Almond dust on my cuffs: a first look at Darren Alan Perfumes Biscotti

I sprayed Biscotti on a gray morning and immediately wanted to wipe imaginary flour off my black sweater. If you think gourmands are juvenile sugar bombs, this one might nudge your eyebrows up. Darren Alan has given Darren Alan Perfumes a holiday-leaning scent for 2025 that feels like a hand on your shoulder, not a cupcake to the face.

Let’s talk biscotti without getting sticky. My skin pulls out the things that make the cookie adult: the toasted edge, the faintly bitter glint you get from almond skins, a little citrus light, maybe even that licorice-flecked sparkle you smell while the tray cools. There is sweetness, obviously, but it’s in proportion, like the last crumbs at the bottom of Nonna’s tin. The drydown trades the kitchen heat for a soft, glowing hush, as if the candle has been snuffed and the house is warm anyway.

The clever move here is restraint. Biscotti isn’t dipped in vanilla syrup, it’s dusted. The opening sits close, then spreads like a wool scarf, and by the two-hour mark I get a gentle woody backbone that keeps the cookie from crumbling into cliché. Projection is polite, which makes it incredibly wearable at the office or over a silk blouse at dinner. It reads holiday without jingling its keys.

I wore it while making real biscotti and it didn’t compete, it synchronized. Perfumes that try to reenact dessert often forget texture. Biscotti has texture. You can almost feel the snap before the dunk, then the softened edges after the coffee.

There’s a wink to family mythology here, echoed by the “Christmas At Nonna’s” spirit swirling around the launch. Thankfully, it never slides into kitsch. It smells like memory edited by good taste. That edit is what separates a gourmand you outgrow from one you keep for years.

If your collection swings from crisp citrus to plush woods and you’ve left gourmands on read, Biscotti is a graceful re-entry. It’s festive, but it will not live in a box with tinsel. It’s comforting, but it refuses to be obvious. And in a year that will bring many loud treats, this quiet cookie might be the luxury you actually finish.