MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN
KURKY
2025
PERFUMER
Francis Kurkdjian
tutti frutti
raspberry
peach
vanilla
musk
‘Kurky, the affectionate nickname of Francis Kurkdjian in his youth, evokes an insatiable desire for freedom. A perfume that encourages you to see life in color, to dream and be amazed again. In a creamy and mouthwatering cloud of white musks, Kurky distils fruity notes, reminiscent of tutti frutti candies. A composition thought of as a great burst of laughter, a smile, and a ray of sunshine: an invitation to awaken the child within us. Amazed enough for dreams, carefree enough to make them come true: Kurky is the gourmand fragrance for grown-ups who dare to dream like kids.’ – Maison Francis Kurkdjian
In my respectful opinion, Kurkdjian is on a severely disappointing streak. His efforts at Dior up to the time of writing have varied between forgettable and a complete miss for me, especially with the reformulated Dior Homme Parfum (2024). Unfortunately, Kurky is not the type of release to break up this underwhelming trajectory for me. That being said, it’s completely different from what I anticipated, for the better, and I think my experience as described below will surprise most readers.
Let me state this for starters: I do not understand Kurky. Nor do I understand most reviews (positive or negative) of it. Due to its airy nature, it is a hard fragrance to gauge however, so it’s easy to imagine different perceptions and I’m not confident that my thoughts will be identical if I try it again in the near future.
Per the brand this fragrance should evoke feelings of laughter, childhood and sunshine… that’s not the vibe that I got from Kurky. Pretty much any review I’ve seen of Kurky so far states that it’s ‘fun, bright, all candy/gourmand, super fruity or strongly feminine, etc.’ though. And that was my initial impression in-store as well, but I was genuinely surprised with how this wears on my skin.
It kicks off with the airy sweetness and fruitiness. Yet, instantly accompanying this, I get a slightly darker, harsher, muddy ambery base. I reapplied after a couple of hours and reapplied again while finishing up this review, just to make sure I was not imagining things. It’s the most defining aspect of the fragrance for me, yet aside from a couple of mentions of it being ‘earthy’ and ‘there could be patchouli’, I missed this completely in the online discourse surrounding Kurky.
Frankly, I was a bit baffled. I had pretty strong preconceived notions, but Kurky doesn’t wear as gourmand or fruity as I anticipated. Its fruitiness may be a prominent feature, but to my nose, it smells like a faint outside of a fruit. Slick, ozonic… an imagination of fruit, rather than a substantial scent. And fully non-descript; I could’t begin to tell you what fruits Kurky would remind me of. I guess the listed raspberry, with its watery, airy quality does make sense. No sour tinges, no citrus, no acidity whatsoever. You will not be mistaking this for Oud Satin Mood. It didn’t at any moment make me think of actual fruit, fruit juice or even fruity candy. I can picture the riper, (fermented) fruitiness from a whiff of a red wine in the air. I’ve never tasted or smelled fruit leathers, but somehow I imagined those as well.
To double down on my surprise, the sweetness is intertwined with a noticeable earthiness. As mentioned, this smelled quite harsh and muddy and it was the least expected, but most prominent takeaway for me. A familiar, earthy labdanum or javanol sweetness with hints of dark chocolate and even suede in my opinion. Play-doh came to mind at first, but a harsher amberwoodiness prevails most of the wear. I recently picked up similar scents in the drydowns of for example Amouage Lustre & Fugazzi Passionfroudh. The more I smell it, the more sugary I perceive it to be. It is cloyingly sweet in a way, but I want to stress that it’s not the Baccarat Rouge 540 way and at no point does Kurky remind me of (cotton) candy. I relate it more to a sugary woodiness found in boozy fragrances such as Kilian Old Fashioned & Angels’ Share Paradis or Nasomato Baraonda. It’s important to keep in mind that all those references are more potent than Kurky, and the overall experience here is much lighter, but I did not expect to make those connections at all and especially not straight from the opening. It feels un-Maison Francis Kurkdjian-like in my perception; a different type of sweetness from BR540, the ouds or something like A La Rose & Gentle Fluidity Gold.
I get a powdery vanilla in here, but it’s not ‘just that’ to my nose. If anything, it’s totally overpowered. Based on the marketing, I was expecting Kurky to fit in the genre of some of the Kayali’s, of trendy gourmand body mists, or of Amouage Guidance & Love Delight perhaps, but it’s a stretch removed in my experience. The aforementioned Baraonda may actually be closer to my nose, with it’s ambroxan, sugary woody & dried fruits mix, but I find Kurky to be more muddy.
What does line-up with my initial reaction is the way it wears. The performance and texture will be a divisive and much-discussed facet of Kurky. Personally, I don’t go completely noseblind to it, as many seem to do, and I smell it for several hours, but definitely as more of a skin scent (and perhaps the reason I perceive it to be more mature, is that parts of the composition are lost on my nose). It has the feeling of a hairspray; slight gasoline, paint -or alcohol loaded elusive air opens this fragrance and there’s not much more heft or body to it for the remainder of the wear. It actually feels like it’s missing Kurkdjian’s usual touch for clinical, precise, contemporary perfumery in the Maison Francis Kurkdjian line, as well as his trademark muskiness, as this leans towards the ‘one big fuzzy synthetic cloying cloud’ aesthetic. White musk will make up a huge part of this composition, but it doesn’t smell like the promised ‘clean and cotton’, as opposed to many of the MFK releases.
Perhaps my biggest surprise is that I much prefer the direction & scent profile over its execution. Kurky is significantly less youthful than I imagined it would be. And significantly less ‘straight-up candied gourmand’. It wears light, but the scent is a tad darker and less fun; I find Kurky bordering on moody and classy, rather than smelling of freedom and a playful childhood. I can admit that if I thought it had nailed the brand’s description, I’d almost certainly have disregarded it for being too youthful for my taste and not befitting of a niche release and price point. As it stands though, I find it confusing; something feels off and it simply doesn’t wear nicely to me, which is usually my last concern with a Kurkdjian creation. That’s not to say that I actively dislike Kurky (I would happily wear this over Baccarat Rouge 540 any day of the week myself). It’s… okay, but it falls short of getting a thumbs up from me.