The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The Way You Kiss Me is Devertere's 2025 extrait de parfum from Sofia Bardelli. The name arrives already loaded. What does a kiss taste like? Caramel, probably. Bergamot on breath. Something warm underneath. Bardelli worked outward from that question, building a fragrance that starts sweet and stays sweet, but refuses to be one-note. The Italian house describes its compositions as disturbing narratives in liquid form. This one disturbs the idea that sweet fragrances can't have depth.
Rice and saffron in the heart are the tell. Neither is a traditional perfumery material for a gourmand fragrance, but both make sense here: rice as texture, saffron as the spice that keeps sweetness honest. Cotton candy and milkshake keep the middle playful, but cashmere wood and peach stop it from becoming a body spray. The base resists softness entirely. Oud. Benzoin. Sandalwood. These are the materials that make a sweet fragrance grow up.
The evolution
The opening announces itself with caramel dissolving into coconut milk and bergamot. Bright for the first twenty minutes. Then the citrus retreats and the lactonic notes take over, oat milk and almond milk creating something that smells edible, like someone just finished cooking. The heart settles into rice and saffron, a warm spiced center that surprises against the sweet opening. Peach arrives late, softening everything. The base is where Devertere earns its reputation. Oud emerges slowly, smoky and resinous, grounding the sweetness that preceded it. Sandalwood and benzoin create warmth that stays close to skin for the remaining hours. Musk threads through everything, keeping the drydown intimate rather than projecting. The fragrance doesn't fill rooms. It fills collar lines.
Cultural impact
The Way You Kiss Me enters perfumery at a moment when sweet fragrances shed their dismissal as simple or immature. Devertere's 2025 release signals a shift in how niche houses approach gourmand compositions, treating edible notes not as guilty pleasures but as sophisticated constructs worthy of artistic treatment. Sofia Bardelli's use of rice and saffron within a lactonic framework challenges conventions that reserve spice for masculine or darker fragrances. This fragrance participates in broader cultural conversations about sensory pleasure, intimacy, and the democratization of luxury. By refusing to hide its sweetness behind oud or leather, The Way You Kiss Me argues that accessible comfort and artistic merit coexist.
