Chestnut is a warm, sweet, slightly earthy gourmand note that recalls roasted chestnuts or marrons glacés, the candied chestnuts of French confectionery. It is an accord rather than a natural extract, combining sweet, roasted and woody materials to give fragrances an autumnal, cosy softness.

What does Chestnut smell like?

Chestnut smells gently sweet and starchy, with roasted, smoky and slightly earthy facets. In its roasted form it recalls winter street stalls and wood smoke; as a marron glacé it is creamier and more vanilla-like. Compared with hazelnut, chestnut is less buttery and more floury, with a sweet-potato softness.

How perfumers create Chestnut

The sweet chestnut tree, Castanea sativa, is not a source of perfume materials, so perfumers build the note from roasted pyrazines, caramel and vanillin, and light woody and earthy touches. Tonka and coumarin can add a hay-like sweetness, while smoky notes suggest roasting. For marron glacé, the accord leans on vanilla, sugar and lactones.

• Also known as: Sweet chestnut, marron, châtaigne
• Fragrance family: Gourmand
• Type: Accord (created by the perfumer)
• Key aroma molecules: Pyrazines, vanillin, coumarin

Chestnut in perfume history

Chestnut is not a historic perfume note. The candied marron glacé has a long French pastry tradition, and chestnut appears in perfume mainly as part of the wider gourmand vocabulary developed since the 1990s.

Chestnut in modern perfumery

Chestnut is a niche and seasonal note, often seen in autumn and winter editions and in home fragrance. It suits gourmand-woody compositions that want sweetness without too much sugar.

How Chestnut wears and what it pairs with

Chestnut is a heart-to-base note. It pairs with vanilla, tonka, smoky woods, cinnamon and clove, iris, and fig or apple.