Baghari (1950)
by Robert Piguet

I get orange, vanilla, amber, musk, and loads and loads of powder. It doesn't smell particularly chypre-like to me, although there is a clear mossy undertone when sniffed close on skin. Overall, pleasant.

My thumb is at half-mast primarily because the overall impression that Bhagari creates is that of a prescented disposable diaper. NOT a dirty diaper, mind you - just a scent engineered to communicate "dry, comfortable baby" and to be strong enough to mask any unpleasant odors that might later be deposited into the diaper. I'm afraid I don't sense the sophistication in this fragrance that others do. It seems a bit like scent-pornography targeted at baby-obsessed women.

It's hard to imagine a man wearing this scent, but if he did, I bet women would find it pretty attractive!

9th January, 2012.

Ubelievably beautiful! My new oriental princess of a fragrance...!! Wow, I have something nowadays with Robert Piguet..I like Calypso, Futur and Bandit and I LOVE Fracas but this one I ADORE ! For met the best of all recently reformulated Piguet remakes.. so flowery, powdery and deep longlasting. It also changes a lot, the opening note could be a little heavy on the aldehydes (for people who don t like this ..wait a few minutes::) THEN the middle notes slowly take over and what a charming combination of ambery iris! I didn t think these two notes would mingle so well, but girl, they did! The powdery violet even depens the amber and is a very flirtatous as ever with the iris. It s a dark,creamy slightly sweet oriental and please, give it a 2nd chance, as I did! No blind buys , go for a sample first:)

11th October, 2011.

Powdery aldehydes and spicy candied fruits (mainly orange) surrounded by floral patterns and laying on a ambery/musky base. Basically I could end up my review here having said anything that is important about Baghari, but this composition has much more to offer. All the previous elements are extremely balanced and masterfully orchestrated to take a "different" turn. White flowers turn into night flowers, aldehydes juxtaposed to spices turn from clean to misterious, candied fruits have a bitter aspect to them (yes) that gives an interesting twist to the overall icing sugar allure.

Overall Baghari is an orange chypre with a remarkable "noir" vein. A composition of rare beauty that stands out for its majestic execution. Wether you'll like it or not, this is something anyone should, at least, try to better understand what's mastery in perfumery. Bravo Aurelien Guichard!

23rd August, 2011. (Last Edited: 5th February, 2012.)

The current Baghari by Aurelian Guichard is an exercise in focusing loads of otherwise disparate elements toward the same end. To be clear I’d like to add that it’s also a brilliant perfume. You’ve got white florals, aldehydes, sweet resins, citrus fruit, musk, and vanilla among other things. But rather than any of these elements simply becoming the lead note at a particular point in Baghari’s development over time, they move together to achieve this fragrance’s aim from the start, which is to smolder. We talk about perfumes having shape or telling a story. Well this bad girl has an intent. This scent doesn’t want to you notice that it’s beautiful (though it is.) It wants you to see that it has desires. To me, the whiff of Baghari is the expression of a tendency toward arousal. No need to go further down a storyline here. It’s about a state.

It’s also about appreciating delicate balances: animalic yet powdery, candied yet bitter, heightened but subtle, delicate and direct.

Also I've just been fascinated with the use of aldehydes in Baghari. Instead of adding frill or gracenotes as they often do to florals, the aldehydes here seem to shear off both ornamentation and any rough edges. There is a roundness here that is similar in shape to, but not nearly as expansive as the lactonic quality of Gucci Rush. Rush comes at you. Baghari walks past you and you turn your head before you can think.

29th November, 2010. (Last Edited: 30th September, 2011.)

Reformulated or not, Baghari just SINGS on my skin. This floral chypre somehow manages to keep the powdery violet notes at bay for me... And the jasmine doesn't brown or decay. Gorgeous, elegant, and the aldehydes sparkle like champagne. I'm in love...

8th May, 2010.

Very disappointed to record that I get no floral-citrus from my (vintage) bottle of Baghari, nor creaminess. Any top notes that remain evaporate so quickly that all I can detect is just a sharp, dry, cumin base. Which is appropriate for a perfume that's named after an Indian village, but not what I was hoping for from this fragrance! I will try a sniff of the reformulated version when I can, as it sounds delicious. However, I'm giving this a "neutral" for now, and have to assume that my bottle hasn't withstood the ravages of time, despite having been kept in its snug, duck-egg blue box.

24th March, 2010.