Caramel popcorn, peach sorbet, even masala chai… Beauty brands turn foodies to woo your nose, imagined tastes

Welcome to the “gourmand" trend in Indian cosmetics and beauty products which is delivering best-sellers with fragrances of popular foods and drinks. The trend of these scents, often layered, making their way into skin creams, lip balm, and fragrances began a few years ago—today, they have carved a distinct and fast-growing niche. The segment is buzzing with new, specialized companies— some growing revenues multi-fold year on year—backed by heavy duty venture capital while legacy beauty brands gingerly step in or, like in the instance of Unilever plc, route investments through its corporate venture capital arm.

Audit and consultancy firm Deloitte estimates sales of beauty and personal care products in India at $16 billion ( ₹1.41 trillion) in fiscal 2024. An annual growth clip of 6% is expected to take it past ₹2 trillion by FY30. Data for gourmand cosmetics companies is not immediately available, but they make for a rapidly expanding segment within the premium beauty market. The segment is expanding at nearly twice the pace of the overall market as demand for food-inspired and experiential formulations rises, says Anand Ramanathan, partner, retail and consumer products sector leader, Deloitte.

The global market for gourmand fragrances illustrates the headroom for growth in India over the years: it is expected to close 2025 at $32.55 billion value, estimated market researcher Future Market Insights.

It’s not only new-age brands such as Plum, Blur India and All Good Scents that have launched fragrances like gourmand vanilla and caramel popcorn with a playful touch. Legacy and established brands Titan’s SKINN, Nykaa’s Moi and Bath & Body Works India have also boarded the bandwagon embracing dessert-inspired scents like praline or caramel.

Niche labels Bombay Perfumery and Naso Profumi have Indian-inspired edible notes like chai and cardamom in their portfolio introducing desi scents to an enthusiastic audience of customers.

Food marketing

Take the skincare label Plum Goodness. Its ‘body-loving’ range has built a following with dessert-inspired brands like Vanilla Vibes, Caramel Popcorn, and Smokin’ Vanilla.

Globally, vanilla was a popular fragrance, said Stuti Sethi, senior marketing manager at Plum, but “there was a white space" in India. “Nobody was really talking about vanilla in a modern, dessert-like way," she said. Its first product, Vanilla Vibes body mist, quickly became its top-selling product.

That’s when the penny dripped and the brand leaned into what Sethi calls “food marketing," making its fragrances look and feel edible which instantly resonated with young consumers. Plum’s early tagline, ‘Smell like a cupcake’ became an instant hit and has been copied by at least five brands in the last two years, Sethi said. “Vanilla, caramel popcorn, and doughnuts instantly connect with you, especially in a café-loving, dessert-obsessed culture like ours." Its recent Diwali launch: a fragrance that had tones of hazelnut and éclairs.

The Mumbai-based company’s fortunes reflect demand for gourmand beauty products. Its revenue grew to ₹341.7 crore, a near-22% jump in fiscal 2024 from the previous year. Not unusually for a new business, Plum’s net losses for period were ₹84.1 crore, according to data tracker Tracxn. The company has not reported it financials for FY25 yet.

Nearly 47% of Plum is owned by Unilever Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of the eponymous packaged consumer good giant, together with other funders.

Blur India, a digital-first beauty brand known for its playful, dessert-themed fragrances, echoes a similar sentiment with scents inspired by coffee cake, cookie crumble and vanilla melts.

“The ones that stood out for people—the ones that sold and got repurchased the most—were the gourmand ones," said Riya Pant, Blur’s founder. “That’s when we realized there was real demand for dessert-inspired scents."

Lending to visuals

For Blur, the strategy wasn’t just about smell; it was about storytelling. “The marketability of a gourmand range is stronger. The visuals, the kind of imagery you can create—desserts, cakes, whipped cream these immediately grab attention," Pant explained. “It’s hunger-provoking marketing."

The approach has paid off. Blur’s perfume and solid perfume collections, which are dessert-inspired scents now make up half of the brand’s total revenue, with a 17-20% repeat purchase rate within just a few months of launch. “We’ve kept it affordable under ₹500, but the quality matches perfumes are worth ₹2,000 or more," Pant said.

The company’s revenue doubled to ₹4.2 crore in FY24, a period it turned in a tiny profit versus the previous loss-making year. The company, bootstrapped and founded in 2022, has not reported its fiscal 2025 results yet, according to data from Tracxn.

Within the broader gourmand trend, one brand positions itself around one fragrance: meet mCaffeine. “Coffee isn’t just an ingredient for us; it’s the soul of our brand," said Vaishali Gupta, co-founder and chief growth officer of mCaffeine. mCaffeine’s is an exception to its competitors because all its products are infused with a coffee flavour or texture.

The brand clocked a 50-60% in repeat purchases in FY25, an expansion attributed largely to the fragrance-led emotional appeal of its coffee and dessert-inspired lines. “Our perfume body lotions have one of the highest repeat rates in our portfolio, showing how much consumers link skincare to fragrance-based emotional gratification," Gupta added.

Per data from research firm Tracxn, mCaffeine’s parent company Pep Technologies reported a more than 5x jump in annual revenue from ₹40.3 crore in FY20 to ₹210 crore in FY23. The topline marginally fell to ₹202 crore in FY24.

Gupta and co-founders hold about 25.3% stake in the company with the rest held by angel investors, Amicus Capital Partners, Paragon Partners and RPSG Capital Ventures.

Emotional connect

An expert said the gourmand boom sits at the intersection of nostalgia and novelty.

“For Gen Z, dessert-inspired fragrances evoke childhood comfort while offering a fun, expressive break from the functional or floral scents that dominated earlier," said Mani Singhal, managing director and co-leader of consumer and retail practice at Alvarez & Marsal India, a consultancy firm.

Beauty has moved from looks to feeling good. “For younger consumers, fragrance is now part of a sensorial self-care ritual—a way to boost mood, comfort oneself, or even project playfulness," she said.

The scents doing well in the gourmand trend extend to Indian foods and beverages. Like the Masala Chai Dewy Lip Tint of Inde Wild: it sold out within weeks of launch and remains one of the brand’s top-performing brands globally, according to founder Diipa Khosla.

“Masala Chai smells exactly like its warm spiced chai. It’s been really encouraging to see a product so culturally rooted in India resonate globally," she said. “Fragrance is a great way to tell a story, and we wanted scents that feel familiar to our community, are warm, comforting, and rooted in emotion."

Inde Wild generated a revenue of ₹11.1 crore in FY24—a 64-times jump from the previous year—and turned in a profit of ₹90 lakh coming out of its previous loss-making year. The company has raised $8 million in funding so far from Unilever Ventures, SoGal Ventures, and True Global.

It helps that the target demographic for gourmand cosmetics and beauty products, especially among Gen Z and millennials, are experimental. This has brought global beauty players in to ride the wave. The Body Shop, known for its classic floral and herbal ranges like British Rose and Shea Butter, recently aligned its Indian portfolio with its Passionfruit Bodycare range and plans to follow it up with Caramel and Sugar Plum collections this Christmas.

“Indian consumers are becoming increasingly experimental," said Harmeet Singh, chief brand officer at The Body Shop Asia South. “There’s a clear shift towards sweeter, food-inspired fragrances that evoke indulgence, comfort, and playful emotions."

Gen Z and younger millennials are driving this trend “drawn to fun, distinctive scents that express individuality," Singh added.

Is the gourmand trend in beauty products a passing fad or new pulsing category being created. Plum’s Sethi is clear: “The gourmand range is here to stay. People will go beyond vanilla into newer, exotic-sounding scents, but the sweetness will stay."