Origins & milestones

Gourmand did not arrive as one bottle. The timeline below keeps Grasse, Guerlain, Chanel, Nahéma and IFRA as proper names, not metaphors.

Read the years as a map of trade and reformulation, not as a ranking of beauty.

Timeline

1. Pre-1992Amber sweets

   Shalimar vanilla is balsam, not a pastry counter.

2. 1992Angel

   Mugler / Cresp / Dallery: maltol, patch, chocolate, a star bottle.

3. 1997Lolita Lempicka

   Fennel-anise-praline; fairy gourmand.

4. 1998Hypnotic Poison

   Dior almond-vanilla; gourmand-floral.

5. 2006Pink Sugar

   Aquolina: mall cotton candy as a named product.

6. 2012La Vie Est Belle

   Lancôme / Ropion–Fontaine–Daltroff team: iris-praline blockbuster.

7. 2010sFlanker desserts

   Every house a crème, a cocoa, a caramel.

8. 2000Musc Ravageur

   Roucel’s cinnamon-musk — gourmand-adjacent skin.

9. 2010sWood backlash

   Niche woods as anti-Angel.

10. 2020sQuiet gourmands

    Salted caramel, less maltol, 2020s.

The eras

• No family yet — Sweets live inside amber.
• Invention and copies — Angel sets the geometry.
• Mall dessert — Pink Sugar to La Vie.
• Flanker peak — Crème and caramel editions saturate the wall.
• Gourmet vs candy — Salt, sesame, backlash and still more flankers.

Milestones

• Angel, 1992 — A new family with a dated birth certificate.
• La Vie Est Belle, 2012 — Praline as global volume.
• Ethyl maltol as a lead — Candy molecule as architecture, not a trace.

Gourmand keeps moving; the other six chapters say what one date cannot.

Origins & milestonesNotes & accordsCraft & methodCulture & meaningIcons & legendsHow to wearMarket & bottles