What happens when one of the world’s most talked-about desserts becomes a perfume? For GP Fragrances, the result is Pistachio Knafeh, a new gourmand fragrance that takes the familiar combination of pistachio, chocolate, and cream-filled pastry and gives it a distinctly sophisticated finish.
The fragrance was unveiled at The Beauty Edit Gallery at Spatio, where GP Fragrances co-founder Greg Parilla and perfumer Gib Osbert Ang took guests behind the scent—from the viral dessert that sparked the idea to the many iterations that eventually became the finished fragrance.
A Core Memory From Dubai
For Parilla, the idea began with the pistachio craze already making waves in food and fragrance. But a trip to Dubai gave the concept its real starting point.
“I know pistachio got trending in 2023, but brands started creating perfumes from it in 2024. I got inspired too, especially after I tried the Dubai chocolate that went viral last year—I tried it in Dubai,” Parilla shared. “So I thought, let’s create our own version of this.”
Something else mattered to him personally: the original dessert, he said, was co-created by a Filipino chef.
For Ang, on the other hand, making the fragrance feel Filipino wasn’t simply about recreating a Dubai dessert but also translating the way Filipinos relate to food.
“I think the soul of it is really that Filipinos love comforting food,” Ang explained. He pointed to the familiar rituals around coffee shops, desserts, and treating yourself to something sweet. “So this is kind of like it—like it’s your handy [source of] comfort.”
“If you spray it, it gives you that certain happiness. It evokes that kind of emotion,” he added.
A ‘Sexy’ Take on Gourmand
The goal was clear from the beginning: create a pistachio knafeh fragrance without making it overwhelmingly sweet.
Pistachio Knafeh is unmistakably a gourmand. The fragrance opens with dark chocolate and pistachio, immediately bringing to mind the dessert that inspired it. But from there, it develops into something softer and refined, with leather and pistachio cream forming part of the heart, alongside a recreated milk-froth accord that gives the scent its fluffy, marshmallow-like texture.
Ionones add a powdery, iris-like quality, while white chocolate rounds out the gourmand character. The base of ambergris, sandalwood, vanilla, and ambrettolide gives the fragrance warmth and depth as it settles.
Parilla described it as a “sexy gourmand,” a fragrance category that starts with the sensory appeal of something edible but develops into something more sophisticated.
“Greg was [explaining] the brief, saying, ‘Hey, I want a scent that’s a pistachio knafeh fragrance,'” Ang recalled. “But I also don’t want it to be super gourmand, super cloying, super sweet. And let’s not forget, it’s a perfume, not like a dessert.”
That contrast between edible and wearable is what shaped the fragrance’s development. “It opens up very gourmand,” Ang said, “but it develops into a silky-smooth, fluffy, marshmallowy musk scent.”
Creating that balance wasn’t a quick process. Ang revealed that the team went through roughly 24 iterations before arriving at the final version.
Made to Be Worn, Not Just Smelled
The final challenge was making a gourmand work in the Philippines. Both Parilla and Ang acknowledged that sweet, dense fragrances can be difficult in hot weather. Their advice was to let Pistachio Knafeh shine where it can breathe.
“Gourmand shines in controlled temperatures, really,” Ang said. “You don’t want to wear it in the high heat.”
Parilla also suggested occasions such as a date night or special event, describing it as something you can wear when you want to “smell yummy, but still sophisticated.”
And perhaps the most important advice from both is to give the fragrance time. Ang admitted that he was initially surprised by how different it smelled on skin compared with paper. “When you spray it on skin, it’s different,” he said. “You get the different aspects when you spray it on skin.”
“You can’t really judge it on first spray,” he continued. “You really want to wear it.”
At The Beauty Edit Gallery, guests got to do exactly that: smell the fragrance, taste the chocolate-pistachio inspiration, hear directly from the people who created it, and experience how the scent changes on skin.
Pistachio Knafeh may have begun with a dessert that captured the internet’s attention, but its journey from Dubai chocolate to Filipino fragrance is what makes it worth knowing and experiencing. With 24 iterations, a milk-froth accord, powdery iris notes, and a deliberately soft musk dry-down, GP Fragrances has taken a familiar gourmand idea and given it considerably more depth.
And as Ang put it, the goal was never for it to “start gourmand and end gourmand.” Instead, Pistachio Knafeh starts with dessert and ends with perfume.
Pistachio Knafeh by GP Fragrances
P1,850, The Beauty Edit Gallery at Spatio
Shop GP Fragrances and more Filipino fragrance brands at The Beauty Edit Gallery at Spatio, located on the 3/F of Opus Mall, Bridgetowne Destination Estate, Quezon City. An editorial-led retail concept—and the first-of-its-kind in the local scene—the gallery spotlights indie innovators, cult icons, and niche trailblazers shaping F-beauty today.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANNAH VALDEZCO.
