The Sweetest Thing I Ate Today Was My Perfume

Words by Staff Writer: Ingrid Jones | Photos: chrxsill | Nails: Stella Nails | Hair, Makeup, Styling: Tiffany the Artist

While I eat breakfast on the subway ride to work, top athlete Serena Williams stares at me from a Ro advert, telling me how she lost thirty-one pounds on the GLP-1 shot. Her white tennis uniform complements the white injection pen. Last year, Williams told People Magazine: “I feel like you should love yourself at any size and any look.” I take another sip of my Dunkalatte, my headache dizzying as the sugar shoots straight to my brain. 

It's an early morning at the World Trade Center’s Sephora, where I am working as the only junior manager. Today we have some new fragrances coming out, including Skylar’s True Love’s Cake (top: rosewater, plum nectar; heart: orange blossom honey, cherry blossom; base: almond cake, caramelized pistachio) and LORE’s Lil Softie (top: cereal, milk; heart: musk mallow, jasmine; base: musk, milk, rice). 

I didn’t wear perfume until starting at Sephora, but now I spend a large fraction of my shifts in the fragrance section replenishing rollerballs, making new testers, and unlocking the drawers for purchases. I quickly learned the difference between an eau de toilette, eau de parfum, and a parfum, which is the amount of oil put in that fragrance—more oil means a stronger scent, making a parfum the strongest (and most expensive). I also learned that many straightforward fragrances often fall into one of these groupings: gourmand, floral, fresh, or woody. 

It didn’t take long to see that gourmands–fragrances good enough to eat, usually consisting of extravagant, evocative food notes that would belong on the dessert menu– were clearly the top seller, with customers coming in knowing exactly what they were looking for. Brands such as Kayali, Phlur, Skylar, and Sol de Janeiro unequivocally came out in front with leading notes of vanilla, marshmallow, pistachio, and even cake. I sell multiple bottles of the Vanilla Skin body mist (top: pink pepper; heart: cashmere woods; base: vanilla and sandalwood) per day, with customers beelining towards Kayali’s Yum Boujee Marshmallow (top: Italian lemon, freesia; heart: strawberry, pink marshmallow, orange blossom water; base: whipped vanilla, pink musk) and Yum Pistachio Gelato (top: hazelnut, sweet rum, pistachio gelato; heart: jasmine, white peach, pear; base: whipped cream, marshmallow, cotton candy). 

I noticed this around the same time I noticed Ozempic popping up more and more in my daily interactions. As a junior manager I did bag checks before employees and brand reps left the store, requiring employees to open every pocket and show me the contents: tampons, pens, lipgloss, Ozempic, a fork and empty Tupperware, Wegovy, a fragrance rollerball, pocket mirror, Zepbound, etc. 

On gourmands, beauty writer and fragrance columnist Arabelle Sicardi writes, “As economic, political, and ecological anxieties intensify, scent becomes a low-risk indulgence—pleasure without consequence, consumption without calories.” Emerging studies seem to imply taking GLP-1s does impact one’s olfactory experiences, increasing their sensory awareness just as quickly as they slow one’s digestion and the instincts that travel from the gut to the brain indicating hunger. We are wearing scents masking as comfort food, as the same decadence we won’t allow in our bodies. No calories, no guilt. 

Many Reddit users taking weight-loss-enhancing drugs seem to corroborate this theory, reporting an increased obsession with fragrance after getting on GLP-1s and especially those falling into the gourmand category. The Huffpost published an article highlighting the correlation in May of this year, with contributors describing their GLP-1s as minimizing “food noise” and amplifying scents that previously might have caused them to wrinkle their noses into a rewarding experience.

As “heroin chic” sinks its claws into red carpets worldwide and GLP-1s are marketed anywhere and everywhere, candy begins to feel like indulgence, digesting a little something sweet going hand in hand with rebellion. 

Fragrance holds memories, acting as the brain’s way of commemorating moments that matter. Anything with notes of neroli bring me back to the house my family used to rent on the beach while Jo Malone’s Ginger Biscuit (top: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon; heart: caramel and hazelnut; base: vanilla and tonka bean) reminds me of Christmas at the house I lived in until I was twelve. And then, there are some of my favorite desserts that can never be replicated in fragrance: the taste of a perfect South Carolina key lime pie, pineapple Haribo gummy bears, or the first bite of a chocolate lava cake fresh from the kitchen. If fragrance captures memory in a bottle, what would a gourmand be without an enjoyment of dessert? What is the point of commemorating memories if we don’t make them first to begin with, over drink, food and life.

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Thank you for reading! Keep up with staff writer Iggy via her Instagram.