Baccarat Rouge 540

Been wearing both the extrait and edp for about 7 years now (I like to layer the two together). The way this eau de parfum continuously transforms on the skin and the in the air around its wearer is ambrosia to my nose and a delightful mind fuck for my brain— a delicately sugared and woodsy fir tree note overlaid with the scent of warm skin lightly sheened with fresh, salty sweat. Alluring. Sexy. Magical. I do think that just a little bit of the magic of these two incredible fragrances is gone because of the monstrous tsunami of clones and “inspired by” scents that have saturated the market for a long time now. But I still wear both br540’s...I just don’t wear them as often as I used to. I’m never going to stop wearing them and I will always have a fb of the eau de parfum and at least an8-10 ml decant of the extrait in my fragrance wardrobe. I4chora below is correct. The chances that you have experienced the fragrance of BR540 is slim. Due to both its steep price and its polarizing nature, if you’ve never actually worn BR540 for more than two days, then it’s safe to assume that you may not understand how it feels to REALLY wear it. I have two fragrance buddies that sampled BR540. The first day, they weren’t sure. The second day, they weren’t sold yet, but very interested by how unique it was. By the third day, they were hooked. One of them said it perfectly: “After a couple of wears, it’s like the fragrance suddenly unfolded for me, and I fell completely in love.” That’s exactly how it happened for me. I had to really “sit” with this fragrance and experience it in different scenarios while going about my day. Why? Because fragrances smell different indoors than they do outside, and they also smell different on you when you’re active and when you’re at rest. Before purchasing BR540, I had tried several popular clones and was still squarely on the fence about it. Most people aren’t like this with BR540-type frag profiles, most love them or hate them. I was one of the very few who felt undecided— I didn’t dislike the scent profile, but at the time this fragrance composition was still so unusual that I wasn’t sure if I could be comfortable wearing it. But the uniqueness of the BR540 scent profile interested me very much. So, I finally got off my ass and did my due diligence. Instead of fiddle-dee-dee-fucking around with clones, I secured myself a 10ml sample of the eau de parfum. From the first few moments after spritzing, I noticed a VERY marked difference between the quality and performance of BR540 and the clones I had experienced. BR540 was refined and so nuanced. My hubby and daughters were saying, “You smell soooo good!” —from about 10 feet away! So my first wear had me deeply intrigued ...but I was not quite sold yet. Towards the end of the second day of wear, something amazing happened. Like my two aforementioned friends, this fragrance completely opened up and fully revealed itself to me. I finally realized that I was experiencing an olfactory masterpiece. I understood that part of BR540’s magic wasn’t measured in just the people who could revel in it, but also in the people who couldn’t. Like any groundbreaking artistic achievement, it’s a given that it’s going to be very polarizing. I was a weird fluke by being on the fence about it...and I couldn’t attain a definitive stance on this fragrance until I stopped wasting money with clones and actually experienced “The Real Deal.” If you’ve only knowingly experienced clones of BR540, do yourself a big favor— acquire a sample of The Real Deal from a reputable online fragrance retailer (at least 5ml... less than that won’t give you a decent experience of this fragrance). Try sampling both the edp and extrait. And unless you’re completely disgusted, don’t wash the sample off until you’ve let it unfold on your skin for at least two hours. Do this for two days. After that, if you remain unimpressed, then BR540 is truly not for you. But you have to give yourself the benefit of experiencing The Real Deal. Although some clones may be pleasant replicas, there is no substitute for BR540. Trust me on that. BR540 totally flipped the game board for the world of fragrance by introducing a fragrance composition that was, at the time, completely new and uniquely daring. And while it isn’t unique anymore, one thing hasn’t changed— —it’s still a highly polarizing fragrance! Most people either love it or hate it. I remain completely love struck with the eau de parfum’s airy buoyancy and ambery glow. The extrait is beautiful as well, and is deeper and sweeter than the edp. But honestly, if you’re stuck on price and which to choose, the eau de parfum is truly all you need. Its trail and longevity are fantastic. And dear GOD, I adore the abundant amount of ambroxan, which reminds me strongly of the smell of the sea mist that rolls inland from the ocean in the American Pacific Northwest. Does it smell reminiscent of salty iodine? Of course it does!— the oceans and all sea creatures in them are loaded with the stuff. So instead of giving me medical bandages or dental office vibes, ambroxan smells fresh and oceanic to me— when it’s done with finesse😉 While the current over saturation of this dna has certainly become tiresome, it’s a testament to BR540’s monumental success that practically every niche and clone company in existence has cranked out their own “copies” and “inspired by’s” and continue to do so...and perhaps the biggest reason for the unusually huge clone overkill is because of social media. If all the current clone houses and social media had existed when fragrances like Chanel No5, Tabu, Shalimar and Obsession first appeared on the scene, I believe a very similar phenomenon would have occurred, and those fragrances would have been just as cloned to death as BR540. So while I don’t wear them nearly as much as I used to, I still adore the two real BR540 fragrances too much to ever quit them...and I have actually saved a lot of coin lately by not wearing them nearly every day! It is a thorn on the BR540 rose that it is so dastardly expensive. But!— luckily, this frag has been out for over a decade, and can be found on reputable sites for more attainable prices. Don’t do Amazon or EBay (flea-bay). I have been burned one too many times on those two sites.

I smelled this fragrance at a person's place, who was shrinking his 500+ fragrance collection. I have smelled over 30 fragrances that afternoon and this is the only one that got stuck in my head. It has been over two months since I sniffed it and I cannot get it out of my head. I have never experienced this before. It is a strange experience. It's like I can smell it by just thinking about it. So I could not stop myself from buying a bottle. This fragrance is more than a scent. It is a scented journey. An olfactory wonder. A masterpiece. There is something about this scent, the way it smells, the way it performs. It is the most mysterious fragrance I own. When you spray it on, you smell it, but you kind of not smell it. However, even if you do not smell it, you know it is there. You sort of 'feel' its presence. I have not worn it in public yet, because it is quite a daring fragrance and a bit on the feminine side if you ask me. I bought a 200ml bottle and decided to decant 100ml of it, to pay off some of the mortgage I had to take to buy a bottle. The tube coming out of the bottle is not really suited to extract the juice with a syringe, so I taped-off a beaker and sprayed the juice until I got the required amount of juice needed for my decants (yes, my finger hurt afterwards). After filling the vials, I put the beaker in a room upstairs.The empty (yes, empty) beaker has been standing in this room for one week and the whole room has been smelling like Baccarat Rouge for one week. This is beyond beastmode. Scent: 11/10 Projection: 11/10 (Projects very far for a good 4 hours and does not really come close to the skin for another 4 hours) Sillage: 10/10 Longevity: 11/10 (14h+ on skin, days on clothes) Versatility 7/10 (Only for the coolest of days) Uniqueness: 9/10 Price-performance: 9/10 (It is expensive, but beautiful and beastly) Total: 9.5

Initially the way it was introduced to me was pretty random actually. I used to have a thing for this guy, and I'd smell it from him all the time.. even when I he wasn't around. I'd smell that scent for one or two seconds occasionally when I was alone, in public, in gatherings - literally anywhere and everywhere! Each time I'd immediately think about him. It was that addictive! One day, when I was hanging out with him, I asked him what perfume he was wearing and silly me - I believed it. A few weeks later, I was over at my female friend's house and I was just looking through her perfume collection out of curiosity, and I smelled one. It was "Red Temptation" by ZARA. At first, it smelled so familiar and addictive I kept smelling it over and over again, until it finally hit me: It smelled similar to the guy I was going insane for. So I did my research, and eventually found out that "Red Temptation" by ZARA, is a dupe for another expensive perfume, which is "Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540." I went to a store to check it out for myself, and yes. It was exactly the one I was obsessed with. I told him later on, that "Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540." was very similar to his "natural scent", and he was like "Oh, I have a small 5ml sample of that perfume that I recieved for free" "I sprayed it once on my hoodie, but I didn't know the smell still lingered". And that's when I realised, that this was THE perfume. I saved up money (because I'm just a young ho), and eventually bought it. No regrets. It's absolutely amazing. The only unisex perfume that is addictive. It's sweet, nostalgic, and gentle - like a warm hug. Forget the guy, he's irrelevant now, but years later.. I still use this fragrance as a signature scent and I truly love it.

I never thought I would write a review about the atomizer rather than the fragrance itself, but after what happened to me twice, I feel other owners should be aware. I purchased two 150ml bottles of Baccarat Rouge 540 EDP several years ago. The fragrance itself is wonderful and needs no introduction. The issue is the atomizer. My first bottle developed a failure where the spray suddenly changed from a fine mist into a straight stream of liquid. The atomizer also lost some of its normal resistance when pressed. I assumed it was an isolated defect. Recently, after finishing that bottle, I opened my second 150ml bottle. It was almost completely full and had been carefully stored for years. The atomizer was working perfectly. While filling a small 15ml travel atomizer, after roughly 15 consecutive sprays, the exact same thing happened. Instantly. The fine mist disappeared and was replaced by a direct stream of liquid. The pumping mechanism also felt noticeably weaker. This is now the second 150ml bottle from the same purchase to experience the exact same failure. To be clear, I am not talking about clogging or a dirty nozzle. The change was immediate, happened during normal use, and appears to be related to the internal pump mechanism. The fragrance is still beautiful, but a luxury perfume should not develop atomizer issues after such limited use, especially when a bottle contains so much product and represents a significant investment. I'm posting this because I would genuinely like to know whether other owners of older 150ml Baccarat Rouge 540 bottles have experienced something similar. Has anyone else had their atomizer suddenly turn into a "water gun" and never recover?

I used to have a really good friend when I was a teenager - he used to go out with my sister when I was younger and after they broke up I remained friends with him. We used to sit around at his house down the road; swap books, listen to music. His Mum ran a beauticians from the house - it was a big house with an annex that she had converted into this beauty spa. She did facials, massages, aromatherapy and all that stuff for the local women. I always loved the scent of their house - like sweet berries mixed with chamomile, soft leather jackets and something antiseptic coming from the beautician's annex. It was comforting and captivating. It was such a strong and distinctive smell that all their family carried around on their clothes and bodies - I have often tried to find a scent that carries that smell. I haven't ever been able to find it. His Mother died of cancer at a relatively young age - not long after the time I used to go round almost every day. When I tried Baccarat Rouge 540 for the first time, it brought back the memory of his mother so strongly for me. It doesn't smell exactly like the scent of their house - it is missing some aspect of the chamomile and leather I remember, though the saffron in Baccarat evokes that feel at a parallel - but it just took me straight back to that time. Something about the sweet scent of expensive oils and lotions mixed with the tang of antiseptic fluid she used to keep the room clean. I love this perfume - I think it's a true work of art to be capable of evoking such emotion in the wearer. I have many perfumes that I like very much and that give me great pleasure; very few of them make me feel something like this does.