What does hunger smell like?

Do you have a favorite perfumer? Mine is Marissa Zappas. The NYC based perfumer has been crafting complex and wonderful scents for the past decade, often inspired by film, TV and iconic cultural moments. This is my second time interviewing her—the first was when she reverse engineered Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic (and lost) fragrance Her Scent of Mystery, a scent originally designed for Elizabeth Taylor’s character Sally Kennedy in the 1960 Smell-O-Vision film Scent of Mystery. Now Marissa is back with more movie magic. In collaboration with John Early’s new movie Maddie’s Secret Zappas worked with producer and actress Ruby McCollister to develop a perfume inspired by the film. Early describes it as a true gourmand, “I needed to have these LA food girl ingredients, toasted rice, milkiness, jasmine, and Sichuan peppercorn. It ended up having this chocolate milk cutesy thing about it.” Marissa and Ruby stopped by to talk about their favourite scents, real life inspiration, and what it takes to make a “Gourmaybe.”