Alternatives to Maison Francis Kurkdjian Grand Soir

Perfumer: Chris Maurice

From the master perfume responsible for most of the Xerjoff range, Moon Glade is a very unconventional take on lavender. The perfumer added a charred coconut shell nuance and poured sweet peach compote to the clean musky vibes of the herb.

Opponax: fun to say, fun to smell. Yin launches with this spicy-sweet resin, twinned with the fruity-booziness of davana. Labdanum and benzoin keep it cuddly.

More is less. Orchestrated with just three main ingredients. One: Iso-e-Super (with its sensation of soft, transparent wood). Two: white amber (with its comforting, almost skin-like warmth). Three: orange (lavishly applied). The effect: a warm/fresh velvetiness that intensifies the longer it lives on the skin.

This perfume is part of Perris 'perfume gold' collection celebrating staple vintage materials and the formula is a true recreation of sweet the salty/vanillic haze of ambergris with that alluring radiating volume only ambergris would have.

As the blare of a jazz band fills the room, sensual wafts of rose and tonka bean arise from the flushed skin of couples on the dance floor. Invigorating sage intertwines with the percussive patterns of the dancers. This dazzling night doesn’t last forever, but it leaves behind a musky memory that makes you want to do it all over again.

Perfumer: Sidonie Lancesseur

The Materie Premiere collection. 

A soft, bitter-sweet tonka and cooling lavender blend. Marie Jeanne’s beautiful vision of a 21^st century fougere.

AER translates to air and is pronounced "air-r".

Cool coastal breeze in a bottle. This uplifting niche perfume offers an initial hit of cool aromatics, crisp and light on the skin. A slight wood-smokiness unfolds, dry and elegant, bringing you gently back down to earth.

From LO’s Parfum Intense collection, this is an amber with the darkness turned up to 11. There’s no white space here, just expensive raw materials piled high. Its vibrant opening with fruity notes is enriched by the bitterness of coffee, deepening into a powerful chorus of rose, iris, jasmine and lily of the valley. And this valley is a deep one, a soft black expanse of leather, nagarmotha and patchouli, cushioned by a dirtier-than-usual amber.

Perfumer: Kévin Mathys

In this perfume story, the smoky gaiac aroma is gliding across a fresh and boundless ozonic void.

The story is open to interpretation: you can smell the waterproof canvas of the parachute gear in the abstract clean woodiness of the formula; or the air from under the tarpaulin you pull off a glider in its hangar; or think of any scenario involving flying machinery and an unlimited supply of fresh air.

The perfumer wanted to achieve a hazy floating shadow of an aroma, evoking a sensation of endless dark blue space, the calm humming of an engine, and hints of gasoline or machine oil. A worthy heir to the grandpa of all hazy smoky formulas inspired by airplane wings: Guerlain’s Vol de Nuit.

Lances is a Spanish word that means the fleeting but decisive moments that change everything ever after. Risks are taken, character is forged. This extrait embodies this risk and reward dynamic with the high-contrast tension between hazelnut and four varieties of lavender. The effect is intriguingly ambiguous, simultaneously pulled towards the gourmand with the help of vanilla and sandalwood, while maintaining an aromatic aloofness thanks to the lavender and cedarwood.

Perfumer: Jean-Christophe Hérault