DalilaB

This has to be my favourite sweet oriental inspired fragrance and my gateway into saffron scents! When I started my fragrance journey, I felt a certain snobbery every time the name of this fragrance came up. My friend and sponsor in this journey always said this is over rated and that he didn’t understand how people fall head over heel for it. So as a good student, I avoided Baccarat rouge. It was easy, I lived in a small city in Scotland and had no access to perfume shops that carried MFK. I signed up to nose.fr and after answering a series of questions, I identified my fragrance profile and 3 fragrances were suggested. Among these was Oud Satin Mood extrait, which was a huge instant love! It is still my favourite jammy rose sweet fragrance, if I could bathe in this I would. I decided to investigate the other offerings from Francis Kurkdjian, and pounced on the next sample being offered on the fragrance Facebook group, it was baccarat extrait.
It was so lush, I cannot distinguish individual notes but I smelled something sweet like cotton candy almost, I could smell saffron and almonds.
It was like the most exquisite pudding. It was delicious and above all it was familiar. It evolved I to this scent cloud that I felt all day long. I then sheepishly told my friend that I liked baccarat and he said of course you did, most people like it.
I was then surprised to see that it’s one of the most copied fragrances out there. I tried the extrait and the EDP and I do feel that the extrait is sweeter than the EDP and seems to have this note which feels like almonds to me. BR540 is a comfort scent for me, and one that won’t go unnoticed. Few of my friends bought the dupes after smelling this on me, so I found myself wearing it less often than I would’ve done otherwise. This is all too well as I have to be careful with it because it can be cloying at times.

Confused at first by the name, as the only Allende I know of is the Chilean president overthrown by Pinochet... and I am sure he wasn’t the inspiration for this fragrance. I spent most of perfume wearing years avoiding Vanilla until I discovered and enjoyed the likes of Lune Feline and Angelique noire as well as the various Vanilla based fragrances by Sylvaine de la court. Then I thought it’s quite nice to have some vanilla rich fragrance to layer with my usual fragrances. I came across reviews of Allende and and decided to blind buy it, solely on reviews. Now, that’s a bad idea for any fragrance and more so for Allende.
This perfume is so strong that I feel like I am not smelling it properly, I am not able to pick the various notes. I cannot pick out the cocoa not the magnolia and all I get is ultra sharp vanilla. I like gourmands but I am not able to associate this with custard or cream, it’s all Vanilla to me!
I would agree with other reviewers in that it’s better suited for colder weather, and maybe more of an evening fragrance where you want to be noticed. I wouldn’t wear this to the office.

In the past I used to avoid vanilla perfumes, as soon as a sales assistant mentioned vanilla I was gone. To me vanilla is something I like in my puddings, crème brûlée and the such not on my skin. Then came Lune Feline, it is a gorgeous non gourmand vanilla. It is spicy and smokey and feels more grown up and absolutely unisex. It has general appeal and every time I wear I get compliments and get asked what my scent was. I am not big on presentations but the bottle is gorgeous too and the gold flakes add a certain je ne sais quoi so why not. For those of you who may want to venture into vanilla perfumes but are not quite ready for Guerlain’s spiritueuse double vanille this may be a good entry to vanilla territory. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I am editing my review after reading others below, I did also wonder where the feline character came from and even called my Kitten Luna .

Blessed baraka is one of these perfumes that gets better every time I wear it, even though it doesn’t fit in any of the categories I normally associate myself with. I have been into florals since I can remember and only started appreciating resinous recently. Blessed baraka according to Fragrantica has only 3 notes, but when worn it smells more complex. It’s beautiful from the first spray but the dry down is where the beauty lies, it dries down balsamic and slightly sweet. I wish I could pick out the individual notes but all I get is sandalwood with hints of sweet amber, I get gorgeous cloud that’s similar to ambre eccentrico and lune feline without the sweetness of the former or the smokiness of the latter. I could swear there’s vanilla in the dry down but I don’t see it listed. It is appreciated by colleagues and friends and got me quite few compliments. The name is also special to me, baraka is one of these words that cannot easily be translated, sometimes it’s translated as a blessing and others its the concept of bountiful and unlimited.

I am not usually taken by the shape or the beauty of the bottle or the full presentation. However, if you think of perfume as a piece of art then the presentation becomes important. Xerjoff have excelled at showing off their creations and out of the various offerings I have to say that Kemi Blending Magic is my favourite. The bottles are just exquisite and the attention to detail is unparalleled. I treated myself to tempest and I have to say that I love it, it’s an oriental woody fragrance which starts off rather strong with some animalic note (?). I find the oud/ amber combo quite strong in this but as it settles it becomes heavenly, I get wafts if rose and oud and a little amber. I must admit I cannot pick out Individual notes in this but overall it’s a beautiful scent. It’s a beautiful rich fragrance but whether the price tag is justified is another matter.