Seeing Rouge

Hello friends. I just received purse sprays of Seeing Rouge (and Midnight Addiction) from Bath & Body Works "Everyday Luxuries" line today. This review is for 'Seeing Rouge.' "Seeing Rouge" is supposed to be a dupe of MFK Baccarat Rouge 540, which I have never smelled and is wayyyy out of my price range. Looking up the notes from BR540 and SR, they're about the same. I didn't know exactly what saffron was and did a quick check on it here and found that it is a flower in the crocus/iris family whose stamens inside have a woody, lightly spicy, somewhat leathery accord. However.... It began to dawn on me why so many reviewers of BR540 (and its dupes) said it smelled "medicinal"..... Back in the old days, mercurochrome, merthiolate and iodine (which had the skull and crossbones on the bottle that scared me to death as a child) were used as a topical antiseptic/anesthesic to put on minor wounds like scrapes, abrasions and small cuts. When I was a child, I skinned my knee on a metal doorstopper in the floor, and my moms put some mercurochrome on it to clean the wound and numb the pain....thankfully mercurochrome is no longer produced, except iodine is called 'povidone iodine' these days. If u are a nurse reading this you know where this is going... Fast forward to the present... I worked as a nurse for many years, and when a patient was scheduled for a procedure the patient had to take a shower with Hibiclens to ensure all microorganisms were removed from the body or surgical area as part of pre-procedure prep. Now I don't get that medicinal mercurochrome, merthiolate, iodine and Hibiclens smell ppl are complaining about. But I could see how ppl could smell that note. Researching saffron, it also has a calming effect on the psyche, bc shortly after spraying it on the paper, I immediately felt very calm, relaxed and chill. I love that. Also, saffron is also used in different cuisines, like Middle Eastern, Mediterranean,African, Caribbean dishes, plus it's a very expensive product, especially one tiny little stamen, however; it can be bought OTC at grocery stores or specialty grocery stores, and u can make tea from a few of the stamens. All in all, it still a beautiful scent to wear, and smells nice to me, medicinal note notwithstanding. Would I buy a full bottle of the fine fragrance mist? Yes. Would I buy the full bottle of the perfume? Yes. The fine fragrance mist comes in 2 sizes, the regular large size and a small travel size. I'd probably get the travel size to get used to wearing it. If they offer a candle, I would love to have it just to have that lovely, calming scent wafting thru my home. To me it's a keeper! 😉😊🥰❤️ As we say in our nursing notes: "Will continue to monitor...."😉

I am in love with the 540 scent profile. I don’t get a lot of compliments on it. I do, but just like once a month. Seeing rouge, I get so many compliments. People always say it smells good when they come in my office. The way it works on my skin. Intoxicating. I am shocked that after hundreds of bottles and testing that seeing rouge is the first full bottle I finished. It’s heavenly. I’m devastated knowing they’re going to discontinue it.

I have the body spray and the travel spray. They’re nice for complimenting my better br50 dupes— the travel spray is great on the go. But I would say Finery The New Rouge and Dossier Ambery Saffron are better dupes. I often layer those two and then mist myself with the BBW Seeing Rouge body mist and then throw the Seeing Rouge travel spray in my bag for touch-ups. I would re-buy these products for the purposes I shared, but wouldn’t invest in a full bottle of Seeing Rouge EDP mainly because it is much more faint than the others. While the scent is pleasant, it’s not quite as gorgeous as the Finery version. If you’re looking for a skin scent version of BR50, this may be the one for you.

Yo they turned a band aid into a perfume. Perfectly unisex due to smelling like a band aid

I concur w @Scoopy, I also only like it in the body wash

UPDATE: I finished a travel size of this and have no desire to repurchase. I seriously wanted this to work because I love BR540 but I refuse the obscene price tag. I also find sifting through all the dupes exhausting, unhelpful and unpleasant. In fairness, on paper this isn’t as bad as it is on skin. On my skin I get an unwelcome mystery pepper scent. I still get this strange scent when I pair this scent to Bath & Body Work’s other “Seeing Rouge” bath care items too. I don’t care for the lotion or the perfume in the SR lineup. The body wash itself is quite nice when lathered up in the shower though. I find myself enjoying that a lot. While I think the entire line has captured *much* of the slight saffron & spun sugar accords distinctive of BR540, I find “Seeing Rouge” as a thin, unimpressive approximation of original. At best, a 2.75 out of 5 and that’s being generous (except on the body wash which I’d give a 4/5).

It smells decent, but it’s SO faint. I must be anosmic to it because I sprayed it on myself 6 times and can barely smell it. It’s the edp, not the mist. The body cream doesn’t help and I can barely smell that one either. I agree with the nurse review; there is a metallic twang to it that reminds me of benzoin tincture/mercurochrome.