Friday, July 4, 2014

Guerlain RE-Issues 4 Archive Perfumes for their Heritage Collection: Fragrance Descriptions & Photos

The work that Guerlain is doing lately, bringing back their catalogue masterpieces for educational purposes at Champs Elysees, adhering to the original formulae no less, is remarkable. To the already impressive line-up four more vintage Guerlain perfumes are brought to life thanks to the work of in-house perfumer Thierry Wasser and Frédéric Sacone. They are the following.

via
1900 CHYPRE de PARIS in parfum extrait 
Contrary to what many people have in mind, the Guerlain Chypres came out before the famous Coty Chypre from 1917 {For a comprehensive reason as to why, please refer to my article on Chypre Fragrances Facts and The Origins of Chypre Perfume} [N.B. There is also Guerlain Chypre 53, a different fragrance]
A top of citrus and lavender gives way to the floral notes of pink jasmine, ylang iris, orange blossom, flanked by cascarilla, calamus, mossy chyprish notes, patchouli, and spicy accents of nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and balsamic notes.


via
Read more by clicking here 



1926 DJEDI in parfum extrait 
Chypre, amber, animalic [Review of Djedi perfume on this link]
The top notes are lightly aldehydic, with bergamot but especially with a lily of the valley note.
The heart is comprised of a floral bouquet of rose and jasmine. The base is where it's at with intensely dry notes of amber, moss, iris, musk, vetiver and animalic chords.


1934 SOUS LE VENT in parfum extrait 
Aromatic Chypre, Green [Review of Sous le Vent perfume on this link]
Top with citrus, anise and aromatic fragrant notes (tarragon, lavender, bergamot, verbena) but also  with the intensely green note of galbanum.
The floral bouquet in the heart is composed on pink jasmine and ylang-ylang, whereas the base is resting atop moss, balsamic fragrant notes, patchouli, musk and iris.

via

1948: FLEUR DE FEU in parfum extrait 
An aldehydic floral fragrance. [Review of Fleur de Feu perfume on this link]
The top note is made of aldehydes and citrus notes, lightly honeyed. The floral bouquet in the heart is comprised of pink jasmine, ylang ylang, violet and cassie. The base is powdery with iris, heliotrope, vanilla, tonk a bean and sandalwood.

If you haven't already been informed on the previous re-issues by Guerlain in the Heritage collection, please refer to Perfume Shrine's  Part 1 and Part 2.

As always thanks to Sylvaine Delacourte, the artistic director at Guerlain, without whose help nothing would be possible. 

10 comments:

  1. oh, how i would LOVE to smell & wear these, especially the" chypre de paris"...

    i enjoyed your article on fragrantica---looking forward to part 2!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Too bad it's so difficult to smell those resurrected Guerlains. Last time I was in Paris, one had to book in advance, and it was only possible one of the three days, at a specified time. it just didn't work.

    It would be nice if one could just walk into the store and smell them.

    cacio

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really wish they'd offer some of these for sale. I suppose this is better than nothing. *wistful sigh*

    Thanks for the info!<3

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would love to smell these too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. NFS,

    the work done is commendable, there's no doubt about it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. M,

    the by appointment scheduling is a bit annoying (like with Osmotheque) but there are practical considerations for it.
    I should think that an album of impregnated scratch & sniff cards would be a wonderful "greeting" for those who pop into the store without an appointment. What do you think? :-)
    [Guerlain & mme Delacourte are you listening?]

    ReplyDelete
  7. EV,

    they can't possibly, since they're using banned ingredients from their remaining pile (a good use for practically useless -commercially- material).

    ReplyDelete
  8. M,

    it's only an appointment and flight away! ;-D

    ReplyDelete
  9. Miss Heliotrope02:48

    Add me to the not everyone lives - or can get to - Paris list...

    But I do love the idea of educational perfume: so often it is dismissed as silly women's stuff (which I believe to be one of the reasons all those governments are attacking perfume rather than more dangerous chemical usage), but emphasising the art that scent can be is wonderful. We have heaps of visual arts, arts we listen to, arts we taste - is there anything other than perfume that could form an art we smell?

    ReplyDelete
  10. C,

    there is a two pronged appeal here: the visiting audience who will come out with a newly inflated admiration for the brand and the escapist dreaming audience who will not go but appreciates the museum approach as fitting a truly historical brand. Guerlain wins in any case.

    Perfume is usually (in most cases) a craft, IMHO, because it lacks much of the theoretical background of the fine arts (so I'm not taking the approach that there is an art corresponding to each sense), but surely it is much more than just silly women's stuff; between the two extremes there is an ocean of possibilities. Surely in that big space there is room for an artistic approach, even if it refers to a commodity that is sold and which profits from design as much as olfaction.

    ReplyDelete

Type your comment in the box, choose the Profile option you prefer from the drop down menu, below text box (Anonymous is fine too!) and hit Publish.
And you're set!

This Month's Popular Posts on Perfume Shrine