VANILLA SUGAR

Vanilla sugar evokes the sweet, fragrant idea of sugar flavoured with vanilla. In perfume it points towards a confectionery impression: familiar vanilla warmth with a sugary, sometimes creamy softness. It need not reproduce a whole cake or caramel dessert; the name can describe a simpler sweet thread running through the composition.

The culinary ingredient can be made from sugar and ground vanilla beans, but the fragrance note is an interpretation rather than evidence that this mixture is in the bottle. There is no single formula implied by the name. Bath & Body Works, for example, places vanilla and a sugar impression alongside orchid, jasmine and sandalwood in its Warm Vanilla Sugar fragrance. That illustrates how sweetness can sit within a floral, woody setting. Other compositions may take a different direction, with their own balance of sweetness and texture.