Does this “Mother Milk” eau de toilette really smell like a newborn baby? We ask a baby

A sniff test reveals surprising results. 

Parents and those who love babies always talk about that “newborn smell” that people can’t seem to get enough of. There’s just something about it, that faint sweetness and gentle clean scent that people always dote over. But that smell eventually fades, leaving many parents bereft, wishing they could smell it again. “If I could just put that smell in a bottle,” they say.

Well, good news! There’s a new perfume that people are saying smells like a newborn baby, so you may never have to forget that smell ever again!

Of course, the huge stir it’s been causing on the Internet meant we had to try it out for ourselves. Our Japanese-language reporter Momo Momomura is herself a new mother, so she figured she would know if it really smells like a newborn. And just for good measure, she made sure to ask her baby, too.

The product is an eau de toilette from Tokyo Rendezvous called Mother Milk that sells on Amazon for 2,640 yen (US$24.10). The name implies that it smells like breast milk, and according to the packaging, that seems to be exactly what the product is striving for. The booklet that came with it said that it smells like “a delicious, rich milk that one can’t help but reach out to.”

Reading further into the booklet, Momo found this passage:

“I believe that the smell of a baby is a natural aphrodisiac gifted from God, a way for babies who cannot yet fend for themselves to receive love. It is a gentle, precious, and pure smell.”

She thought it was very interesting that the creators of this perfume equated the smell of a baby to an aphrodisiac, but that’s besides the point.

In any case, on to the smell test! Does it actually smell like a newborn, or does it smell exclusively like breast milk? Momo gave it a good spritz and sniffed away…

Oh! It did smell sweet and milky, but rather than a newborn baby smell, it smelled more like…pancakes!

It had hints of milk, butter, and caramel, making it a sweet smell that actually made Momo crave pancakes. She honestly wasn’t too sure if she was just hungry and that’s why it smelled that way, so she had her husband and baby give it a sniff, too.

“It smells kind of like coconut, doesn’t it?” said her husband.

“Mba, bah!” said her baby, which Momo said loosely translates as, “I think it’s a little different from my newborn baby smell.” Momo was inclined to agree.

A closer look at the bottle revealed that it lists milk, caramel, buttermilk, vanilla, butterscotch, and coumarin as the scents incorporated into the perfume, which must be what lends the eau de toilette its sweet and delicious smell.

But though it is certainly “a delicious, rich milk smell that one can’t help but reach out to”, Momo wouldn’t call it a newborn smell; it definitely smells like pancakes to her. But we love pancakes in any form, so smelling like them, in the end, is really not a bad thing at all!

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