Almond Cream

Note Profile

Prepared

About

The smell of crème d'amande, the almond pastry cream also sold as frangipane. Ground sweet almond is bound with butter, egg and sugar, so the nut arrives already softened by dairy. It is marzipan that has been made rich rather than dense, and it is not baked or toasted.

Scent Profile

Nutty leads and every source puts almond first. DOOP names the accord "Almond Cream" and builds the whole product on almond. Carrément Belle arrives at it through bitter almond itself. CA Perfume supplies the nut character on its own, "sweet, nutty, and powdery", "reminiscent of marzipan". It is set below plain almond at 0.82 and below marzipan at 0.82 because the dairy half takes room that neither of those gives up. Lactonic is the cream and it is the facet that makes this note worth holding apart from marzipan. DOOP pairs "Almond Cream" with "Buttery Pastry" as equal middle notes. Carrément Belle's frangipane is a butter-and-egg custard. It is set well below plain cream at 0.80, because no source describes fresh dairy on its own here, and above hazelnut-cream at 0.58 only by a small margin, which the evidence does not really settle. Sweet_vanillic is carried by both direct sources. Carrément Belle names "a vanilla, floral and balsamic note" outright. DOOP adds powdered sugar over the top. It is the confectioner's sugar and vanillin of the filling, not a vanilla bean. Powdery is icing sugar and the heliotropin register, from CA Perfume's "slightly powdery" and DOOP's "powdered sugar". Creamy_woody, floral and amber_resinous are traces, all named once and none corroborated: CA Perfume's "creamy warmth, subtle woodiness, and a faintly floral undertone", and Carrément Belle's "floral and balsamic". Fruity is the cherry shadow that benzaldehyde always drags behind it. Nothing above trace is asserted where no source spoke.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~7h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

A pastry preparation, not a raw material. There is no distillate or extract of almond cream. In perfumery it is a built accord. The almond half is usually benzaldehyde with heliotropin for the powdery lift. The cream half is lactones and vanillin. Carrément Belle reaches the same smell from the other end, saying bitter almond essential oil "immediately reminds us of the almond cream of a good king's cake with frangipane" and then "reveals a vanilla, floral and balsamic note".

Usage in Perfumery

A gourmand heart note. It sits in bakery and dessert compositions where a plain nut note would read too dry and a plain dairy note would read too thin. DOOP Fragrance lists "Almond Cream, Buttery Pastry" as the middle notes of an almond croissant, under toasted sliced almonds and powdered sugar. Two Parfumo brands use the term.