9 Best Mliky Perfumes of 2024 Adding a Creamy Touch to Gourmands, According to Editors

Notes: Milk accord, bourbon vanilla bean, Madagascar vanilla bean, frangipani, peony, rose, cocoa shell extract, amyris, sandalwood, musk | Available Sizes: 1.7 ounces

Best Musk: Molton Brown Milk Musk Eau de Toilette

Why It’s Worth It: If you prefer fragrances that embrace the creamier side of milk, try Molton Brown’s Milk Musk Eau de Toilette. At the literal heart of this fragrance is a soft, smooth blend of musk and milk that’s tied together with sweet vanilla and warm ambroxan (a synthetic form of amber). It harmoniously hits all the fragrance bases with juicy hints of pear and peach, warm cedarwood, and sweet, spicy tonka bean.

Notes: Musk, ambroxan, vanilla, milk, pear, peach, cedarwood, tonka bean | Available Sizes: 3.3 ounces

Best Hazy: Imaginary Authors Yesterday Haze Eau De Parfum

Why It’s Worth It: If you want to evoke laidback, summery vibes year-round, spritz the Imaginary Authors Yesterday Haze Eau De Parfum. It contains all the scents you might whiff out on a hot August day in the countryside: fig, iris, tree bark, and orchard dust are just the beginning. A dose of cream, walnut bitters, and tonka plays up its creamy, lingering profile.

Notes: Fig, iris, cream, orchard dust, tree bark, walnut bitters, tonka bean | Available Sizes: 1.7 ounces

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a perfume “milky”?

Milky textures have taken over skin- and hair-care products, but what qualifies a non-tangible scent as a milky substance? Well, it’s more about the scent’s olfactory composition than its texture. “‘Milky’ usually describes a fragrance with milk (mostly milk sugar) or a transparent creaminess,” says Vince Spinnato, a Hollywood-based perfumer and cosmetic chemist. Lactonic scents are often labeled as gourmand and tend to be paired with vanilla, sandalwood, fruits, and white flowers. “It evokes a sweetness and a coziness or comforting essence,” says Spinnato.

Mandy Aftel, a perfumer based in Berkeley, California, adds that milky fragrances have a “soft, flat” composition as opposed to the sharpness of, say, cheese. “It’s skin-like and creamy,” she says.

Which fragrance notes are found in milky perfumes?

Fun fact: Your fragrance doesn’t have to feature a milk-derived accord to qualify as a milky fragrance. Spinnato says that perfumers recreate a milky perfume smell with materials called lactones, which are typically found in fruits. “They tend to smell like coconut or peach, but when mixed with vanilla, they create a milky aroma,” Spinnato notes. Other notes that impart creaminess are soft woods, vanilla, heliotrope, tuberose, some roses, and caramelized sugar, he adds.