The Journey
I started the journey into this fragrance with a sample of Montagne’s Le Bonbon some months ago, an inspiration of Baccarat Rouge 540, I thought to myself “this will be great” but other than that, had no other pre-conceptions going in. I had seen the original being hyped by the fragrance community to no end, but, truth be told, I hadn’t read about it or watched any reviews, I had zero idea what to expect. I sprayed it on the bends of my arms and found it very soft and hard to decipher, it was not love at first sniff for me, not because I found it bad but rather because I found it lacking character, that one spray on each arm bend did not give me a good starting base. My wife, who has a very sensitive nose, immediately told me it smelled like a hospital hallway, I was blown away, she had no context about this fragrance so I was surprised she mentioned that, I, however, would never compare this to a hospital, for me it was like a “artisanal cotton candy” or the cotton candy you would expect at a farmer’s market, calling itself revolutionary, “cotton candy without the added sweetness” I imagined someone would call it. Later that day, my daughter smelled it and immediately asked me why I was using her fragrance Clouds by Ariana Grande, however, after getting close to me and smelling it directly from my skin, she immediately retracted and told me “it’s kinda the same but it isn’t”, she did say it smelled amazing though. The puzzle began on my head. What is with this fragrance! I decided to get a bottle and do 3 things, One: Review it by itself, Two: Compare it to the original and Three: Compare it to Clouds by Ariana Grande. I like solving puzzles and this one piqued my interest.Part of my process for reviews involves smelling the fragrance, making notes and then reading about it. Why do I do this? I want to see how far off I am and if there is something I should concentrate on for future tests. When I started researching for it, comments I read compared it to the iodine mixture hospitals use, others to cotton candy, others to pure sugar while others went as far as to say they can’t smell anything. This fragrance has layers and understanding it would be a puzzle. Adding to the puzzle is the fact that this scent is signed by Francis Kurkdjian, a perfumer I admire, creator of Le Male, Ultra Male, Mr Burberry and most importantly (in my book), Elie Saab’s Essence Line, a favorite line of mine, the pedigree is there and the hype is real, Kurkdjian can turn one note into magic so I could only wonder what he could do with the ingredients for BR540.
The Opening
Saffron, the most expensive agricultural product in the world has a very unique scent , it’s earthy, salty sweet, almost like honey, I’s a smell I remember only because my parents used to get saffron to make Paellas and my mom would bring the flower sometimes, the rare item has such a unique scent that it stuck with me forever. I detect a little saffron …however, the addition of Jasmine (a powerful scent by itself) really tones down the sweetness and turns it more earthy, this does not feel fake, does not feel incomplete and it commands your attention, in fact, the first few times I wore it I could not split one scent from the other, nothing stood out…the blend was amazing… I have to make a point here: Fragrances are about blending and finding what scents blend well with other, in my opinion, this fragrance takes 2 ingredients that not only blend well together but rather they change each other and make each other better. Why do I say that? I can tell you that Saffron, although it smells very unique, its not something I want on my skin…because its potent and in your face, it’s got too much character by itself, Jasmine is beautiful, but, if not blended correctly, smells like expensive soap, it also has a character that I don’t want by itself. Yet….combined, they fight each other on your skin and none wins so you can’t detect one versus the other, during the fight, they tone each other down while allowing their best traits to be on display, it’s pretty amazing if Im honest.
The opening is soft, it’s inoffensively clean…it’s fresh under the connotation of fresh meaning airy, not on the connotation of fresh being citrusy, it is not woody although it can feel like it has a resin layer (which I attribute to the earthiness of the saffron). Upon inspecting the opening further, sweetness is extracted, it turns cotton candy for me, but not like a $2 cotton candy that is only sugar, this is cotton made by a Michelin star chef, perhaps replacing the sugar with extracted jasmine notes and sea salt. Its a fascinating opening and I’ve sprayed 6 sprays on me without feeling like the scent bubble drowns me, its a fragrance that truly complements you.
Compared to the Original: This is interesting, when I put one fragrance on each arm, it’s an experiment by itself. I’ll explain. The opening is not the same for me between them, BR540 is more Saffron, Le Bonbon is more Jasmine, they share the same wave but one makes the notes more prominent than the other, for example, BR540 has the volume set to 4 or 4.5, whereas Le Bonbon has it to 7, Le Bonbon is louder and because of that you can miss some of the depth of BR540, at first I thought this was a result of me taking deeper sniffs with BR540 but no, even when I go soft, BR540 is just more complicated. This is why I say this is an experiment, if I was only smelling Le Bonbon or only smelling BR450, I could not for the life of me detect one note dominating over the other, but, when I do a 1:1 comparison between them, suddenly I can! I have to say, I do prefer the opening of the original even if harder to detect on your skin, but I prefer it only a little bit., would I pay 3 or 4 times the price for the opening difference? That’s easy, NO. I wouldn’t pay 10% more for the opening difference. It’s crazy to me how close Montagne can get these openings, but more importantly, it’s incredible to me that their inspired expression feels complete by itself, even if its not the same as the original, that takes something to accomplish.
The Drydown
Did you know that Ambergris comes from sperm whales only? ..and that it’s estimated that only 1% of those produce ambergris? Talk about a rare ingredient on top of another (saffron)! I will not explain the whole history and processing of ambergris as it’s rather disgusting but…suffice to say, the salty marine mix of ambergris is sought after by perfumers because the musk like quality it produces is second to none. I’ll be honest, It’s hard for me to detect the note of ambergris…mainly because I’ve never smelled it by itself so I can only detect it as a “it smells like this other fragrance that has ambergris”, for me it brings ocean saltiness to the mix and I feel on this fragrance it gives the cedar a “moldy” presence, meaning it gives the cedar a humid tone …it removes the dryness of cedar and helps it sit on your skin less woody, if that makes any sense! My favorite aspect of this fragrance is the dry down, the complexity is there when you look for it, when your nose is trained enough, but, there is also a certain mass appeal as well….I know in the fragrance community mass appeal is almost a bad word, for me its not, for me it means that at a party everyone will think the fragrance is fascinating…how can that be a bad thing?
Compared to Original: The same notes from the opening remain and the same effect. After the first hour, Le Bonbon remains louder and not as “wide” as BR540, when I mean wide is my way of expressing that BR540 provides a wider range of notes while Le Bonbon, with prominent cedar is a bit more linear.. BR540 remains very targeted to the scent, it’s salty, marine, woody, it’s a thing of beauty, I have to admit. Now, don’t get me wrong here… Le Bonbon, by itself, is amazing, it’s also salty, marine, woody and has that amazing cedar note, it feels natural and it’s airy on your skin, I like that it’s louder as I can enjoy it more without having to “look for it” as I had to do with BR540, also, Le Bonbon lasted way longer on my skin so by the end of the day, I could still detect it when BR540 was long gone. This is Le Bonbon’s ticket to success, they created an inspiration of the original, a similar profile but different execution, Le Bonbon by itself is fascinating and the days I wore it by itself (not against anything else), I found myself sniffing myself throughout the day, specially my arm bends and taking deep sniffs just so that I could detect all the notes.
The Magic Act
This fragrance has a layer that is very strange… I call it The disappearing act! For some reason, unbeknown to me as I am not a chemist, this scent disappears from you olfactory radar.. the bubble, for lack of better terminology, is no longer there or so you think. That was driving me nuts! So much in fact that I mentioned it to a friend while we were out and it just so happened I was testing the frag that day.. I said, “I’m using this fragrance but I think the performance is not great”, her response? “You are kidding right? I can only smell whatever you are wearing” so I mentioned the same thing to people around me (at the party) and 10 out of 10 people corrected me telling me that the scent bubble was there! Later I realized that if I look for the scent, I find it, but if I don’t, it disappears on me. I can’t tell you what that is, only that through 5 days of testing, it remained the same story. Note: All 10 people I asked mentioned how great the fragrance was although many said “I can’t pull that one, too sweet for me”. This is as far as you’ll read from a compliments stand-point on my reviews!
Compared to Ariana Grand Clouds
So, I might disappoint plenty of readers but, I don’t see it. I can’t compare them because they are not similar to me, in fact, I went completely blind to Clouds, I didn’t read the notes before trying it. The opening has bergamot! These are not comparable on the opening, not at all. When it comes to the dry down, I’ll be honest, they don’t compare. Clouds is whipped cream through-out, its not complex, its not salty, it’s not earthy. Clouds for me is milky and turns musky eventually, its totally different. I admit that from a distance I can sort of see where the comparisons are but once you put them to the test, they don’t compare. Don’t get me wrong here… I really like Clouds, but don’t get it because it imitates BR540 or you’ll be very disappointed.
Performance
This lasts 7-9 hours on my skin when I do 4 sprays on the chest. During the last hours, it’s definitively faint, but it’s still there. One thing to be careful of is the scent bubble because you might not notice it but others will, you’ve been warned!
Conclusion
Do I recommend it? This answer, like the fragrance, has layers. I think Montagne did a magnificent job of creating an inspired expression, the original is expensive and this is a no brainer to own if you like the DNA of BR540… you will not be disappointed. Do I recommend this over getting the original? I think you can own Le Bonbon by itself and never feel you are missing out on BR540 if you are a “passive fan”, meaning someone who likes the fragrance but doesn’t want to consider it their signature scent, but, if you really really like BR540, I would have both. I would save BR540 for special occasions where I want someone to enjoy the fragrance with me and I would have Montagne for every time I just want to enjoy the fragrance. As for what I’ll do, myself, I’ll just have a bottle of Montagne because my love for BR540 is fleeting, I wont pursue it too much but its comforting to know I can have it when I want.
Remember when I said the recommendation has layers…. This fragrance is a puzzle, it has layers and they are hard to decipher, but, like any good puzzle, it’s rewarding as you start figuring it out. This DNA grows on you….I suggest sticking to it and trying it multiple times , you will be rewarded by an appreciation to it and once you reach that, it took me 3 full wears before I could see why this scent profile is hyped, by wear #5, I was reaching for it and looking forward to wearing it.
To conclude, my first impression on this was not positive, I couldn’t believe what I was smelling was so hyped… but I gave it a chance and it grew on me…but perhaps, I was the one that needed to grow for it, , the hype, as it turns out, was real. I’m glad I discovered this fragrance later in my fragrance journey, had I used this when I started, I would’ve given it tags like feminine, or “too soft”, or “too sweet” and never wore it, I would’ve missed out! Today, I can appreciate it and enjoy it, Today, I can honestly say, this is a hidden jewel in my collection. Montagne, keep doing what you are doing, my scent journey thanks you.
Have you tried this? Do you agree with me? Passionately disagree? Let me know in the comments!
As always, wear it because it complements you, not because of the compliments.
X.
