Grand Soir Maison Francis Kurkdjian 2016

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8.5 / 10 3611 Ratings

A popular perfume by Maison Francis Kurkdjian for women and men, released in 2016. The scent is sweet-resinous. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is being marketed by LVMH.
Pronunciation

Layers well with Terre d'Hermès (Eau de Toilette)

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Main accords

Sweet

Resinous

Spicy

Oriental

Gourmand

Fragrance Notes

Benzoin Siam

Vanilla

Spanish labdanum

Brazilian tonka bean

Lavender

Venezuelan tonka bean

Perfumer

Francis Kurkdjian

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

8.53611 Ratings

Longevity

8.83415 Ratings

Sillage

8.33396 Ratings

Bottle

8.63211 Ratings

Value for money

7.52426 Ratings

Submitted by OPomone, last update on 26.04.2024.

Reviews

94 in-depth fragrance descriptions

10/07/2021

8
Pricing 10
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 10
Scent

Smnbkr
6 Reviews

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Smnbkr

Top Review 70

les histoires des parfums - chapitre 1 - une soirée vraiment formidable

My niche perfume tour started when I pitched my tents in Paris for a year in August 2019 to do a voluntary social year in a school for disabled children. I had started to look more intensively into fragrances of all kinds (designers at first, of course) shortly before that; but as I know it from me, I don't stick to the "normal" things in life for long, preferring to devote myself to the extravagant and, along with it, the expensive. So I diligently researched the Internet for the most famous and renowned Parisian perfume boutiques, and found, among other things, the "Maison" (house) of Francis Kurkdjian, a perfumer with Armenian roots born in 1969 in the city I love so much.

The flacon design of the fragrances on display in the boutique near the Tuileries immediately swept me off my feet completely: so simple, so practical, yet so ingenious, so classy and so delightfully snobby ;).

After several tests randomly grabbed from the shelf perfumes (with at the time still seeeeehr untrained nose) caught my attention the fragrance to which I dedicate this review. Like liquid reddish-brown-orange gold in a 75 ml glass bottle, I thought to myself. How much I should be right, I did not know at the time..........

Sprayed on the tester, found to be "All right", and taken to my little West Paris apartment alongside a few other échantillons, mainly from the "Oud-mood" range. The next day (Saturday) I perfumed my room for lack of other choses a faire then completely, and sprayed some MFKs on arm, hand and other still free skin areas. The "Grand Soir" also landed somewhere on my body, and opened the door to another world. Before anyone thinks this is over the top, wait and see!

After countless more tests of just this one perfume (the "Oud-mood" range had suddenly become terribly boring), I rushed to the Metro, got off at the "Tuileries" and snagged a 75 ml Grand Soir gem. After more test sprays over the next few days, I was sure I was definitely in another world. The class, the elegance, the sophistication, the skillful "snobiety" of this fragrance is incredible and incomparable. To me, this fragrance smells like a kind of likeable and endearing, yet insanely decadent arrogance. This could already be the end of this/my story with "Grand Soir" by Maison Francis Kurkdjian, if it weren't for another huge little anecdote.

In the relatively mild Parisian winter of 2019, I was really looking forward to one of a few meetings with a friend who lives in an eastern suburb of Paris. We had a date at a bar near Place de la Nation in the bustling and lively Bastille neighborhood, and she told me in advance there would be a few other friends of hers joining us. Half an hour after us, these "other friends" arrived at the bar, and introduced themselves as 2 pleasant young men and a girl, the sight of whom left me speechless from the first moment. Their appearance, their appearance, their casual elegance and their unpretentious charm triggered in me something like love at first sight. I had of course forgotten in the meantime the fragrance cloud of the scent, which surrounded me even a good hour and a half after applying the 2 sprays on the neck still very perceptible. When we greeted each other with the typical French cheek kisses, she looked at me a moment too long and said "tu sens merveilleux" with a smile on her lips that could only be guessed. We spent a wonderful evening, laughing, playing cards, talking about the German-French similarities and differences, enjoying the atmosphere and borrowing a Parisian evening from a picture book, drawn by a master.

Before I fell asleep, an invisible companion, whom I should have forgotten by now for the second time, reported impressively again. He seemed to be talking to me, whispering something to me. I did not understand him, he spoke a language that was not of this world. I knew immediately what he wanted to tell me. Two words. Grand. Soir. Grand. Evening. That was all he needed to say. That was all he needed to say. I smiled and nodded. Yes, a truly great evening. You made it so. Your name says it all. You were made for a big night out in Paris. You fit like a glove in this vibrant, breathtaking, charming, beautiful, indescribable cosmopolitan city. Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Grand Soir for this evening that will be remembered as one of the most beautiful of my life and merci, Monsieur Francis Kurkdjian, for this fragrance.

I have seen the girl only once until today. That evening. Whether I will ever see her again, only heaven knows. But when I wear "Grand Soir", she sits next to me and smiles gently at me....
some moments cannot be repeated. They are too unique, too golden. The most you can do is preserve them in a perfume bottle, and take them out when you want to remember....

for example, of great evenings ...

09/22/2019

9
Bottle 9
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

DerDefcon
124 Reviews

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DerDefcon

Top Review 33

Everyone deserves a second chance ... or a third.

If you get to know a person for whom you feel more than just friendship, but at the same time your own emotional world is not yet clear because of certain, not quite so positive character traits, you think about it, talk to your closest friends and ask yourself over and over again whether this really is the person you want to be with, with whom you want to share your deepest secrets and with whom you would share many other things.
Of course, nobody's perfect. In addition to positive aspects, there are also always negative ones. It's human nature. But even if not everyone is perfect, everyone has his or her not too great character traits, in the end you have to ask yourself the question - quite pragmatically - whether you can and want to live with exactly these bad sides that are so individual for each person, whether you can accept them or not. Does the positive outweigh the negative or even vice versa? How to decide?

"Grand Soir" is no big love now, but "only" a perfume - what a "heretical" statement in this forum ;). If I tried for the first time, shortly after I got the hotly awaited bottling, to live through that "big evening", which is already some months ago, I was scared away, scared away, and also a little traumatized and as one talks with his closest friends about love, I would like to talk with you perfumes now about "Grand Soir", because there is really a need for speech.

It was warm, not yet this midsummer as we had it a few weeks ago, but it was warm - I estimate about 20 degrees. "Grand Soir" immediately grabbed my arm during our first encounter, tried to enchant me with a sweetheart who only looked like a superimposed one, because deep down inside I felt something that made me sink into my chair in disgust. The sweetness somehow felt wrong and artificial, sprayed by someone who only uses it to manipulate, to suck in. It seemed as if my "Grand Soir" with all its sweetness wanted to hide its corners and edges, its negative sides or its weaknesses in order to win my sympathy at any price. It all seemed so staged and obvious to me. Very well I registered his existing artificiality, which could not be hidden despite all the sweetness. And then it should get worse. "Grand Soir" became intrusive, loud and personally unpleasant to me. I left the place, he followed me. I got on the subway, he followed me. Then I finally got to my front door ... well. He just didn't understand that I didn't want anything to do with him, that our first date would probably be the last one.

As you can imagine with certainty, it wasn't just the so-called first and last date. I was kind of curious and needed a few weeks to recover from all this. The days got colder and I decided to try it again.
Our second date went a little better. He was still a bit pushy, but he let the great acting be. He kept trying to woo me with all that sweetness, but I didn't find it so bad anymore. The negative sides were not tried to hide and that was exactly what made the previously existing antipathy fly away a little. But was I sure now? Can I imagine a future together? I don't know yet.

A third encounter should follow. The nights became really cool now, partly the five degree mark was undercut and one longs for more warmth and security, differently than in the still warm spring or even summer. The days become shorter, more uncomfortable and darker, which somehow also has an effect on us humans. It simply needs a warmer of the heart, one who brings a little light into the dark time of the year. "Grand Soir", which I now met a third time, since I finally asked for certainty, was just right. Somehow I liked its sweetness, even its obtrusiveness, as soon as vanilla and tonka bean unfolded their magic, the benzoic resin after some time produced a slightly smoky note and the amber rounded the whole thing off with a discreet creaminess. "Grand Soir" knew about my need for affection and warmth, stayed with me for a long time, attracted strange glances with his character, but without it disturbing me greatly.
This third evening was really big, great, special and actually I am smarter and safer now than before.
I like "Grand Soir", can imagine spending time with him, but not always. "Grand Soir" has a special character that is meant for special situations - a character that is sometimes perfect, sometimes out of place. But if there's one thing I can be absolutely sure of, it's its reliability, because as soon as it's there, it's there and then it's right, without any compromise. I've learned to understand and like its corners and edges. The positive now prevails and the negative is no longer so negative. The latter is simply one of them and so - after three attempts - I can imagine spending a little time with "Grand Soir", but not minute by minute, not hour by hour, not day by day, not month by month

12/09/2018

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 8.5
Scent

DonJuanDeCat
658 Reviews

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DonJuanDeCat

Top Review 30

Cuddle up, who can!

Hello and a nice 2nd Advent!
If I were to ask you what all this belongs in winter, what would you answer here?
Hot drinks, warm clothes (among other things Ugly Christmas Sweater... wanted to buy me something like this, by the way, but found most of them a little too scratchy, so it "just" became a Ugly T-shirt!), cookies, caps, hot chocolate and and and and...

Of course I would also answer "cuddly cats", but then I would have you on my back immediately, because you would say: "That's him again, he's annoying again with his hangover etc..."
Hmpf... yes yes yes yes let me, but well, then I'll do it like Steve Martin in his role as brain surgeon Dr. Hfuhruhurr, who has the cat removed from the operating theatre every now and then during a brain operation with the simple words: "The cat out!" D
Then I'm not talking about cats this time! Pah...

But, I have just said the keyword already, or part of it: "cuddle".
Is that clear or what? You need cuddly blankets in winter... well, actually more so the ladies, because I have never seen a man with a cuddly blanket (unless he had a cold!). And if he did, he would not use the blanket to cuddle, but rather build a cave in the living room out of it, one that is very pleasant and cosy, with a laptop (for Netflix etc...) inside and a lot of cookies and a sign in front of the cave that says "women forbidden!
Yes... must be sometime! Especially if you want to have your peace and quiet in the protection of the cave and maybe then build and play Lego models, because you are NEVER too old for Lego!! :DDD

What am I getting at? I honestly forgot with all the bullshit! I think the scent here was also somehow cuddly soft or something... hence the babbling about cuddly blankets!

The fragrance:

The scent starts with the benzoin (the benzoin?? I have no idea... :D). It smells wonderfully soft, sweet resinous and simply beautiful. The background is slightly spicy, and in the beginning I even had the feeling of perceiving a very light tobacco note.
As so often with Labdanum, I'm not sure how exactly this smells, but the benzoin (which is the benzoin???) I really have no idea, and yes, I'm just too lazy for google :D) I recognize good for it. It smells just like the little pieces of benzoe-resin I once got from a sweet perfume here!
A little later you can smell the light-sweet scent of amber. The fragrance then smells for a while until the vanilla becomes more intense and can be smelled better. From then on the fragrance becomes even more powdery and above all softer. Every now and then, by the way, I still perceive this tobacco-like scent, which is probably a combination of some scent components that gives me this impression.
In the later base everything remains as it was, but this "tobacco" note decreases, and the intensities of vanilla and amber are reversed, so the vanilla becomes much stronger as usual, while the amber begins to weaken. A really nice scent!

The Sillage and the shelf life:

The radiance is good and the fragrance retains its intensity for a while. So it can be smelled for a few hours on one or the other.
The durability is also good, even very good with over twelve hours!

The bottle:

The bottle is solid and rectangular. It consists of crystal glass and is filled with a beautiful amber scented liquid. On the front you can see the fragrance and brand name, on the back you can see the logo. The lid is mainly rectangular and gold-plated and also looks solid. The bottle may look simple, but it's very high quality and looks very good with its clear lines.

Ah, that's the third or fourth cuddly scent I've introduced here lately. And like most of them, this one is a great one. The difference to fragrances like Gritti Light Powdery is that you can't smell iris here, but Amber, which smells just as great!

So I think the fragrance is great, even though it is relatively simple, but who says that fragrances with few fragrances have to be worse because of that? No, Grand Soir belongs to the top recommendations in my opinion, if you like warm, soft, gentle, well also cuddly scents. Just give it a try, I think it might be really worth it!

Its fragrance belongs in winter, as it is not really heavy, but it is heavy enough for warm days. And as so often it is a "all-purpose weapon", that is, it goes well at work in small doses, in my spare time it is beautiful anyway and I also think that you can use it for going out if you want to radiate, that you are sweet, cuddly and also "weeeeich" :D

Soo... you know what the worst thing is in winter? Here in the apartment there are a few places (... I almost wanted to write cookies again!:D) where there are some cuddly blankets as documents for the cat, which he also uses all (you can tell by all the white cat hair, which sticks to it, no matter how often you go with the lint roller to the things!), but still he has to use everything I want to use, no matter if cardigan, blanket, duvet, etc... of course he can do EVERYTHING, but he allows you absolutely NOTHING!! Such a stupid filthy cattle, as soon as he has my chair, he even wants to get up again and still scratches if I want to remove him from there... :DDD
... hmm.... and I didn't want to write anything about cats in this commi here anymore...! Well, then I'll just go play a little with Lego, hö hö :D

Have a nice evening :)

03/17/2019

9
Bottle 8
Sillage 10
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Turbobean
29 Reviews

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Turbobean

Top Review 21

Toffee time

My Liäson with "Ambre Nuit" by Christian Dior failed due to the excessive presence of Amber. Otherwise I would have liked to keep the scent, because sometimes it may (or must) be sweet, caramel and vanilla. These fragrances, also known from childhood, convey a sense of security, are attractive and attractive.

Then Grand Soir stepped out and said, "Take me!"

Indeed, Grand Soir is a brother of Ambre Nuit, not only in spirit, but also in appearance and conduct. A sweet, caramel, vanilla flatterer. But just without amber overdose.

These wonderfully delightful waves of vanilla coffee are heavenly, but at some point, at the end of a great evening, one wishes for a refreshment. As if you emptied half a bag of caramel sweets and would now like a glass of water.

But the evil Stiefonkel Francis forces one to empty the bag of sweets to the end. Until you can't see any more candy. The sweetness of the fragrance does not end and many a one transfers his bottle to the Souk
Too bad, really, because this flatterer does a good job if you know the right dosage. One like this should not be missing in any perfume collection.

Benzoin resin is a perfect fixator. I know that from when I used to experiment a lot. That was about 25 years ago. I was a young boy with great interest in fragrant things and the "Hobbythek" emptied me of how to boil gentle soaps myself. So I cooked diligently and scented my products with a fragrance oil, which I had purchased liter by liter from an aroma manufacturer. It was the scent of Joop's "Le Bain".

And because I could not boil so much to consume so much oil, despite the rapid decrease in my circle of friends, I decided to also mix an eau de toilette. Fragrance oil, alcohol and water. But the scent evaporated like the wind (durability: 3.7). We needed a fixator. And that was benzoin resin that I added to my EdT in small amounts. By some miracle, my product now had a shelf life that was extremely satisfactory.

And it's precisely this benzoic resin that makes Grand Soir's Tonka and Vanilla stick to you like a bad reputation.

I would like to make a recommendation:

The perfume should only be sprayed on the clothing. Not on the skin. You can take off your shirt, blouse or blazer at any time and get rid of the scent. These still smell like Uncle Francis after a week, by the way.

Then you'll soon be in the mood again for a cosy, sweet, warm, wonderful vanilla caramel.

06/14/2021

8
Bottle 9
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Laraaley
1 Review

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Laraaley

Top Review 37

Grand Soir - a drama for old and young alike

Armed with my little "Grand Soir" bottling in hand, I waited for evening to come and the play to begin.
Since I have often read how heavy the smell is and that it is especially good for autumn and winter days, I actually managed to wait until 00:00.

1. Exposure: two half spritzes was enough to give me the feeling of pleasant burning warmth on my skin that slowly rises up my neck. It tingles and glows - in the positive sense - and I wonder with my almost 23 years which person would call this smell too strong?! - fascinating smell (5-10 minutes)

2. rising action: Grand Soir knocks me out and drowns me in its warmth as soon as I dare to sniff under my sweater. - Now I understand - This opening is driving me crazy, smothering me and pressing me against a hot wall. It smells briefly like being cooped up with the aunt who always bathes in her intense perfumes - in a small car that is far too warm. Uncertain look to my mom.... "Do you smell it that strong?"
"No I only smell a whiff here, it smells quite good!" (10-15 minutes)

3. Peripetia: I go out into the fresh, cooled air and let the smell pass through my nose there again. Slowly, I notice an enchanting change. The scent becomes softer and softer, the initially pungent note of labdanum becomes lighter and lighter and gradually the heart note pushes itself to the fore. You can't miss the vanilla now either. So that's it, deep breath - the Grand Soir. I feel enveloped and sheltered by this strange scent. Briefly closing my eyes - My memories play with me and I recall a night in Paris. In a good and above all relaxed mood, I sit at the end of the year in a café illuminated with fairy lights. The warm radiant heaters on the ceiling warm me without being too close. The blanket on my legs couldn't be cozier and the slight gust of wind that makes it under the half-screened outdoor area makes me take a deep breath. So here I sit - coffee in hand and a smile on my face - it's like time stands still and all worries are forgotten. Next to me sits my best friend and we have time for us for the first time in a long time and for deep but also funny conversations. I feel good and live in the here and now. Enjoy the darkness of the night and the busy but quiet streets of Paris.

4. retarding moment:
Security, warmth, infinitely cozy clothes - any evening could be like this. The cafe is slowly closing... Laughing we argue about who should pay the bill today and then gradually break up into the night. Tonka bean, vanilla and amber combined leave an unobtrusive yet recognizable smell on my place in the café. The people around us smile benevolently at us, bid us farewell with smiles and the world feels like everything is right. On our way we infect many with our light-hearted mood and our hearty laughter and if we didn't know better - you would think we are already slightly drunk. The lights on the streets show us the irresistible beauty of Paris. Far in the back we can already see the Christmas market and a glowing Ferris wheel. We both look at each other and know "we have to go there for graduation!" With a crepe in one hand and a mulled wine in the other, off we go onto the Ferris wheel. The freedom to perceive our bodies and surroundings with every sense. Harmony.

5. Resolution of the conflict:
Exhausted from all the laughing and running, I fall into my bed. My heart leaps and I am overjoyed to have had such a lovely evening. Gratitude. I smell again the place where I sprayed Grand Soir and I am satisfied. Once again I open the window - inhale the cold winter air and let the day pass in review, then I slip under my covers ready for bed. Never has a bed felt so cozy and fresh at the same time. The fireplace crackles quietly in the room and this morning's brewed tea has left a vanilla scent in the room even into the night. With endorphins in my body and tired eyes, I fall asleep and notice a loving hug the next morning. The scent actually still envelops me and reminds me of the previous evening.
I see it as a renewed invitation of the fragrance - on a journey I would never say no to.

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