The beauty world is quite literally waking up and smelling the coffee. Not at our local speciality coffee shops (though I do go there so often I refer to the barista as my 'coffee boyfriend' – my own boyfriend doesn't love that), but via our fragrances.
Bean-infused beauty is nothing new. The ingredient has been included in eye serums for its power to wake up the under-eye area, and body scrubs to slough away dry skin, but coffee is having a real moment in fragrance.
Coffee colognes
Kylie Jenner's new Mood Stones Velvet Brew, £48, has coffee flower and coffee accord in the notes, while Dedcool's Mocha Magic (yet to land in the UK) namechecks my indulgent order of choice, blending rich mocha with creamy tonka.
A more complex take on the trend is the heady Espresso Aoud by Roja London, £325. Undeniably masculine, I can smell roasted coffee beans and nuts immediately upon spraying.
Even more dramatic is L'Entropist's Dorian's Spleen, £260. As edgy as the name, it blends whisky accord with traces of coffee and dark chocolate. If you've read Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, you'll easily be able to marry this hedonistic scent with the title character's hidden decay.
But why are coffee scents suddenly everywhere?
In my opinion, coffee is coming to the forefront in fragrance as the antidote to the fluffy, sweet gourmand scents we've been spritzing for the past year.
Marshmallow, caramel and vanilla have been cropping up constantly in perfume launches, but coffee has come along and said, 'Hold my latte,' overpowering the sweet scents for a more dramatic, demanding take on edible-inspired scents.
I am all for gourmands; I love Viktor and Rolf's BonBon, I appreciate OG gourmand Angel by Thierry Mugler, and Kayali's Vanilla 28 is an all-time favourite, but I have had enough of the infantilisation of fragrance.
The fragrance infantilisation of 2026
Ariana Grande's latest scent, Cloud Aurora, calls itself a 'sugar-spun daydream' (bleurgh) and Kayali's biggest launch of late was the Boujee Kitty Caramel Milk, a name which turned me off immediately. Despite the fact that I like the sound of the notes (caramel santal and soft musk) but imagine being asked what you're wearing and having to say, 'Boujee Kitty'. That is a no from me.
We've been wafting around in a cloud of gourmand for months, leaning into the internet's obsession with 'whimsy' – but coffee is here to break that fluffy, cocooning spell.
Dedcool's Mocha Milk is the perfect gateway between gourmand and coffee. It holds your hand as you cross from the soft sweetness of summer into autumn's grown-up coffee eau de parfums, because it does still have those vanilla notes we've all become obsessed with.
For the autumn-addicts out there, this perfume is how I imagine Rory Gilmore would smell in Gilmore Girls as she crunches leaves in Stars Hollow. Bookish and determined, but a little bit sweet, still.
As for Kylie Jenner's Velvet Brew, it forms part of a trio of scents with the beauty mogul creating one for every mood. She says Velvet Brew (which is my favourite of the three – Cashmere Muse is an alluring floral musk, while Blush Wood is sensual and romantic) is her 'go-to for a night out' when she wants to feel confident and sexy and I can see why. There are no sweet notes (a huge departure from Kylie's Cosmic collection of perfumes), with hazelnut the closest to a creamy addition.
Neither Dorian's Spleen or Espresso Aoud are for me, as they're both a little too powerful, but maybe I've been living in perfume candy land for too long and they'll grow on me as I transition away from gourmands.
