A Brief History of Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Francis Kurkdjian is a French perfumer who was born in Paris to Armenian parents. He has created over 40 fragrances for other houses before he started his company in 2009. He’s produced work for several of the most famous houses including Armani, Versace, Dior, YSL and Ferragamo amongst many others. Perhaps his most famous work prior to starting his house was Le Male, which was created for Jean Paul Gaultier when he was just 26 years old. Francis had an interest in fragrance making at the very young age of 13 and in his early 20’s he studied at Institut Supérieur International du Parfum, de la Cosmétique et de l’Aromatique Alimentaire (ISIPCA) located in Versailles and he also went on to receive his master’s degree.
The brand Maison Francis Kurkdjian was born in 2009, which Franicis co-founded with Marc Chaya, who is president of the fragrance house. Since the launch of his house, he has been churning out very high-quality fragrances that are well-received in the fragrance community. He has won several prestigious awards for his work and rightfully so. I personally own two of his fragrances, Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait de Parfum and Amyris Homme Extrait de Parfum, and they are probably two of my favorite fragrances in my collection. They smell heavenly like nothing else out there on the market and are of extreme quality. I have also sampled several others and would love to purchase a couple others!
If you happen to follow his Instagram account, he posts videos of his thought process and it’s very interesting watching him work. He’s very passionate, essentially an artist, and he believes in creating stories with his fragrances and not just a scent.
Below is more information on the two fragrances that I have purchased that I absolutely love. I plan to hopefully purchase more of MFK’s fragrances in the future as soon as I get through some of the bottles in my current collection!
Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait De Parfum
This oriental fragrance (learn about different fragrance olfactory families here) is perhaps MFK’s most famous and popular fragrance to date, and rightfully so. Back in 2014, the eau de parfum version of Baccarat Rouge 540 was released and two years later the extrait version followed. The difference between the two is the level of pure fragrance oil used, the extrait version has more oil and secondly there are also two ingredients in the extrait version that aren’t in the eau de parfum version: bitter almond from Morocco and musky woody accord. The ingredients listed on the MFK website for the extrait version are: grandiflorum jasmine from Egypt, saffron, bitter almond from Morocco, cedar wood, musky woody accord and ambergris.
At initial spray, the extrait version smells sweet, almost like cherry & strawberry perfectly mixed with almond and light woody tones. It kind of reminds me of the dessert marzipan mixed with berries, which I love 🙂 After about 30 mins to an hour though, the woody tones kick in a little more and the sweetness is somewhat toned down. This fragrance will last several hours on your skin and even longer if you spray it on your clothing. I have worn it to work and have sprayed it on my shirt and the next day i could still smell the fragrance. You will definitely receive compliments while wearing this masterpiece of a fragrance. MFK does not list the top, heart and base notes on its website, most likely to try to limit the number of copy-cat products made but I may be wrong.
This is a very elegant and sexy smelling fragrance that can be worn year-round and it is also unisex. I’ve smelled it on women before and it is quite lovely. I personally have not smelled the eau de parfum version but from the reviews I’ve seen, it is not as rich and complex but is a bit more transparent and doesn’t last as long on your skin/clothing.
You can purchase Baccarat Rouge here:
Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait de Parfum
Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau de Parfum
Amyris Homme Extrait de Parfum
Amyris Homme can be categorized as a woody fragrance. The MFK website lists the ingredients used as: mandarin oil from Sicily, cinnamon oil from Ceylon, saffron accord, iris oil from Florence, amyris oil from the Caribbean, vanilla accord and tonka beans absolute from Brazil. So you can see, there are a variety of top-notch ingredients used in this fragrance to give a full and complex scent.
Amyris itself comes from the wood of the Amyris balsamifera tree and has a woody scent, hence its categorization as a woody fragrance.
For me, the mandarin, cinnamon, vanilla and tonka beans really shine in this one. It smells very sophisticated and has a lot of depth and I can see this one pairing well for date night or in the colder months since it has a very warm smell.
The difference between the extrait de parfum and the eau de toilette is that two ingredients are swapped. The extrait has vanilla accord and cinnamon oil not present in the eau de parfum whereas the eau de toilette has rosemary oil and cedarwood oil not present in the extrait.
You can purchase Amyris Homme here: