Ariana Grande Cloud is a a gourmand fragrance which launched in 2018. The fragrance was created by SA Designer Perfumes (the company behind Ariana’s perfume line, as well as those from Jennifer Lopez, Ghost, Aigner, Porsche, Naomi Campbell, and others).

I don’t always get excited about celebrity fragrances, but for some reason this one caught my attention early. Some of the first press releases speculated that it would smell like marshmallows, and later it was rumored to smell like whipped cream. Yum! Plus, the bottle is adorable. I’m a little bit old to be the target demographic for this fragrance, but I’ve expanded my horizons to include gourmand fragrances, and the deeper I go down the gourmand rabbit-hole, the more I can tolerate, and even enjoy, sweet scents.

I try not to pay attention to early reviews and opinions when I’m considering writing about something, but it was impossible to escape the controversy that emerged about Cloud — with people swearing that it smells “exactly like” Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540. This was actually a bit of a disappointment for me, because that’s not a fragrance that smells like marshmallows or whipped cream, and I’m not particularly fond of it. But, I decided to check out both head-to-head, and I didn’t read or listen to any of the “formal” reviews that support or deny this claim. I wanted to evaluate it for myself first.

CLOUD FRAGRANCE REVIEW

Cloud opens as a cloud of fuzzy, woody musk. Atop of this, there is a sheer coconut cream with a dash of vanilla, along with the “burnt sugar” of a praline accord. Running through the middle is a ribbon of something that smells very mineral-y, like wet cement. There is a very fleeting, nondescript fruitiness that dissipates within the first five minutes.

During one of my “alternative diet adventures,” I learned that dairy products aren’t good for you, but you can eat faux-whipped-cream to your heart’s delight if you make it with coconut cream instead of dairy cream. I found the coconut cream at Trader Joe’s, it comes in a metal can and it’s super-thick and has a greasy sheen — like a congealed mixture of coconut milk and coconut oil. To adhere to the diet, you can’t sweeten it, but you can add vanilla. The smell of the coconut cream, plus the vanilla, plus the metal from the can and the mixer beaters is very similar to the sweet notes of Cloud.

After twenty minutes, a lot of the coconut has faded, along with some of the praline sweetness. What is left is a mineral-laden musk, which smells very much like laundry spray starch to me. The effect is warm and steamy, like starching and pressing dress shirts on an old padded ironing board with a steam iron.

For the next two hours, the coconut cream ebbs and flows, but the overwhelming impression is one of minerality, plus laundry musk. I smell damp clothes in the steamy dryer, the smell of commercial irons in a t-shirt shop, a wet ball of clay wrapped in dryer sheets.

As the coconut declines, a new player emerges — rubber tires and innertubes. I’m getting a basket of hot-from-the-dryer laundry in the middle of a bicycle shop. White musk bath salts spilled on the rubber gasket of a clothes dryer. But, at all times, what it reminds me of most is ironing.

In the third hour, all I can smell is the Saturday mornings of my pre-teen years, washing, drying and ironing “back in the day,” before wrinkle-resistant fabrics were common. Sprinkling the clothes with water from the laundry sprinkler, rolling and unrolling them (I was never quite clear on why this was important), then spraying them with starch and hearing the hissing of the hot iron as the steam rose up from the clothes. I often made them too crispy, and little flakes of starch would be visible around the seams, at the placket of shirts and in the buttonholes. That’s the overwhelming smell of Ariana Grande Cloud to me.

DOES ARIANA GRANDE CLOUD SMELL LIKE MFK BACCARAT ROUGE 540?

My opinion is “no.” I am not one of the many fans of Baccarat Rouge 540, but I wore it several times (from the multitude of unsolicited samples that I received with other fragrance purchases last year) for comparison to Cloud.

I find BR540 EDP to be sweeter than Cloud (and the Extrait is sweeter still). BUT, the sweetness in BR540 fades and changes over time, whereas the sweetness in Cloud is more persistent throughout the wear.

BR540 has more depth, mainly owing to the bitterness of saffron which is juxtaposed with its sticky sweetness. The overall effect of BR540 to me is medicinal — bitterness hiding in thick, syrupy, artificial flavoring. If Cloud is a can of coconut cream, BR540 is a tin of mushy fruit cocktail. The thing that ties them together is the base of woody laundry musk, but that’s hardly anything remarkable these days.

At the three hour mark, the fragrances do smell a bit similar, with the main difference being that BR540 has a tinge of something cedar-like in its musk, which cuts through the sweetness after the first few hours. But, to be completely honest, there is nothing really distinctive about either of them by this stage in their wearings. A lot of modern fragrances in their last hour would have similarities to both of these.

This head-to-head comparison exercise did help me understand both BR540 and Cloud a little bit better though. Since the first time I smelled BR540, I’ve been curious about its popularity with men. (I still am a little bit, but….) During the direct comparison with Cloud was the first time that I really smelled the saffron and cedar in BR540 distinctly. And, during the direct comparison was the first time that I was able to detect any traces of bergamot and lavender in Cloud (which gave the impression of a thin layer of men’s shaving cream).

So, with less woodiness and bitterness in Cloud, I can understand why some men feel it is “less masculine.” And, with more minerality plus the slight shaving cream note in Cloud, I can understand why some women find it “too masculine.” Overall I would call both of them unisex, with Cloud leaning more feminine than BR540. Neither is really my cup of tea, but I find Cloud easier to wear, because I prefer the coconut nuances in its sweetness, and I find its sweet tones to be a little bit more sheer.

ARIANA GRANDE CLOUD DETAILS AND FINAL IMPRESSIONS

What I was hoping for from the early hype was a scent that smelled like marshmallows. To me, Cloud does not really give me a marshmallow vibe. Maybe the dusty cornstarch on the outside of a marshmallow, but not its fluffy, sweet interior. For marshmallow scents, I’ve been spoiled by Mademoiselle Guerlain and Guerlain’s Le Boise Torride.

The official description of Cloud, found on the Ulta website, says that it smells like créme de coconut, and I find that to be pretty accurate. It is not as sweet as I initially thought it might be, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The cashmeran-type base contributes a minerality that my nose interprets as steam. If you think of a cloud as a mass of condensed water vapor (as opposed to a fluffy cloud of cotton candy), then Cloud, the fragrance, is an inspired interpretation.

Ariana Grande Cloud is an Eau de Parfum. Cloud lasts for about five hours on my skin. Its projection is moderate. To me, it is the genderless smell of laundry, with a hint of coconut cream.

Cloud is exclusively sold at Ulta at this time. I purchased a 3.4 ounce bottle from the Ulta website for $60. For more information, see Ulta.com.