How Baccarat Rouge 540 Ushered In the Gourmand Fragrance Trend

What is the most seductive scent of all time? If you ask anyone, from beauty editors to seemingly every influencer (and, rumor has it, Rihanna) the answer may be Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540. Although its origin dates back to just 2014, the perfume has fast become legendary in the olfactory world. People claim to know its luxe, sweet scent from a faint whiff on a crowded street. Pro ballers love it. Olivia Rodrigo wears it on tour. Meek Mill named-checked the bottle on a track. And it’s become one of the highest-selling luxury niche fragrances ever, taking on superstar quality while balancing the ever-fine line between aspirational and over-exposed. TikTok virality, hitting its true stride in 2021, brought the fragrance to household-name status.

Where did Kurkdjian’s infectious creation originate? The Parisian perfumer of Armenian descent—who is known for creating Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male, Burberry Her, and heading Christian Dior Perfumes alongside his own line—developed the fragrance as a celebration of crystal house Baccarat’s 250th anniversary. The original plan was to make an ode to the house’s ornate fine crystals. Baccarat would release exactly 250 handmade, diamond-cut collectors edition bottles. At €3,000, these would be design objects and special gifts for the house’s top clients. Kurkdjian got to work experimenting in the lab and eventually stumbled upon a sample he made the year before, when he was striving to create a new fragrance containing edible-inspired notes. How could he bring gourmand into the (post) modern, digitized world? The scent brought together elements of airy jasmine—known for accentuating accompanying notes—warm amber and cedarwood, and spicy, tempting saffron. It would be bright and heavy at once, like a Baccarat crystal, he proposed. Kurkdjian brought it to the Baccarat team and the rest is history.

Soon after the collector’s bottles sold out, a Neiman Marcus beauty executive fell in love with how the fragrance lived on her skin and suggested bringing it to the department store’s floors. Kurkdjian negotiated for the full license and released it as Baccarat Rouge 540 under his own line (which he founded in 2009). The 540 references the temperature at which crystal, when heated with 24 karat gold, turns red. It’s a Baccarat signature, referred to as Rouge a’l’or or golden red. By 2015, Baccarat Rouge 540 was turning heads in rooms and elevators.

The perfume is known for being particularly desirable. Some say it’s the perfect mix of day and night, sexy without being overpowering. Devotees note its gorgeously precise sweetness, how freshly light and densely alluring it can be. Its character also drives conversation. For every editor who adores its decadence and unmistakably lush essence, there’s a voice dissecting its appeal. The New Yorker’s Rachel Syme suggested it smells like a new Porsche filled with cotton candy. That same profile on Mr. Kurkdjian also called Baccarat Rouge 540 the scent of conspicuous consumption, the ultimate wealth signifier of a generation obsessed with Succession-style aesthetics. There’s something to be said for a scent or a work of art that provokes a strong reaction—this is where the impact lies.

Now, just over ten years into its reign, Baccarat Rouge 540 has become a bold-type note in Kurkdjian’s legacy, sitting alongside conceptually driven artist collaborations (see: Kurkdjian’s work with the Cocteau twins, Philip Glass Trilogy and Vienna State Opera) and iconic scents like Narciso Rodriguez for Her. Kurkdjian is one of the perfumers (he’s not a fan of the word nose) whose name comes before him. Baccarat Rouge 540 has arguably been instrumental in the still-flourishing gourmand trend. And although it’s inspired an ongoing quest for similar fragrances, there remains only one Baccarat Rouge 540. (Though you can now own Baccarat Rouge 540 lotions, oils, hand soaps and candles—layer yourself in the inimitable scent to your heart’s content.) And for many, nothing is as sexy or sophisticated as that.