1 Million Royal
Parfum, Rabanne (2023)

Million Royal doesn’t have much nuance for me other than it smells like a modernized version of the original. Take out some of the weird, heavy, body/skin smell from the original 1 million and give some modern woody ambers and it becomes something like this.

The sweetness makes it feel more like a cooler weather or nighttime scent but there’s enough modern cleanness to be worn carefully at work.

Projection and longevity are both good but nothing beastly.

1 Million Royal by Paco Rabanne (2023) is the first flanker in a long while that strikes out into a different direction from the original 1 Million by Paco Rabanne (2008). That said, Royale doesn't exactly go places where most noses willing to read online perfume reviews haven't already been before, so this is another case of "not for the connoisseur"; which is fine by the way, just not fine enough for me to fully enjoy what's presented. At its core, 1 Million Royale is in the wheelhouse of Baccarat Rouge 540 by Maison Francis Kurkdjian (2015) or Parfums de Marly Kalan (2019), in that it has the same gummy sweet blob of saffron, cashmeran, ambery materials and something vaguely spicy. Kalan distinguishes itself by being distinctly sharper, woodier, and more peppery, which I like, while 1 Million Royale tries to sit firmly between both aforementioned scents, being sweeter than Kalan, spicier than BR540, but smoother than either. I mean, at least it doesn't disappear on skin for me like BR540 does, but that also isn't saying much.

The opening is peppery citrus and vanilla, with slight boozy tones throughout, listing cardamom and tangerine. I'm not getting much of those personally, although I do get the amorphous globule construction of the MFK here right away, with the velveteen sheen of musks and sweetness and the ambery elements, buffed to a mirror finish. Lavender, sage, and violet leaf are listed, and I do indeed get the same sclarene note as Paco Rabanne Phantom (2021), although not anything like a natural sage note. The usual musk players inhabit the base alongside woodyamber materials, and from here on out things become rather meh. Nothing like prior 1 Million offerings, this scent is nonetheless also nothing unique, just perhaps maybe unique compared to other offerings in the range, including discontinued ones. If you're looking for a democratized (loosely) alternative to the prestige-priced BR540 and Kalan, this may scratch your itch, although I don't think it's better than an out-and-out clone like Club de Nuit Unbound by Armaf (2023), or something along those lines. Your mileage may vary, of course.

That's about it really, from here it goes without saying that if you're into these sort of fragrances, and want another angle on the same well-worn concept nearly a decade removed, then good ol' Paco Rabanne (RIP) has you covered. There's "nothin' doin'" as they say, for the rest of us out there, casual fan or hardcore perfumista alike. This does have some unintentional unisex prospects due to the design of the fragrance itself, and it smells well put-together by series co-founder Christophe Reynaud, who switches out the other co-founding perfumer Ilias Ermenidis for Quentin Bisch. Not going to bother mentioned price points, because I'm simply not interested in buying it myself; but suffice it to say that as an eau de parfum, this will cost more than the standard model, and also encroaches upon niche territory as a result, which puts more question to the value proposition this scent tries to offer the potential buyer. The kind of guy with the cash to buy something like this is going to be looking at more upmarket brands than Paco Rabanne anyway, although this still isn't quite Tom Ford or Creed, at least. Neutral