Ask any chic, insider it-girl for details on the cult perfumes you need to know, and Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540 will likely top the list.
The perfume may have launched a whole decade ago – created as a bespoke limited-edition scent to celebrate crystal brand Baccarat’s 250 year anniversary – but after an exclusive introduction, TikTok has since hard-launched the fragrance into platinum superstardom (at least, if you’re someone in the know).
The scent has secured admiration from the upper echelons of A-list beauty connoisseurs – everyone from Olivia Rodrigo to Rihanna has issued their approval. And in just 10 short years, the scent has entered the perfume icon canon alongside legacy classics like Chanel No.5, Dior J'Adore, Guerlain Shalimar and YSL Black Opium.
The thing is, thanks to TikTok’s democratisation of underground intel, everyone can be a person in the know. We can all tap into the zeitgeist at rapid speed if we want to, and Baccarat Rouge 540 has become ubiquitous among the discerning if you scratch the surface of #perfumetok.
In fact, even if you didn’t know it was a thing, it’s likely you’ve already had an encounter with the fragrance: on a London tube, in a hotel lift, at a restaurant, or on a night out.
The sillage (or perfume trail) left behind by a single spritz is possibly the fragrance's greatest achievement. I stuck a blotter in my bag after sniffing it in a department store beauty hall and even weeks after clearing out the paper card, I still get hit by a scent cloud every time I open my bag.
So what is it about Baccarat Rouge that makes it so intoxicating?
It was created using one sweet note, ethyl maltol, which gives the fragrance a toasted candyfloss feel. Paired with velvety, woody ambroxan, it’s sweet and savoury – and more things on top that you can't put your finger on.
The scent's perfumer, Francis Kurkdjian, describes it as an “overdose of everything”. It's airy, but rich and heady. It's delicate, but strong and bold.
“When I wear this, people in the room keep asking, ‘what smells so good in here?’" one commenter posted on Fragrantica. While another fan writes that it's "the sexiest smell I've ever smelt on a woman," in a Selfridges review.
TikTok user, Niké Oje, told followers “they were not lying. It smells like American Express Black Card. It smells like private jet. It smells like… I have no words. It smells like you just walked into the room and you know you're that girl. No-one can tell you otherwise."
Imagine the sweet marshmallowy scent of a cinema, mixed with the hazy smokiness of a swanky hotel bar, then throw in the pheromones of a sexy encounter (your partner running their hands up your thigh) and you'd be on the right lines.
"Is it worth the price? Absolutely. I'm going to save this for the rest of my life,” Niké told followers.
Part of the perfume's exclusivity lies, perhaps, in its ultra luxe price tag. A 200ml bottle will set you back £485 and yet, Gen Z and millennials are saving up to invest in the movement.
It's the “Cartier love bracelet of fragrances," reckons TikToker Charles Gross. "It’s prohibitively expensive, but many people have it." It's one of the most complimented and replicated scents of this generation. These days, when you search for it on TikTok, you're just as likely to find someone recommending the “perfect dupe” as you are to find someone waxing lyrical about the OG.
But while there are many that worship at the altar of Baccarat Rouge 540, there will always be naysayers eye-rolling that they don't get the hype, or others who have ridden the Baccarat wave since the start and want to move on to the next “up and comer”.
So, what's next?
Another of Maison Francis Kurkdjian's protégé's has quietly been winning hearts and intoxicating a new-gen fan base. “Grand Soir is very popular and was sold out for a while,” the brand's PR confided in me, and yet it hasn't reached the stratospheric levels of ubiquity that Baccarat has (yet).
The scents are polar opposites at first sniff. Where Baccarat Rouge has that candy floss fluffiness in the blend, Grand Soir has an antique, old money quality about it that some have labelled “grandma” – but others read as rich.
“I've gotten a couple of questions on MFK's Grand Soir and if I would choose this or Baccarat Rouge 540,” one reviewer, Cierra from The Perfume Geek, told TikTok. “I wanna say they are completely different scents so it's really up to your personal preference. I do love Baccarat Rouge 540, I think it's very crowd-pleasing."
"So much so that multiple fragrance houses have tried to replicate it, whereas for Grand Soir, I have not come across a fragrance that smells like it. It's this beautiful, spicy vanilla-amber fragrance. On the initial spray it's heavy on the labdanum and lavender, but as soon as that dries down it becomes this amber-vanilla tonka bean heaven. It's a beautiful, luxurious, intoxicating fragrance that I love... It's truly a masterpiece,” she said.
Influencer Manana Mariee told viewers: “if you want to get compliments all day on your smell – even when you sweat, I am not joking, when I work out, I get compliments: ‘what are you wearing?’ – Grand Soir. I can't stress enough how good this smells.
"I literally want to eat it. It just feels like a warm, cosy hug and every time I wear it, I get a compliment on it. My boyfriend is like ‘I need this perfume because I have never heard somebody get complimented so many times on their smell, when you wear this perfume.’”
Meanwhile, fragrance enthusiast, Karina Waldron, posted a video explaining: “this is Grand Soir from one of my favourite master perfumers, Francis Kurkdjian. This is an amber and vanilla scent. She's warm, she's resinous, she's sweet. There are notes of vanilla, amber, tonka bean, labdanum.
"This is a completely unisex fragrance, it smells very grown, sexy, confident, expensive. Very intoxicating. This is definitely a fragrance that needs no introduction because as soon as you walk into the room, everyone will smell you. A little goes a long way because it has the biggest sillage.”
And fragrance reviewer Demi Rawling told TikTok: “this is Grand Soir… [It's an] absolutely stunning amber fragrance – very warm, very rounded, very balsamic and very woody. It's sweet, it's smooth… It's incredible.”
Although, she noted, “you do need to have a little more of a refined palate to appreciate this one. Some of you are gonna think it smells old and some of you are gonna think it smells like the best scent in the world.”
What's new?
Both Grand Soir and Baccarat Rouge 540 have their own allure, but in September, Maison Francis Kurkdijian released a new scent created with a firm eye on establishing another future legacy fragrance. APOM (an acronym for A Part Of Me), taps up the anatomy of some of the great perfume classics, reinvented for a modern audience. It has a softer whisper of amber, musk and vanilla that conjures the delicate incense of Guerlain Shalimar, while lavender and orange blossom lend a gentle modern sweetness to the fragrance, while weaving in the DNA of current smash hits (like YSL Libre, which features the same floral notes).
The classic feel can be credited, in part, to the scent's resurrection from the MFK archive, which previously featured two APOM fragrances – one for men and one for women. The latest rendition blends the best of both: sensuality, elegance and addictiveness, for a cashmere-soft scent that lands somewhere between Baccarat and Grand Soir, only airier and less explosive.
Baccarat Rouge 540 offers quiet(ish) luxury, Grand Soir has resounding heiress vibes and APOM is a beautiful, effortless cosy girl skin scent. Interestingly though, if you look at the scent families there's overlap between all three. Grand Soir is classified as “woody, ambery,” Baccarat is a “woody, ambery, floral,” and APOM is an “ambery, aromatic, floral.”
As the three dry down they each have a nuzzly, addictive quality. Grand Soir offers something a little more mature, like the rich auntie relative, so even if you're not there yet, this could be one to keep an eye on for your future perfume squeeze. APOM is ready to elevate our fragrance wardrobe with a sweet, powdery incense that feels equal parts vintage and trailblazing.
For more from GLAMOUR's Senior Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk.
