Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 450 Perfume Review
Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 450 Eau de Parfum spends most of its life as airy, sugary cotton candy on me–sweet, a touch fruity (with at most, a little lemon zest in the first few hours)–with a drydown that had a suggestion of woods but nothing particularly definable.
- top notes: saffron, jasmine
- heart notes: Ambroxan
- base notes: fir resin, cedar
The opening had a medicinal, almost harsh, characteristic that shifted to sweetened fruit that felt over-ripe, perhaps synthetically sweet over the first five minutes before a zest of lemon helped bring it down a notch. The sweetness became caramelized, deeper, and thicker in the first half hour of wear. It was more in the vein of airy, freshly spun cotton candy. It ended up being quite linear for the majority of its wear, only getting slightly woodier after six hours on my skin.
Application
For testing, I used 1/2 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.
Longevity
It lasted for three hours until it was a skin-scent and about eight hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were light with noticeable drops after an hour of wear. On my skin, it seemed to wear quite close even when I tested it later with more applied!
Personal Thoughts
While very sweet scents are not my personal preference, I don’t mind trying them out at all; absolutely no hardship to do so, but as a result, it’s a high bar for me to want to buy a full bottle of one. This one has too linear and too close of a wear and shorter longevity than average, so for me, it was kind of a miss all around. Profumum Vanitas or Dulcis in Fundo were better, fairly sweet picks that I’ve tried recently. I have seen a lot of chatter that Ariana Grande’s Cloud is similar, so I might try that at some point for a comparison.
Available Sizes
- 200ml for $575
- 70ml for $300
- 3 x 11ml refills for $180
I bought a sample a month or so ago. It wasn’t a home run for me either. I prefer Grand Soir, but it doesn’t last very long on me
Cotton candy sounds like fun… when I was 12 or 13 years old! LOL! Obviously, I’m not liking the scent and poor silage.
It’s interesting to see how other people have different chemistry with certain scents. I’ve been wearing this as my signature scent since 2016. I have no longevity issues. In fact, I can usually still smell out the next day, and so can my hubs. It lingers forever on clothing until I have the time to wash it, as well. It’s very musky on me, but in the best possible way. The 540 extrait is substantially stronger, but I find I don’t like the change in scent (it is subtly different).
I’ll save you the $$$ – cloud is nothing like 540. It’s much sweeter and wears off quickly. It smells cheap IMO. I bought it out of curiosity a while back after reading the claims that it was a dupe just for kicks. It’s very juvenile – reminds me of something you’d buy if you were in middle school going to a dance or something.
The most overrated perfume on planet Earth.
It’s a pineapple syrup in a perfume bottle.
Definitely shows how perfume is so personal to everyone, I wear Rouge 340 3x a week and I love the scent. The extrait is too woody for my taste but my son loves it so I gave it to him-mature for a 14 year old but he adores it. I do love Killian’s Love DBS more than Baccarat though! ✨
It is so interesting how fragrances just smell and wear differently for different people. I have been wearing BR540 since it was first released, and the last thing I would ever describe it as is cotton candy sweet or fruity hahaha. On me it has a lot of medicinal saffron and ambergris with a light sweetness running through it. For me it is also a fairly linear scent with little change throughout the wear. This also has insane longevity (I’m talking still smell it the next day) and projection, people can smell a cloud of it around you and I have had coworkers say they can smell it lingering in the hall after I have walked through, but it is notorious for making people nose blind while wearing it and many people cannot smell it on themself. I personally prefer the Extrait version, and that is what I wear most of the time if I reach for BR540. It is more medicinal and woody, and more unisex feeling out of the two (which I like). I feel like so many people wear this now that it doesn’t feel as special as when it first released. There are so many clones and dupes out there, but I honestly do not like Cloud. If you thought this was too sweet, Cloud is even sweeter with a coconut note added to it. I also find the longevity and projection miserable on Cloud, I get maybe 4 hours of wear before it is gone. To my nose the best “dupe” is Al Harimain Amber Oud Rouge. It is closer to the extrait in that it isn’t too sweet and is more safron heavy. For me that lasts for days, and has beautiful projection for a WAY more affordable price.