Milk & Sugar Please!

Inspiration
Milk & Sugar Please! is the house fragrance of ParfuMaria in IJsselstein, the Netherlands, and it begins with a memory of mine. I have known Theodoros Kalotinis, the Greek perfumer known as “The King of Gourmands”, for years, and I love his fragrances. For a long time I had the idea of capturing the scent of condensed milk in a perfume, carried by creamy, warm sandalwood. That wish comes from Athens, where I once lived. There I ate lammetjespap, a Dutch milk porridge of bread, or sometimes rusk, with warm milk and a spoonful of sugar. That scent has always stayed with me. Together with Theodoros, the memory became a perfume, created exclusively for ParfuMaria and available nowhere else in the world.

Perfumer
Theodoros Kalotinis

Fragrance Family
Gourmand

The Olfactive Composition
Top notes: Condensed milk, warm milk, sugar
Heart notes: Vanilla
Base notes: Tonka, creamy warm sandalwood, soft musk

The Signature of Milk & Sugar Please!
Milk is one of the hardest impressions to render convincingly in perfumery: soft and round without turning flat, warm without becoming heavy. Here the scent opens with two faces of milk. Condensed milk brings a thick, velvety sweetness, warm milk adds a soft, skin-like texture, and sugar lays a crystalline sheen on top. In the heart, vanilla follows seamlessly, making the composition fuller and warmer. What makes it grown-up is the base. Tonka adds an almond-like warmth, and creamy sandalwood gives structure and depth, so the sweetness never turns childish. Soft musk lets it all glow close to the skin. Milk & Sugar Please! remains a gourmand of quiet comfort: not a dessert, but a memory.

What our ParfuMaria team thinks of this fragrance
For me, this is the most personal fragrance in my shop. I did not buy it in; it comes from my own memory, and every bottle carries ParfuMaria on its label. What moves me most is how honest it is. It tells one story, of Athens and a bowl of warm milk, and tells it with taste. The sandalwood in the base makes the difference: it keeps the scent warm and grown-up rather than sugary. I reach for it myself on cold autumn and winter days, yet it is soft enough for daytime, at the office or simply at home. One customer called it her comfort scent, which comes close to what I had in mind.