L'Homme À la Rose Maison Francis Kurkdjian 2020

Some fragrances are a slap in the face. Not because they smell so bad, different or flashy. But because one is annoyed by the sheer presence of a fragrance. In this case, we need to go back in time a bit.

MFK's Lumiere Noire Homme is, in my eyes (and many others), one of, if not the most beautiful rose fragrance a man can wear. Here, the rose is so wonderfully and stylishly put on stage with tart supporting actors (patchouli, spices) that this combination simply results in a dreamlike symbiosis. Everything meshes, combines and in the end results in a tart and spicy rose fragrance that lives up to its name. And then you take this fragrance that is loved and adored by the community and discontinue it. And if that were not already bad and sacrilege enough, one tries at demand of the community at hypocritical excuses (the perfumer would like to realize himself anew).

What one makes however then, is the addressed blow in the face. One publishes a new rose fragrance, which also squints at a male target group. This is where L'Homme À la Rose comes into play.

For the L'Homme À la Rose it does not need many words. And for one or the other, this may now seem harsh, aggressive or even offensive. But we have here simply the worst rose fragrance of recent years. If MFK had marketed this fragrance as a "cucumber fragrance", they would have done everything right. Because that's exactly what it is. An absolute cucumber in the portfolio of an otherwise actually quite stylish brand. L'Homme À la Rose seems like the first work of a beginner in his first semester. A test tube accident. A fragrance not to be surpassed in arbitrariness and interchangeability, which offers us here a shallow, pale rose water with some soapiness. If Francis Kurkdjian's goal was to create the exact opposite of Lumiere Noire Homme, then I bow to that achievement here. The fragrance lacks everything that made Lumiere Noire Homme. There is no profile here, no rough edges. Everything seems rundgelutscht and without any depth.

And the worst thing is that you would not take the L'Homme À la Rose so hard ran, if you did not know that for this fragrance the Lumiere Noire Homme was literally sacrificed. If both fragrances existed in MFK's portfolio, none of this would be a problem. Men who are aware that they are men would reach for the Lumiere Noire Homme. Real guys with quirks and profile. And the L'Homme À la Rose would have just those men who like it shallow, trivial and interchangeable. But so MFK leaves us here with only a rose fragrance for "men", to which I just do not want to count with this scent.

Some fragrances are a slap in the face. And then there is the L'Homme À la Rose. I will never forgive you for that, Kurkdjian.