Surveying 2021 and 2022 novelties, it strikes me that the praline trend feels like it’s waning in favour of punchy fruits, curvy-creamy florals, and barely-there skin scents that fall gender neutral with transparent woods, mineralic herbs, and cotton musks. Perhaps ethyl maltol is finally fading in popularity. That’s why, on smelling Bond No 9’s Chelsea Nights, the tiresome ubiquity connoted to nutty caramels in the past didn’t bore as strongly and felt instead somehow nostalgic and comforting.
