First it took over dessert menus, and now it has moved onto your dressing table. Pistachio has become the defining fragrance note of the season, riding the same wave of popularity that made Dubai chocolate and every other nutty, creamy treat inescapable. In perfume, it lands as something soft, creamy and gently nutty, the kind of edible warmth that gourmand scents are built on.
The master perfumer Francis Kurkdjian sees it as part of a broader shift. “Gourmand trends are changing — still gourmand, but differently. More toward sweet, creamy tones with milky accords and chocolate, pistachio and praline,” he says. Paired with green, woody or floral notes, pistachio turns into something more grown-up than a dessert in a bottle.
The proof is on the shelves. Valentino’s Salty Pistachio mist folds in neroli and orange blossom, New Notes offers an Italian Latte Pistachio, and Kayali’s Yum Pistachio Gelato 33 piles on whipped cream, marshmallow and hazelnut. Le Monde Gourmand’s Pistachio Brûlée and Clean’s Pistachio Passion round out the field. The note is not entirely new — Tom Ford used it in Soleil Blanc back in 2016, and Hermès in Un Jardin à Cythère in 2023 — but this is the summer it went mainstream.
