped cream isn’t decadent on it’s own lol. Gingerbread is such a wonderful scent. December 17, 2024 at 12:18pm
OnWingsofSaffron: I must confess I don‘t like gingerbread. The German word for gingerbread is „Lebkuchen“, and there are plenty of variations on the theme, say the „Printen“ from Aachen, or the Swiss „Basler Läckerli“. I like all of the mentioned spices in a savoury dish from couscous to curry, but somehow mixing honey plus spices to a pastry: nope, sorry, not for me.
And interestingly, sweetish gingerbread perfumes—with the exception of Chanel Bois des Iles—aren‘t my favourite either. December 17, 2024 at 12:20pm
Alityke: Gingery perfumes tick all my boxes but I don’t really enjoy gingerbreads, with one exception, Yorkshire Parkin. It’s a heavy traybake type cake with oats, black treacle, ginger, cinnamon & a touch of clove. It’s commonly eaten around UK Bonfire night celebrations & is barely sweet. It can be eaten with a moist & crumbly cheese.
One of the best things about parkin is, like rich fruit cakes, it can be kept in an airtight tin to mature. It develops a deep molasses flavour & goes almost black & fudgy. December 18, 2024 at 4:45am
Neva: Aaaaah…grandmas and their recipes, how lovely.
I’m not really a fan of edible gourmands because most of them are sugary sweet filled with vanilla or tonka. I prefer them dry with spices, like Noir Epices by F. Malle and Jeux de Peau by S. Lutens, which is more like baked bread sprinkled with spices. December 20, 2024 at 10:18am
Judith R: Not exactly gingerbread, but Safran Troublant by L’Artisan Parfumeur is a favorite warm and festive fragrance of mine. December 27, 2024 at 6:13pm