Elisabeth Barille’s Guerlain is a thin volume, with 15 pages of text and about 50 pages of photographs. The text provides background on the history of the Guerlain family and their illustrious perfume house, but a die-hard perfume fanatic may find it too brief and general to be of much interest…
Thank you to Victoria for this link to an article about Guerlain in last weekend's Times Online.
There is a funny article in Salon today about the high cost of home fragrance products, such as the Alora Ambience diffuser.
Tag, by Gillette, is apparently poised to challenge Axe as the leading men's body spray. Find out why Gillette doesn't put their company name (sorry, link now expired) on the product.
Guerlain released Petit Guerlain in 1994. It is usually attributed to Jean Paul Guerlain; Olivia Giacobetti said in an interview some time ago that she worked on it as well. The notes are citrus, lavender, camomile, violet leaf, mimosa, rose, jasmine and vanilla. The top notes are a bit sharp, but it quickly softens to a sheer, delicate floral with a subdued Guerlinade base. It would be perfectly appropriate on a young girl, but there is nothing particularly childish about it — an adult who preferred something very soft and quiet could easily wear it…
Guerlain is celebrating the anniversary of L’Instant with two new editions. For men, L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme Eau Extrême:
It features a reworked juice, which delivers added sensuality, according to Guerlain. Key ingredients include neroli essence, patchouli, star anise and hibiscus…
Guerlain Vetiver was the first solo fragrance effort by Jean Paul Guerlain, the great grandson of Guerlain founder Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain. Reportedly created for the South American market, the fragrance was released in 1959 and relaunched in 2000. I never smelled the original version, so I cannot say to what extent it was reformulated at that time, but according to the reviewers on basenotes, this is not your father’s Vetiver. It has notes of orange, lemon, bergamot, pepper, coriander, nutmeg, oakmoss, tobacco, and tonka bean.
Vetiver starts with a bright, almost aggressive burst of citrus. There is a dusty buzz of spices which eventually settles into recognizable notes of pepper and nutmeg, and they last right through the dry down. There is also vetiver, and oakmoss, and in the far dry down, quite a bit of tobacco. There is said to be carnation, and possibly other floral notes, but they are not in the least noticeable to my nose…