In the meantime, perfume fanatic, Karina Waldron, posted a video explaining: “that is Grand Soir from one in all my favorite grasp perfumers, Francis Kurkdjian. That is an amber and vanilla scent. She’s heat, she’s resinous, she’s candy. 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.
