Hotteok

Cinnamon leaves and a roasted nut accord sit on top of warm brown sugar, so it immediately feels like a freshly pressed Hotteok held between your hands on a cold night.

As it settles, sweet rice flour and black locust blossom add a doughy, softly floral coziness, while sesame, woods, and musk create a nutty, toasty base that feels like syrup-soaked crumbs, paper bags, and shared pockets of warmth.

It reads as an intimate, cozy gourmand you’ll reach for when you crave something that smells like real dessert—molasses, starch, subtle spice—without turning into a loud, frosting-heavy sugar bomb.

KST Scent is a Korean-American fragrance house based in the United States, crafting perfumes that weave Korean culture, queer identity, and personal memories into scent-driven stories.

As part of LV1 Studio, its fragrances reinterpret Vietnamese and Korean heritage through a queer, contemporary lens, translating New Year traditions, modern Korean queer culture, and nightlife into olfactive experiences.

The brand is LGBT-owned, created by Vietnamese American perfumer James Nguyen and his partner, Korean creative director Kael Jeong, whose shared backgrounds ground KST Scent’s lineup in emotionally vivid, culturally rooted perfumes rather than conventional luxury tropes.