Miu Miu has a rare and remarkable talent for making the ordinary extraordinary—and immensely covetable. Under the visionary hand of designer Miuccia Prada, a simple rugby shirt becomes a wardrobe staple, ballet flats transform into punk statements, and miniskirts spark global conversations. This month, the brand brings that same rebellious spirit to its latest venture, marking its official re-emergence into the beauty scene with Miu Miu Beauty Miutine eau de parfum. This isn’t just another sweet perfume; it’s an unexpected twist on the hugely popular gourmand category, with daring notes of strawberry and brown sugar. Miutine is a scent that embodies all the brand’s core codes: it is unapologetic and age-agnostic, irreverent yet intellectual, and brimming with a youthful spirit that feels both timeless and utterly modern.
The Return of a Powerhouse: Miu Miu’s Re-entry into Beauty
For years, Miu Miu has solidified its reputation as a fashion powerhouse by expertly subverting expectations and transforming common sartorial elements into objects of high-fashion desire. The brand’s return to the beauty scene, the first since it signed a new license with the L’Oréal Group, is a highly anticipated event. The strategic choice to re-launch its fragrance portfolio with a gourmand scent, a category defined by edible-inspired notes, is a testament to the brand’s astute understanding of the market. Data from Spate, a leading analytics company, confirms the immense commercial viability of this decision. As of May of this year, online searches for “gourmand fragrances” have seen an impressive surge, with Google searches up over 85% from 2024 and TikTok views soaring by a staggering 179% year-over-year.
However, for Miu Miu, this decision is not solely about commercial success. It’s an opportunity to take a fragrance category often perceived as twee and unserious—much like the schoolgirl skirts or playful bag charms that have graced its runways—and infuse it with a bold, stylish, and sophisticated edge. The brand’s ability to take something simple and make it compelling and complex is its signature, and this philosophy is perfectly poised for the world of fragrance. By choosing to lead with a playful, sweet scent, Miu Miu challenges preconceptions and invites a new generation of perfume lovers to see the gourmand category in a new light, all while staying true to its rebellious and forward-thinking identity.
A Masterful Creation: Dominique Ropion’s Olfactive Challenge
To bring this audacious vision to life, Miu Miu enlisted the help of one of the most celebrated names in the world of perfumery: Dominique Ropion. As the legendary French perfumer behind iconic masterpieces such as Frederic Malle Carnal Flower and Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb, Ropion was the ideal artist to translate the Miu Miu universe into a scent. His brief was clear yet challenging: create a fragrance that captured the brand’s sense of irreverence, free-spiritedness, and joyful femininity, but do so in a way that felt truly elevated and timeless. When asked about his creative process, Ropion explains that when one thinks of something young and joyful, fruit and gourmand scents immediately come to mind.
For Miutine, Ropion’s edible notes of choice were the rich, aromatic Mara des Bois strawberry and the comforting warmth of brown sugar. The Mara des Bois, a renowned French strawberry varietal, was specifically chosen for its deep flavor and aroma, setting the scent apart from a generic fruity accord. The true challenge, however, was to transform these playful, youthful notes into something elegant. As Ropion notes, “while fruit notes like banana and strawberry are fun, they’re not necessarily elegant.” His task was to take a category often seen as simple and build a complex, beautiful, and sophisticated structure around it, proving that a scent can be both joyful and deeply chic.
The Chypre Paradox: Tension, Strength, and Sophistication
To elevate Miutine beyond a typical gourmand, Ropion employed a brilliant and unexpected solution: he built the fragrance on a traditional chypre structure. Known as one of the most elegant and mysterious of the olfactive families, a chypre is defined by a unique and sophisticated combination of fresh, bright notes at the top and dark, earthy notes at the bottom. This structure creates a powerful tension and contrast in the scent. Ropion achieved this by adding gardenia to the heart of the fragrance, a flower whose molecular structure is remarkably similar to that of the Mara des Bois strawberry. This allowed him to seamlessly integrate the two universes—the green freshness of the flower with the juicy, jam-like profile of the fruit.
His next step was to add traditional chypre components, including jasmine absolute, Turkish rose oil, earthy moss, and rich patchouli. It is this grounded, serious counterpoint that takes Miutine from a “run-of-the-mill gourmand” to a perfume worthy of the Miu Miu universe. As Ropion explains, this chypre structure “brings strength, contrast, and tension to the composition,” creating a scent that is both joyful and deeply serious. This paradox is the essence of Miu Miu’s success; the brand thrives on unexpected combinations, and Ropion masterfully translated that unique duality into a bottle.
A Scent Story: From Strawberry Jam to Timeless Warmth
So, what does Miutine truly smell like? The fragrance unfolds as a captivating narrative, a story told in layers. On the first spritz, it is a burst of warm strawberry jam, made from scratch. Ropion used a black currant extract to make the synthetic strawberry accord smell incredibly authentic, evoking a sense of homemade comfort. As the initial fruitiness subsides, the floral and woody notes take over, adding an earthy, sophisticated quality that prevents the fragrance from smelling like a straight-up baked good. This is where the gardenia and jasmine shine, creating a fresh, floral heart that balances the initial sweetness.
In the final act, the fragrance transforms, settling into a rich, enveloping warmth. The notes of patchouli and amber become more prominent, radiating from the skin like the light off the perfume’s beautiful toffee-toned flacon. The actor Emma Corrin, the face of the fragrance, says Miutine reminds them of summertime, with its floral and fruity notes, but notes that its “vanilla-y warmth” makes it something you can wear all year. This versatile and complex dry-down is what truly defines the perfume’s elegance. It is a scent that is both grounded and effortlessly radiant, a perfect reflection of the brand’s identity and a testament to its artistry.
The Finishing Touch: Miutine and the Miu Miu Identity
While Dominique Ropion says he didn’t look to any specific Miu Miu runway show or piece of clothing when creating Miutine, he succeeded in capturing the very essence of what has made the brand a resounding success. The fragrance embodies the house’s signature joy, its unexpected elegance, and its intellectual yet irreverent spirit. It’s a scent that is as ultra-wearable as the brand’s utilitarian jackets and as unmissable as its uncanny prints. By taking the popular gourmand category and adding a chypre structure, Ropion created a fragrance that perfectly mirrors Miu Miu’s ethos of taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary.
For Emma Corrin, who has worked with the brand for nearly a decade, being chosen to represent this new beauty venture is a great honor. As they explain, the brand’s ethos of “self-expression and individuality” deeply resonates with them, and Miutine and its accompanying campaign perfectly evoke that spirit. In French, “miutine” means “rebel.” This fragrance is a resounding success, a rebellious act in a world of predictable scents. It is a bold statement and the perfect finishing touch to any wardrobe for anyone, “Miu Miu girl” or not. And to think, the brand is only just getting restarted in the beauty world.
