Saturday Question: What Is Your Guerlain Fragrance?

/ AustralianPerfumeJunkies

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

At APJ we have a Saturday Question. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it’s a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back regularly and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them. The aim is to generate real conversation and connection even though we are scattered around the globe.

Over 100 responses I will draw a Secret Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)

Last Weeks Winner: j.d.

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

Saturday Question: What Is Your Guerlain Fragrance?

Looking around my collection I realised that there are more bottles of Guerlain than any other house. Sure, a bunch of them are replications but five boxes and a drawer are all marked Guerlain. From early vintage extracts all the way through to the Absolus d’Orient collection and just about everywhere in between. There are bee bottles from one litre, a green and the many bees now available in department stores. My favourite flacon is the gold thatch cigarette lighter design spray extrait and I buy them whenever I see them for a decent price. The cute extrait squares that are shop testers, the old styles and the new. It got me thinking. Which is my favourite……

My Answer:

The easy answer would be Shalimar because it’s been with me long before my descent into perfumistahood but though it is the grande dame of my collection and one of the most perfect scents of all time I tend to reach most often for something else.

Mitsouko by Guerlain 1919

This is the Guerlain I reach for most, Any iteration of this beauty is worthy of my skin time. EdC, EdT, EdP or Extrait, I wear them all with gay abandon. Over time I’ve built up quite a collection. It’s darkly sweet chypre is always new and beautiful. It feels like it was made for me alone. Wears amazingly in all weathers and adjusts itself to fit any situation. Depending on application amounts not can be discrete or showstopper.

 

Also, it wears very differently on everyone I know that uses it, same basic product but so much nuance. I’m often caught out asking my friends, and even the off person at the theatre, what that alluring scent is they’re sporting.

Of course, as in everything, this is subject to change at a moments notice.

My Saturday Question to you is:

What Is Your Guerlain Fragrance?

131 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Is Your Guerlain Fragrance?”

  1. Tough question! Encense Mythique D’Orient is my favorite Guerlain so far, but I reach for L’ Apres L’Ondee and Shalimar more often. Love both!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Samsara. Is not only my fave Guerlain, but my favourite fragrance. I prefer vintage edt, but I’m happy with any iteration.

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  4. I don’t have one yet! I have a few to test, and I bought myself a bottle of LBD Black Perfecto for Christmas due its crazy price, but there are so many to try! Mitsouko sounds like a great place to start.
    Beautiful photos, Portia.
    And congrats, j.d.

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  7. Same answer as last week for me. Samsara. Vintage. I think it was the first Guerlain I ever tried if memory serves me. There are several Guerlains I love and wear. Your Mitsouko collection is incredible.

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  8. Ohhh….so many amazing offerings from this legendary house. I will go with my first niche bottle ever ,the outstanding Tonka Imperiale 😍👌🏻, still my all time Guerlain favourite.

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  9. What a question for me to answer !!
    You know what a Guerlain fangirl I am. I’ve got quite a few Guerlains and love them all. I haven’t got any vintage,boo hoo. I think I’ll have to go with Mitsouko. I’m going to stop thinking abouit this question now because I’ll probably change my mind.

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      • my friend rang me a couple of days ago to tell me she had just got LPRn Velvet Velours. I couldn’t get round to her house quickly enough for a sniff. I kn ow that there are now lots of flankers.I really liked it. I also like that each dress on the bottle is different.

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        • How was LPRN Velvet Velours to your nose? I have the original LPRN and one of the Couture versions. I read Velvet Velours was a modern interpretation of the original and not as sweet as many of the flankers.

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          • I’ve got the original and the Black Perfecto.
            I’d need to go on Fragantica to look up the notes for Velours. All I can say at this stage iis that I liked it !!
            I would have to take my bottle of Original to her house and try a side by side comparison.

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            • Side by side comparison is the only way my nose could adequately determine the differences as well. It would be fun to have all the flankers lined up with the original to sniff at the same time to choose the favorite, right? I haven’t sampled Black Perfecto yet.
              Now that you’ve reminded me, I’m going to wear Le Petit Robe Noire today, I haven’t worn it in awhile. xx

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                • Yes, all the bottles lined up with the various dresses would be so much fun to view and sniff. Now you have me looking at Black Perfecto, lol! Especially after today’s post, Portia mentioned BP was his favorite cherry fragrance.

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  10. I am such a Guerlie girl, love many, but most often reach for Cuir Beluga. And Shalimar…maybe Mitsouko. Hard question this week!

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  11. My undying allegiance goes to Shalimar. Ideal would be a late 1960’s perfume in the baccarat crystal “bat” bottle or the “Flacon Chauve Souris” as was the official designation. This was my mother’s “going to a party perfume”. I started wearing it when I was about 16 years old. I did not wear it timidly either, nor did I save it for party use only. I basted myself thoroughly every morning before going to school. It was unbelievably gorgeous.
    I have a couple of vintage perfume concentrations – late 80’s and early 90’s, both very good but nowhere near as spectacular as what I remembered. In my opinion Shalimar is probably the best ever perfume creation.

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  12. When my husband and I visited Place Vendome in Belgium some years ago, Steven (co-owner) asked if I was a Chanel or Guerlian person. Although I am not comfortable with the are you a this or a that person, playing along I would say Chanel. That said I love Vol de Nuit.

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  15. My First Love Guerlain fragrance is Shalimar, I wore it often in the late 80s and 90s when I started purchasing perfume for myself and before I discovered the entire universe of perfume. I still love Shalimar in all formulations and concentrations, but vintage is the best.
    Of the modern releases, L’Instant Magic EDP is my Guerlain fragrance, soft floral powder. I love to smell like this!

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  18. My fave would probably be my first: Le Jardin de Bagatelle. Men swooned over that one! It’s the one I have a backup bottle of. But the one I tend to wear the most since it is more versatile and less potent is Liu.

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  22. For a long while I knew that I wasn’t a Guerlain fan. Well, I’m not, considering that none of the three “grande dames” – Shalimar, Mitsuoko and LHB – works for me. But then, there are too many Guerlain perfumes I like, own and wear, that the boundaries between being a fan girl and not are blurred. If I had to name just one, it would be probably Chamade parfum. But I can easily come up with at least 3 more that I absolutely love and a handful of strong “likes.”

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  25. I have a fair number of Guerlains, but a favourite…….
    It would be a tie between l’Heure Bleu Extrait and Iris Ganache – both are in year round rotation.

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  26. As a die-hard Guerlain fan, I have lots of favourites, – Shalimar, obviously, Jicky, Mitsouko, Vol de Nuit, Vetiver et al., but the one that holds a special place in my heart is Chant d’Aromes, springtime in a bottle.

    Congratulations on your win, j.d.!

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  27. I don’t have any long held loves, but to pick one it would probably be Samsara. I didn’t need to grow into it like I did Shalimar. I’m thinking I would adore vintage L’Apres l’Ondee though!

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  28. In feminine line, easily vintage samsara edp. In masculine line, it is probably vintage heritage edp though that might be because I have not given vintage derby a proper wearing. But I suspect vintage heritage edp might still win even after giving derby a proper wearing.

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  29. Stoked on the win and the kind words. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank this group for being so welcoming as a (fairly) new member and especially PT for the generous giveaways and great questions each week. What an awesome community you have built here 👏

    My answer for this week is Heritage. I love that 90s era of perfumery where companies would put like 20-30 different notes in the one fragrance 😀

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    • I completely agree with the love of the 90s era of perfumery with 20-30 different notes in one fragrance. That is where my heart is as well.
      Congratulations on your win and I enjoy reading yours and everyone’s responses to Portia’s fun and thought-provoking questions.

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    • j.d. I think companies still put lot of notes in perfumes. I think there has been a change in marketing tactics since then. Back then, they would try to give as much info about notes as they could but now they opt for simplicity, probably not to confuse consumers so give info about only the most noticeable notes. Simple and complex perfumes were created back then just as they are now. However, the synthetics now play a bigger role due to factors such as more innovation in terms of synthetic molecules, demand and supply issues such as mysore sandalwood almost going instinct, new regulations by IFRA that have particularly hit certain essence oils hard such as jasmine, oakmoss, and bergamot, and so on.

      I myself am a fan of classics and mostly buy vintage classics but just wanted to point out that one thing that has not changed is the number of notes because it is very hard to create a perfume with only few notes. The companies might have realized too many notes make it hard for consumers to predict what the perfume may smell like so they only focus on notes in marketing communication that are more easily detectable by an average nose.

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  30. Apres L’Ondee and Vol de Nuit – vintage only. And Metallica/Metalys. If I had to name only one, it would probably be Apres L’Ondee. It has that *haunting* feeling that Iris Silver Mist has, though they are not even remotely similar fragrances.

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  31. Aaah! Guerlain…..divine, swoon. ” this is the house that Jack built.” I love so.many of his little bricks of perfume My first love back in the 90’s was Samsara. My love like others,i s Shalimar. I have delved in to men’s Vétiver and Habit Rouge. Divine

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  32. Depends. In terms of wearing, I’m giving L’Homme Ideal Cologne a thoroughly good run, both because it’s seasonal and was dirt cheap.

    In terms of the most cherished, without doubt it is my two bottle of pre-WW1 Jicky in the apothecary flacon. One of them is pre-1914, at least.

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  33. If asked I would definitely be Guérlain over Chanel. I only have a few Chanels and hardly wear them but Guérlain is big love. Mon Précieux Nectar, Cuir Beluga and Angélique Noire are all in a fight for first place.

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  34. Mitsouko for me as well. I got a sample of the vintage EdP and the first time I wore it I swooned. I was outside all day and it was in the 50F/10C degree range and I kept pulling up my jacket sleeve to get better sniffs. I have two newer bottles in the EdP and the EdT, but they’re not as lush and rich as the vintage decant I had. I still love it when the weather is cooler.

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  35. I have to say truly none. Not my house and I swore I wouldn’t go chasing down vintage so have smelt none of the old ones in their glory days.

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    • Hiya Amy,
      You may just be the clever one but I wouldn’t give up my Guerlain vintage addiction. It brings me loads of joy.
      There will come a time when I will do a cull though. there’s far too much for one lifetime here.
      Portia xx

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      • No, I’d love a walk through the greats in vintage form someday. With the newer Guerlains, there are just too many of them! I get overloaded and move on! I think my commitments, totally self-imposed and with no judgments about other choices, are to smaller independently owned lines and a few of the niche that have been sucked up into larger corporations but still seem to keep control over the product. And Chanel. Vats and vats of Misia just for me. With a few other goodies thrown in.

        I don’t love it when someone says “I don’t do x, y, or z” and so I am by no means a purist. For example, there are some all naturals I love (Hiram Green, swoon, and many Afteliers) and as many of them are independent houses, I tend to seek them out, but some are murky and samey on me (St. Clair’s, much beloved by many, doesn’t work at all for me). But the point is, I am almost arbitrarily drawing lines in the sand to keep myself in check! Its all good and always so much more to learn and to smell!

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  36. Rose Nacree du Desert was definitey the first Guerlain I really truly fell in love with – even though I wear many others – Encens Mythique, Habit Rouge, Chamade, Rose Barbare.

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  37. So many Guerlains are not available here it seems, and Shalimar is not really for me. So I would have to say AA Pamplelune, which is not in any way a classic Guerlain. I have been through at least 4 of the 125 ml bottles and I would hate to be without it. Obviously I also love Chamade which is the other FB currently in my collection.

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  38. I have posted before about my love for Champs Elysees, my first Guerlain. I also enjoy the Aqua Allegorias and own Pamplelune, Coconut Fizz, Limon Verde, Ginger Piccante, and Herba Fresca.

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