Absolue Pour le Soir Maison Francis Kurkdjian 2024

I recently added the new 2024 release from Selfridges into my collection and it’s exactly like the 2010!
I have a 2ml sample of the 2010 vintage that came along with a 200ml bottle of Cologne Pour le Soir.
It’s the same round, slightly acidic almost waxy honey (think unfiltered honey with wax inside) with the dusty/stone like incense. Just as dense and rich but the vintage is a bit more beastly in projection which makes sense as it’s aged for 14 years.

The new fragrance does project very well with two sprays but the vintage seriously needs only 1/2 spray!
The cumin is not funky or too much it’s just creating this human nuance that makes the fragrance feel sort of erotic and part of the wearer. I do not smell urine, I have no idea how others smell urine. I’m so happy I splurged.
The backside of the faceplate reads: Parfum Créé en 2010 Francis Kurkdjian- such a lovely touch!

It saddens me to read so many comments saying this scent smells like a bathroom, or worse. Not all perfumes have to smell like roses or angels...
I'm a classical musician, and I don't play Mozart's cheerful symphonies every day.
Imagine how boring my life would be if I only played Mozart's happy music...
The music that touches my heart the most, is the music of Tchaikovsky, Wagner...music that awakens feelings of happines, but also anger, pain, despair, and hope.
It should be the same with perfumes.
A note that awakens in you feelings other than "beautiful" or "nice"are valid, and those notes will make you special and different.
Friends, stop buying your Sauvages and your Blue de Chanel"s, and we should stop all smelling the same every morning at work.
Absolue pour le Soir doesn't smell like a dirty bathroom; it just has an "animal" note, which for me is the simple combination of cumin with rose and a more "raw" amber than the one that Kurkdijan used to make Grand Soir. It is this very note that makes this perfume more human, in the sense that we humans have a love-hate relationship with our bodily odors.
Is this very note that compels me to smell my hand every 10 seconds because this note fascinate me.
Besides, most skanky/animal perfumes change to something amazing, after, or 5 minutes or one hour.
I used Absolue for the Soir this evening for my concert, and I did put a lot of it, I sprayed 10 times........ but nobody died, nobody was offended, I was happily performing at the concert in a cloud of amber and every one came at the end, to smell me from close. Every one found my scent "fascinating", nobody said "ohh smell like urine"
Lets go back to the times when perfumes were strong and opulent, when you scent defined your personality....
And, just for the fun of it, sometimes I put Grand soir in one hand, and Absolue pour le Soir in the other hand, and I play the game that the Grand Soir hand is my good Mario and the other hand with Absolue pour le Soir is my bad Mario and have fun with that the whole day....
But one thing is clear, the hand with Absolue pour le Soir is always the clear winner!

This is a sultry fragrance that makes no apologies and Francis Kurkdjian's most polarizing scent.

A thick oriental amber, the antithesis of Grand Soir.

The execution is masterful.

I'll quickly skim the notes of this fragrance, as it would be an insult to try to form an image of it simply by reading them:

Top trio of cumin, honey, and amber, complemented by rose, cistus, and vanilla.

The structure is simple, and the ingredients are perfectly identifiable in a meticulously crafted blend.

This is what Francis Kurkdjan's art yields at its best when he is truly himself, free to express himself without commercial constraints, with all the audacity he possesses on all-too-rare occasions.

Subscribers to the MFK fragrance collection will be very surprised by the uncompromising artistic vision expressed in this creation, which was launched in 2010 and was already considered at the time to be an anomaly bordering on the experimental.

This fragrance is reminiscent in its opening of Under My Skin by Francesca Bianchi, released seven years later, but Absolue reveals itself to be far more refined, more biting, sharper, and ultimately more sophisticated.

It is a magnificent, honeyed, animalic amber with dirty floral notes that evoke the deepest, most secret desires of human beings.

A distant cousin of Absolue for the evening would be Musc Ravageur in its original version from 25 years ago, powerfully animalic.

This fragrance is best worn at night only, as it is too extroverted for daytime wear in my opinion.

The strong, spicy indole opening can actually suggest the smell of sweat in a poorly cleaned public restroom.

What follows is a powerful, sensual evolution, offering a bouquet of pheromone-like scents reminiscent of skin warmed by love.

Absolue is the XXL match that ignites the flesh for those who aren't afraid to take risks.

This fragrance won't be worn by the masses, and that's not its purpose.

However, if you want a decidedly intriguing and distinctive fragrance that will make people wonder where you're going, this is it.

While Grand Soir is intended for more formal occasions like galas and social events, Absolue pour le Soir is much more suited to nights out and underground nights until dawn, like the dark and torrid side of the same coin.

It's always a risk when a perfumer relaunches a discontinued creation, but this 2010 reissue is a true success in faithfully reviving the original version with a few subtle contemporary variations.

For those who missed the original, MFK had the excellent idea of ​​offering a "lower cost" catch-up session for an identical experience, especially considering that the first edition is being sold for around €800 on some enthusiast forums.

I like it, but I don't know if I'd use it. Not because it's difficult to wear, it just makes me feel tired quickly...
It's an amber with subdued tones but very deep and dense. The cumin is very present along with the honey, and the sweet amber supports these two notes. The scent is quite monolithic and stable, in some ways carnal, beautiful. It immediately took me back to Dark Side by F. Bianchi, but this is definitely more refined, more polished, less chunky, obviously without the iris to weigh it down. It could be a good bedtime scent, but perhaps too strong for sleeping...
Beautiful, I'll keep trying it during these first days of autumn.

Ha! When I look at the statements here under the fragrance, it really amuses me a lot. I do love these "smells like subway toilet" critiques … and here they come, of course, with a warning. Because: MFK is really not a house known for particularly animalic scents, quite the opposite! So it makes perfect sense that people who otherwise enjoy a "Grand Soir | Maison Francis Kurkdjian," a "Baccarat Rouge 540 (Eau de Parfum) | Maison Francis Kurkdjian," or an Oud Satin Mood Eau de Parfum would wrinkle their noses here. But it also shows that even a Francis Kurkdjian has not completely surrendered to commerce (even if his role at Dior speaks a different language). Because this fragrance here MUST confront its loyal customers - a targeted and successful provocation! Even though I would like to humbly say that I don't know what it smells like in subway toilets, as I avoid those places like the devil avoids holy water. But it's good to know that a large part of the reviewers seems to be quite familiar with the odor prevailing there. I hope you always have plenty of disinfectant with you …

But what kind of fragrance is the Absolue Pour le Soir (2024)? An astonishingly good one - that can be said right away! Especially after the long dry spell that Kurkdjian has been through (see the last DIOR and MFK releases). The motto here is: Back to old strength (because whether you like his scent language or not: he undoubtedly knows his craft). That someone with this legendary status would throw all caution to the wind and reissue the Absolue Pour Le Soir (2010) is certainly surprising. Since I unfortunately do not know the old release, I cannot make comparisons, but can only share my impressions of the new "Absolue." The fragrance actually starts off animalic - the cumin may have slipped down the list, but it is present from the very beginning and provides a lascivious, sweaty note that harmonizes wonderfully with the heavy, classic rose. But Kurkdjian wouldn't be Kurkdjian if the typical sweetness didn't hit with full force right away. Warm honey, sticky resins, seductive vanilla - all these notes can also be found in the "Grand Soir | Maison Francis Kurkdjian," but here they are contrasted with harsh cumin and smoky labdanum. One almost wants to think of early Bianchi fragrances, but this one has the typical MFK refinement. Even though the scents do not resemble each other in profile, one might think of "Leather Oud | Dior," as this fragrance also managed to convey that the animalic does not just come across as "dirty" but rather extremely "decadent." Before the "Absolue Pour le Soir (2024) | Maison Francis Kurkdjian," even a Demachy would respectfully tip his hat and forgive Mr. Kurkdjian for the defacement of the "Dior Homme Parfum (2014) | Dior."

All in all, the Absolue Pour le Soir (2024) is rightly part of the "My Very Intimate Perfumes" collection, as it certainly gets intimate, almost obscenely dirty - but at a high level. It must have smelled like this at one of the famously disreputable parties of the bourgeoisie - when hedonism was indulged in without any inhibitions. It also fits that the fragrance does not smell youthful at all, but breathes the spirit of classic French perfumery. I can really only recommend everyone to test this fragrance and immerse themselves in its sensual, captivating nature - especially if one usually cannot relate to MFK at all. This perfume feels mature, heavy, classic, and in the most beautiful way, dirty. For me, it is so far an absolute highlight of the year 2025 and proof that even the old, saturated masters still have it sometimes.

Finally, I have one more request: If you do not like animalic scents in fragrances (which is completely legitimate and I can totally understand), then please stop rating animalic fragrances. Because then it is no longer about "good" or "bad" or objective criticism, but about subjective taste. It's like hating jazz but then writing reviews of jazz albums - that makes no sense. And I don't mean this in a mean or derogatory way, but simply as a little reminder not to label everything you don't like as "bad." At least I am having fun with the dirty, new MFK.