A single year separates Maison Francis Kurkdjian's two evening heavyweights. Oud Satin Mood landed in 2015, Grand Soir in 2016. They share a bottle shape, a price bracket and a reputation for lasting all night. On skin they have almost nothing in common.
Oud Satin Mood is the rose one. Bulgarian rose, violet and a flick of strawberry open it, Turkish rose fills the heart, then oud, vanilla, amber, benzoin and caramel settle underneath. The name is the brief: this is oud with the rough edges polished to satin, closer to velvet fabric than to a smoky resin. An Extrait de Parfum version followed in 2017 for anyone who wanted it denser still.
Grand Soir, French for "the big night", drops the oud and the rose entirely. Labdanum and orange up top, lavender and Siam benzoin through the middle, then amber, vanilla, tonka bean and musk to close. It is a golden amber, honeyed and warm, and it glows rather than shouts.
Read the pyramids twice, because the shop shelf will not tell you this: Grand Soir contains no oud whatsoever. It gets cross-shopped with Oud Satin Mood on name recognition alone. If you want rose and oud in the same breath, only one of these delivers. If oud has never sat right on your skin, Grand Soir is the safer blind buy of the pair.
Cold months favour both. Rose and oud for presence, Oud Satin Mood. Amber and vanilla for warmth, Grand Soir.
We make our version of the satin half. Oud Mood is our take on Oud Satin Mood, a UK-made 35% extrait spray. The full MFK inspired collection is here, and the best MFK dupes in the UK roundup goes deeper.
