A Love Letter to Vanilla, Vol. 1: Favorite Vanilla Perfumes

Let’s chat about my favorite subgroup of the oriental scent family: vanilla! Vanilla will forever be my go-to fragrance. It’s warm, welcoming, and can smell just plain delicious! It’s usually a non-offensive scent to wear if you’re going to be around folks who typically don’t care for perfume. In the perfume community, it’s known as a “men-pleaser,” meaning men are typically drawn to this scent. It also works well with most peoples’ body chemistry. It’s really hard to go wrong with a basic vanilla and it famously layers and ‘plays well’ with other scents, making it a lot of fun to experiment with mixing and matching. Here are my top favorite vanilla perfumes!

Maison Margiela Replica By the Fireplace

• Top Notes: pink pepper, orange flower petals, clove oil
• Middle Notes: chestnut accord, guaiac wood oil, cade oil
• Base Notes: vanilla accord, Peru balsam, cashmeran

I have to lead off with my signature scent! From Maison Margiela’s ‘Replica’ line, I give you: By the Fireplace. I had been searching everywhere for a perfume that smelled exactly the same as my favorite Diptyque candle, Vanille. Diptyque creates some of the loveliest perfumes in the world (keep scrolling to see one of them) but they do not create wearable scents that are exactly the same as their candles.

I was excited to finally discover Maison Margiela’s Replica line, in which they strive to create scents that recall to mind certain feelings, locations, or moments in time. Olfactory memories, anyone?? By the Fireplace turned out to be that perfect, rich, smoky vanilla I had been searching for. Other notes include clove oil and chestnut accord.

I highly recommend this line of interesting scents which contains intriguing titles such as “Sailing Day,” “Lipstick On,” and another personal fave, “Whispers in the Library.” Stay tuned for a future post where I will further explore more of Replica’s captivating scents.

Find it here:

By the Fireplace 1ml, 2ml, 5ml, 9ml decants, 100ml full bottle (at Scent Split)

By the Fireplace 30ml, 100ml (at Nordstrom)

Pharmacia Vanilla Doré

• Notes: roasted almond, clove, vanilla, blonde woods

Another lovely, smoky vanilla is this fabulous find from Anthropologie, Pharmacia’s Vanilla Doré.

This elegant scent teams vanilla up with roasted almond, clove, and blonde woods. A complex, yet ladylike, scent that works well for daytime casual wear as well as a romantic night out. At $24 a bottle, it is also an excellent value for such a sophisticated scent.

Find it here:

Vanilla Doré (at Anthropologie)

Vanilla Doré hand & body lotion (at Anthropologie)

Outremer Vanille

• Note: powdery, delicately spiced vanilla
• Other Note Perceived: cotton candy

Another perennial favorite of mine is Outremer’s Vanille. A simple, sweet vanilla that’s reminiscent of cotton candy, this is one that is always in my collection. It’s also an incredible value, usually selling for $20 or less. Bonus: it comes in a beautiful, art nouveau-inspired bottle. This perfume is created in smaller batches, so Anthropologie does sell out of it from time to time. Another place to check for it is through Smallflower.

Find it here:

Vanille 15ml travel-spray (at Anthropologie)

Vanille 50ml (at Anthropologie)

Vanille 50ml (at Smallflower)

Margot Elena TokyoMilk Let Them Eat Cake

• Notes: sugar cane, coconut milk, vanilla orchid, white musk

This has been my signature lotion scent for over 20 years for good reason: it smells good enough to eat! This delicious smelling product is available in perfume and lip balm as well. Margot Elena is a genius when it comes to unique, elegant scents and I have loved her Tokyo Milk line for many moons.

This delicious concoction combines vanilla orchid with sugar cane, coconut milk, and white musk. It smells just like a delicious, freshly baked vanilla cake. Don’t be surprised if you’re tempted to lick your own wrist after applying this scent! 😄

Find it here:

Let Them Eat Cake 30ml (at TokyoMilk’s Amazon store)

Diptyque Eau Duelle

• Notes: vanilla, pink peppercorn, cypriol
• ‘Olfactory Accident:’ calamus (a warm spicy woody note with sweet undertones)

The last vanilla I want to mention (for now) is Diptyque’s lovely Eau Duelle. This gorgeous and sophisticated scent is made up of Madagascar bourbon vanilla, pink peppercorn, and cypriol. To me, it smells deep and rich and though it does not list amber as an actual note, it smells very like a vanilla/amber lovechild to me.

I stumbled upon this scent by accident, it was a blind buy from Diptyque as I was hoping it would smell like the aforementioned Vanille candle of theirs. Though the two vanilla scents are nothing alike, I am still pleased that I happened upon this deep and rich scent and it quickly became a favorite.

Find it here:

Eau Duelle EDT 1ml, 2ml, 5ml, 9ml decants (at Scent Split)

Eau Duelle EDT 50ml (at Diptyque)

Eau Duelle EDT 100ml (at Diptyque)

Eau Duelle EDP 1ml, 2ml, 5ml, 9ml (at Scent Split)

Eau Duelle EDP 75ml (at Diptyque)

This ode to vanilla is volume one because with my deep love of vanilla scents, there will absolutely be future conversations about it! Do you have a favorite vanilla or signature scent? I would love to hear about it in the comments! 🥰

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