Baccarat Rouge 540 Édition Millésime: How Far is Too Far for Exclusivity?

When a perfume becomes popular, you can expect two things: flankers that put different spins on the original formula and special edition bottles that look more luxurious and special than the others. Just recently, Dior came out with a special edition of Dior J’Adore L’Or that is limited to 5 bottles. It has a 2.2 carat synthetic diamond on top and smaller diamonds that run down the neck of the bottle, bringing the total up to 5 carats in one bottle. The beaded finish of the bottle is brass with an 18 carat gold plating.

The newest exclusive comes from another brand owned by LVMH– Maison Francis Kurkdjian. The obvious choice of perfume to make more exclusive for the brand is the ultra famous Baccarat Rouge 540. The fragrance was made in 2014 by Francis Kurkdjian himself for the 250th anniversary of the fine crystal company out of French town Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle, but continues to be popular a decade later. A great feat in such a competitive market.

There have been a few flankers, my personal favorite being the rich almond in the Extrait de Parfum. There are ancillary products scented with the divine fragrance of Baccarat Rouge- the body oil, bar soap, hair mist, body and hand cleansing gels, a now discontinued body cream, and even a scented candle in a baccarat crystal holder.

The composition of the original Baccarat Rouge 540 is so:

Notes 

The bottles are real Baccarat crystal and the cap is 24 carat gold. It sits in a throne of 8 crystal pillars and comes in a spruce wood box as a reference to the boxes Baccarat uses to ship their chandeliers in.

Purchase of the exclusive bottle doesn’t just give you bragging rights but entrance into an exclusive club called ‘Les amis du Rouge’. Being in the club gets you the privilege of attending exclusive events. 54 bottles will be produced each year over the span of 10 years, so if you and your $28,000 (approx. AED 103,000) didn’t manage to get yourself one the first year, you can always wait for the next batch of 54.

The newly announced Baccarat Rouge Édition Millésime is the same formula with an added twist- the ambergris is natural rather than synthetic. At first, that sounds nice. For what they’re charging, everything in the bottle better be natural and luxurious, right? I understand the tendency to think that natural is always better, but it isn’t so. Especially for nature itself.

Ambergris (translated to grey amber) is an animal product found in the digestive tract of sperm whales. Coming from the ocean, the scent of ambergris can be described as marine, animalic, and sweet. It also has the desirable property of working as a perfume fixative– it makes a perfume more long lasting. It was prized even back in the day as it was thought to have medicinal and aphrodisiacal properties.

Sperm whales have been hunted since the 18th Century for prized products like the oil from their blubber and ambergris for various purposes. The industrialized hunting of the creatures took a toll on their numbers with the population still struggling to recover in the 21st century.

As ambergris is naturally excreted by whales, it’s natural to think there is no real harm in using them, especially when the ingredient will only be used in 540 bottles. But the $28,000 you pay for the exclusive bottle comes with the privilege of getting refills for up to 5 years. This also sets an industry precedent and the lack of any criticism would only signal to other brands that this is okay.

The environmental regulations set in the yesteryears in an attempt to leave an inhabitable planet for the future have been losing recently in favor of industrial demands. How soon until it becomes legal to hunt whales to get to the ambergris faster? Not to mention there is literally no reason to be using natural ambergris when synthetic alternatives perfectly replicate the natural thing. The move seems to be merely to make the product feel more exclusive. At the small cost of our shared planet.