Ranking every Maison Francis Kurkdjian perfume for Men: From 724 to Baccarat Rouge 540
Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s reputation precedes it. Its most iconic scent to date, Baccarat Rouge 540, is raved about on TikTok incessantly and has been most famously claimed to be Rihanna’s choice of scent. To truly understand the maison’s avant-garde scents and runaway worldwide success, though, we have to acknowledge that Parisian perfume designer Francis Kurkdjian is first and foremost a masterful storyteller.
Take, his enigmatically named latest creation, 724, for instance. The fragrance harks back to Kurkdjian’s overarching ambition for the maison when he founded it in 2009, which was to create “an olfactory wardrobe for 24 hours of scented living, seven days a week”.
For Kurkdjian, this past decade has seen him travel to all corners of the world including its major metropolises: from Paris to New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, New Delhi, Mumbai, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Houston. While people and cultures vary, big cities have one thing in common: an electric air that is charged with hope, ambition, and big dreams for the future.
“There is something about big cities that sweeps over you, electrifies you, elevates you. I translated that communicative energy, that life pulsating in unison, into a musky, floral, urban fragrance that I named 724, for 24 hours of scented living, seven days a week.” – Francis Kurkdjian
Kurkdjian has distilled this compelling urban dynamism into an evocative cocktail of olfactory notes. In its top notes, Italian bergamot and metallic aldehydes conjure the clean freshness of New York laundries at dawn. At its heart, a bouquet blooms with Egyptian jasmine, sweet pea, and floral-citrus mock orange. The familiar comfort of a sandalwood-white musk accord envelopes the scent as its base notes.
Don’t get us wrong, you could always enjoy Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s fragrances superficially. After all, they are all beautiful aromatic aesthetic creations, but as evident with 724, Maison Francis Kurdijian’s fragrances are coded and profound, each with its own persona and narrative.
Below, we delve into the maison’s men’s universe and rank its perfumes based on their origins, stories, and notes.
L’HOMME A LA ROSE
Rose certainly features more often in women’s fragrances, but here, Kurkdjian flips the staid gender stereotype on its head. Think of L’Homme À la rose as a joyful jaunt around a beautiful countryside estate rather than a pristine rose garden. The fragrance opens with fresh and green notes with a grapefruit accord and the essence of Damask rose from Bulgaria. Then, it is anchored and enhanced with a woody accord and amber base notes to up on ante on its masculine sensuality.
OUD SATIN MOOD
Oud is arguably the most desired ingredient in perfumery in the Middle East. Kurkdjian’s take on it, Oud Satin Mood, is as smooth and luxurious on the nose as the namesake fabric is on the skin.
Oud wood from Laos mingles with Bulgarian rose essence and Turkish rose absolute and settles with a rich vanilla amber accord. If you’re a fan of oud, this one is particularly rich, velvety, and nuanced. What’s more, the Oud collection also includes a scented candle that ensures your signature scent permeates your entire world.
AMYRIS
Amyris Homme encapsulates Kurkdjian’s love of Paris, a city he made his adopted home after finishing school in his native suburb. Amyris reflects these early days with a bright fragrance that calls to mind the spirited ambitions of a young man in the first chapter of his career. Featuring amyris from Jamaica and iris from Florence, the extrait de parfum edition has a distinct mild spiciness to it, a subtle reminder that this guy dresses the part but isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves when life gets in his way.
COLOGNE FORTE
This trio of colognes is dedicated to Kurkdjian’s conception of freshness and is an extension of Aqua Universalis, which was launched when the maison was founded in 2009. The musky Aqua Universalis features bergamot from Calabria, the sweetness of white musk, and the effervescent florals of mock orange and sweet pea.
Aqua Vitae, on the other hand, is punctuated with citrusy Italian mandarin and enhanced by Indian sandalwood. Aqua Celestia is fruity with notes of blackberry and accents of raspberry, strawberry, apricot, and peach. All of them are designed to be gender-neutral, making it a progressive statement for today’s socially sensitive generation.
GENTLE FLUIDITY
Kurkdjian loves to toy with the idea of gender in perfumery. If Cologne Forte didn’t make it obvious, Gentle Fluidity is certainly on the nose. The two parfums are made with the same ingredients but embody entirely different personas. The silver edition is ultra-fresh, similar to Amyris, and is reminiscent of a refreshing gin fizz while the gold edition’s dominating vanilla and musk notes are comforting, making it perfect for a big spoon in bed. Both recall the free-spiritedness heydays of being in your twenties and thirties.
BACCARAT ROUGE 540
Last but certainly not least, Baccarat Rouge 540 is at the bottom of our round-up solely because of its ubiquity. From Zara to high-end brands, many have attempted to create dupes of Baccarat Rouge 540 in an effort to capitalise on its appeal.
Created in 2014 on the occasion of the French fine crystal brand’s 250th anniversary, Baccarat Rouge 540 has a mysterious and complex olfactory profile that is floral, woody, and ambery all at once, but it is the Moroccan bitter almond’s gourmand touch that cements its undeniable seduction. This is certainly not for wallflowers or the faint-hearted.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s perfumes are available at Skins Cosmetics.
[Via GQ Middle East]