Dupe-ish: Baccarat Rouge Redux

Can I tell you how thrilled I am that my little jasmine plant is blooming? (here’s a photo). I bought the most cold-hardy I could find, which still isn’t hardy enough for our USDA zone 6b location (-5F / -20C), but I’m hoping that between a generous mulching this winter and the warmer microclimate of our walled garden, it’ll be back next spring. I stick my face down there and huff those tiny blooms like a maniac. If I lived in a more temperate climate I’d have jasmine vines festooning my entryway and outside my bedroom window.

Anyway – here’s a quick post on one perfume or, more precisely, one perfume goal.  I wanted to see if I could find a reasonable dupe of MFK Baccarat Rouge, which I mostly can’t smell, I’m largely anosmic to whatever that special sauce is.* I can smell it intermittently, and better on other people, but where’s the fun in that? A decent dupe, made differently, might be a different story.

So I did the deep dive online into possible dupes for BR (there are a ton, unsurprisingly, given its popularity and its high price) and settled on this thing —  Lattafa Perfumes Ana Abiyedh Rouge —  because the comments seemed on point and also because I’m so amused that it costs a whopping $17 unlike Dossier and other “inspired by” dupe brands.

Let’s talk about the bottle first, okay? When it arrived in its box … I don’t even know how they can make this packaging and a profit at that price. The bottle is gorgeous. Truly. It’s heavy glass, looks like crisp, quality manufacturing (including the lettering and the box), the cap’s a little blingy but it’s heavy and fits perfectly … I’m gobsmacked. This could sit (and probably will sit) between my Amouages and my tall Guerlains (Encens Mythique, etc.) and not look out of place.

And the scent? Welllllll… good news/bad news. I can smell it better than the BR, although you need to give it a minute or two for the alcohol to blow off, don’t make my mistake of sticking your face in there immediately. My roomie / fellow perfumista Carolyn compared it nose to nose with the BR sample I have, with which she’s familiar, and pronounces it a very good dupe. You might not fool Francis Kurkdjian, but most folks in your immediate vicinity who caught a whiff and know BR would assume that’s what you have on. It’s not as strong, but hey – at $17 for 60ml (!), feel free to spray with abandon.

Now I’m conducting an experiment, because I remembered that years ago I was largely anosmic to the original Narciso Rodriguez (remember that one?) But I had a bottle and so I kept applying it, and over time I could smell it fully, and then became almost hypernosmic to it – it could be toooooo much. In the meantime I can smell this dupe the way you’re aware of, say, a light body mist you put on a few hours ago. It’s nice, if imperfect. Hopefully I’m not gassing everyone around me, nobody’s said anything and I think they would in this town.

Have you tried a dupe of Baccarat Rouge? Will you? (I bought mine on AMZ but it’s available on FragranceNet and other places.) Do you even like BR?

*I’ll note here that while researching this post, I learned that apparently quite a few folks are mostly anosmic to it. Have you ever had your ability to smell a particular scent strengthen or diminish over time?