Two niche perfume brands—one rooted in Myanmar's heritage, the other in Thailand's bold pantry—are quietly redefining what a gourmand fragrance can be. Gabar, a London-based house founded by Susan Wai Hnin and Phway Su Aye, translates specific memories of Southeast Asia into scent, while Thai perfumer Prin Lomros builds his brand Prin around unconventional local ingredients like durian and grilled rice. Together they illustrate a broader shift: Asian perfumery is moving gourmand beyond vanilla, caramel, and chocolate into a vocabulary of its own.
The Rise of Nouveau Gourmand in Asian Perfumery
The category's transformation is well underway across the region. As Antoaneta Becker reports for BeautyMatter, a new generation of Asian fragrance houses is drawing on roasted sweet potato, rice milk, matcha, and pandan to move gourmand beyond the accords that long defined it. The stakes are commercial as much as creative: local brands are building cultural differentiation that international houses cannot easily manufacture, and local olfactory codes are gaining global appeal.
Maxime Exler, fine fragrance perfumer at the French house Mane, frames the shift in terms of range. "Asian cuisines offer a broader and more nuanced palette for gourmand perfumery than the traditional idea of gourmand as being primarily sweet," he told BeautyMatter. "The ingredients themselves are important, but so are the textures, contrasts, and sensations associated with them." Sarah Pae, a "perfume tailor" at the South Korean creative group Scent By, gives the direction a name: "nouveau gourmand."
Consumer interest is measurable. According to China's Xiaohongshu 2025 Perfume & Fragrance Industry Trend Inspiration Report, searches for gourmand fragrances grew 46% year-over-year in 2024, while the platform's broader food-inspired scent category recorded a 78% increase in searches and a 108% increase in content views between March 2024 and March 2025. Chestnut and biscuit scents alone saw searches rise 214%, with content views up 247%.
Gabar: Myanmar's Olfactory Narratives
Gabar's approach is autobiographical. Drawing on the founders' Myanmar heritage, Gabar interprets Southeast Asian places, folklore, and lived experiences through fragrance. Its upcoming launch, Under The Mango Tree, scheduled for October 2026, is inspired by the mango tree from Wai Hnin's childhood home in Yangon, continuing the brand's tradition of translating specific memories into scent. It follows the Deities collection, which offers a broader interpretation of gourmand fragrance through stories about three mythical creatures from Southeast Asian folklore.
The brand's existing gourmands bring savory and toasted elements into a category often dominated by sweetness. Balu, priced at £150, combines dates and blackcurrant leaf with molasses, condensed milk, and cocoa. Galone, also £150, pairs sesame and nutmeg absolute with smoked nuts and volcanic caramel. "We're seeing perfumers explore ingredients and food memories that aren't traditionally associated with Western gourmand perfumery, such as sesame, spices, condensed milk, nuts and regional fruits," Wai Hnin told TheIndustry.beauty. For Asian-founded brands in particular, she notes, food offers a direct connection to cultural experience.
Prin: Thailand's Unconventional Gourmand Artistry
Where Gabar works from memory, Prin works from the ingredient itself. Prin is a niche artisan perfume brand from Thailand created by self-taught Thai perfumer Prin Lomros, whose creations are known for unconventional note usage. As Dao Nguyen reports for Jing Daily from the Asia Perfume Show 2026, Prin's gourmand offerings run from durian to grilled rice—ingredients that challenge traditional perceptions of what belongs in a fragrance.
Mythology supplies the narrative frame. Pryn Parfum Morah, a unisex scent from Lomros's brand, combines what ÇaFleureBon's Michelyn Camen describes as vintage constructs with Asian exoticism. The Thai flowers in the composition represent a character named Morah from the Thai folk tale of "Chantakorob"—a popular figure in Thai literature, a warrior with a true and honest heart who falls in love with the perfume's namesake, a savvy "femme fatale" who uses her beauty, wiles, and intelligence to survive in a world where men's decisions are law. The result is a gourmand-adjacent profile that is as much storytelling as confection.
Gabar vs. Prin: A Comparative Look at Asian Gourmand Innovation
Juxtaposing the two houses reveals distinct strategies within the same trend. Gabar converts lived experience into scent; Prin reaches for bold, unconventional local ingredients and folklore. The table below aligns their philosophies, signature fragrances, key notes, and cultural touchstones side by side.
| Dimension | Gabar | Prin |
|---|---|---|
| Brand & Origin | London-based house rooted in the founders' Myanmar heritage; founded by Susan Wai Hnin and Phway Su Aye | Niche artisan brand from Thailand, created by self-taught perfumer Prin Lomros |
| Gourmand Philosophy | Interprets Southeast Asian places, folklore, and lived experiences; translates specific memories into scent | Challenges traditional gourmand perceptions with unconventional notes drawn from Thai culture, mythology, and nature |
| Example Fragrance | Balu (£150); Galone (£150); Under The Mango Tree (October 2026) | Pryn Parfum Morah (unisex) |
| Key Notes | Balu: dates, blackcurrant leaf, molasses, condensed milk, cocoa. Galone: sesame, nutmeg absolute, smoked nuts, volcanic caramel | Durian and grilled rice among unconventional gourmand notes; Thai flowers in Morah |
| Cultural Inspiration | The mango tree outside Wai Hnin's childhood home in Yangon; Southeast Asian folklore in the Deities collection | Thai folk tale "Chantakorob" and Thai literary tradition |
The contrast is instructive. Gabar's savory-sweet compositions—sesame, smoked nuts, condensed milk—carry the weight of personal recollection, while Prin's durian and grilled rice announce themselves as deliberate provocations against the category's sweet conventions. Both, however, draw from the same well: Asian cuisines and narratives that Western gourmand perfumery has largely ignored.
Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Asian Gourmand Fragrances
To understand the "nouveau gourmand" trend, consumers should explore niche Asian brands that explicitly draw inspiration from local cuisines and cultural narratives, rather than solely focusing on traditional sweet gourmand profiles. Gabar and Prin offer two clear entry points: one memory-driven and softly savory, the other ingredient-led and boldly unconventional.
The measurable indicator to watch is the increased availability and recognition of Asian niche gourmand fragrances featuring savory or unconventional notes in international markets and fragrance communities. Gabar's Under The Mango Tree arrives in October 2026 as a concrete next milestone, and the Xiaohongshu data—46% year-over-year growth in gourmand searches, with chestnut and biscuit scent searches up 214%—suggests the appetite behind this shift is still building.
Sources
- How Asian Perfume Brands Are Reinventing Gourmand Fragrance — Beautymatter
- How Asian Perfume Brands Are Expanding Gourmand Fragrance — TheIndustry.beauty
- Savory gourmands and quiet sillage: Asian brands challenge fragrance conventions — Jingdaily
- Pryn Parfum Morah by Thai perfumer Prin Lomros — ÇaFleureBon Perfume Blog
