Baccarat Rouge Dupe

• Brush: Мужской Материк Orange Stabilised Burl with 28mm Oumo boar knot at 57mm loft
• Razor: Filarmonica 14 Doble Temple (8/8", extra full hollow, carbon steel)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. Friends to the End
• Aftershave: Stirling Soap Co. Friends to the End
• Cologne: Stirling Soap Co. Friends to the End
• Fragrance: Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540

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Baccarat Rouge is probably my wife’s favourite fragrance (for herself), and I really like it on her, too. So when Stirling announced its dupe, I immediately grabbed it. It finally made it’s way to me this week. My intention had been to show up smelling like Baccarat Rouge and see whether she notices but I ruined the surprise weeks ago in a moment of forgetfulness, and she’s been asking about the set since.

The Stirling scent is really close to the original and the main difference I can detect is that the original is a bit warmer, sweeter. I’d have expected the opposite given how Haverford is sweeter than Tobacco Vanille. Anyway, the fragrances are really close, which means that I very happy with the acquisition. This is also my first solid cologne, which I mainly picked up out of curiosity. I rubbed some of it on my left wrist and spritzed Baccarat Rouge on my right so I can enjoy and compare the two a bit longer, but the solid cologne side is already a bit faint (I shaved 30 minutes ago). I think I need to apply much more of it than I did.

It felt great to shave with a straight again after a week of safety razors. I don’t fully understand why, but there’s still something that feels more special, enjoyable for me shaving with an open blade than a safety razor. I used to think that this difference would fade and that I’d switch back and forth without getting open blade FOMO on safety razor days, however, I’m now 422 open blade shaves in (vs 802 safety razor SOTDs since I started keeping records), and the open blade thrill is still going strong.