From chocolate-scented moisturizing cream to maple sugar scrub and honey lip balm, the beauty industry is finding ways to infuse high-style products with down-home aromas.

"Rather than walking around smelling like food, it's how they're combined, which makes them a little bit different," said Claudia Lucas, senior vice president at retailer Henri Bendel, that sells Aftelier Perfumes' Cacao, a mix of chocolate and blood orange, and Laura Mercier's creme brulee body washes and creams.

"Really, what you're responding to, underneath it all, is the gourmand notes," she said.

Philosophy makes shower gel with red velvet cake and cinnamon buns scents, Lather makes Belgian chocolate body whip moisturiser and Diana B. makes a maple sugar facial scrub. Jaqua Beauty makes mint chocolate-scented moisturizing cream and lip gloss.

"After a nice meal, you put that on, and you have the nice scent of the mint chocolate, like an after-dinner mint lingering on your lips, with no calories," said Jaqua spokeswoman Emily Proctor.

Food-scented products in the beauty industry, estimated to be a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business, range from the low-end, available in local pharmacies, to high-priced items at such exclusive shops as Henri Bendel, on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

Massive success
While more traditional scents have been florals, fruits and spices, the fondness for scents such as chocolate can be traced back to French designer Thierry Mugler, who more than a decade ago introduced his cocoa-scented Angel fragrance line.

While such homey scents can evoke a pleasant thought or warm memory, much of their appeal is due to marketing, industry experts say.

"There's nothing magical about these scents," said Richard Doty, director of the Smell and Taste Centre at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

"Scents are like fashion," he said. "The beauty is not intrinsic in the odour. It's in the eye of the beholder, or in this case the nose of the beholder."

Image: A jar of Laura Mercier creme brulee scented body cream. REUTERS/Alison Brod Public Relations/Handout