Vanilla perfumes have long been a favorite. Vanilla imparts a lovely, sweet, comforting quality to fragrance. Or it could be that we all want to smell like a Cupcake! Hey, I do. It's the next best thing to having a cupcake in the house.
You may want a really simple vanilla perfume that smells pretty much like vanilla extract right from the bottle. In that case, I'd suggest just get a bottle or vanilla extract, I love that smell! Personally, I don't really want to wear Watkins Vanilla Extract, but if you do, go for it! Or you may want a vanilla perfume that incorporates the vanilla in, like, well, a cupcake!!! Or you may want your vanilla not so gourmandy (cupcake!); serve it up with some smoke. There is a vanilla perfume that will fit you exactly!
Vanilla is grown in these hard little pods. If you've ever used fresh vanilla in cooking, you have to carefully cut down the pod, open it and scrape out the vanilla. Why would you want to go to all that trouble? Vanilla in the raw like that is amazing smelling.
Vanilla was first cultivated in Mexico. Once the Aztecs bounced in and conquered the Totonac people, the first known cultivators, they found vanilla pretty tasty, and it became a favorite amongst the Aztecs. Still a little Aztec secret, that all changed once Cortez washed up on their shores and took it back to the Old World. They gave it its current name, vanilla (meaning little pod) and it became the second costliest spice in the world, second only to saffron.
So how do you choose the best vanilla perfume for you? We have some amazing Vanilla Perfume Sample Sets that will give you a wide range of options, from the most foodie (cupcake!) vanille perfume to a smokier, not sweet vanilla perfume. You can check under Sample Sets by Note. Or just use our search function to bring up all the vanilla perfume sample sets as well as other vanilla perfumes. If you look at all the perfumes under this category, it includes all the perfumes that have vanilla as a note. That doesn't mean that it is vanilla dominant, it could have a very minor backup role. That's why we suggest starting with the vanilla perfume sample sets.