Smells Like Sun, Hot Sand and Gold

Oh....leave it to Guerlain to take a feeling, a place, and a time, and to bottle it. Another one of their limited edition perfumes, Guerlain Terracotta L'Eau d'Ete was released in 1999 as part of the infamous Terracotta line. It was allegedly based on a much earlier Guerlain formula from 1910 called Quand vient l’été, meaning “When Summer Comes”. Terracotta Voile d'Été was released in the classic 70s montre bottle, which I just adore as they remind me of my mother's bottles of Guerlain on her dresser when I was little. To me they just say "elegant and grown up perfume". 

Voile d'Été could be interpreted as "summer veil" but also "summer sails". We know Guerlain has an affinity for far away tropical islands so it could really mean either one. It manages to give the impression of the sun beating down on warm, bronzed skin and hot sand on a faraway beach. It has a golden, sunny aspect thanks to a delicious combination of ylang ylang and carnation, the latter adding a spiky, spicy hot feel to the sweet flowers. Carnation always smells classic and somewhat old fashioned to me, but I love that soapy spicy note. It is often used in masculine scents, and that manly aspect helps keep sweet flowers at bay and stops the perfume from becoming syrupy or cloying. Add to this bright streaming ray of sunshine the pillowy powdery Guerlinade cocktail of vanilla and heliotrope (with a soupcon of iris and jasmine) and you have your hot, dry sand.

Terracotta Voile d'Été is a testament to Guerlain's ability to paint a picture with scent. It is one of the very few summer beach scents that does not evoke colourful slushy drinks with umbrellas, coconut laced suntan lotion or even monoi. It isn't what one would call perfume for hot sunny day at the beach. This is a perfume that approximates, nay, IS, a hot sunny day at the beach. Only Guerlain can do this and do it this well. It also evokes a golden colour, for you syntesthetes out there, as if you are lying on a French beach wearing your gold jewelry. I only know what that smells like because that is probably one of my favourite things to do in the world. Add a good book & some dreamy music, and I'm in heaven. Yes, that is where Guerlain Terracotta Voile d'Été takes me.

Guerlain Terracotta Voile d'Été was a limited edition perfume and is available from selected online sellers. Get it while you still can.

After The Rain - Guerlain Après L'Ondée

It's been raining a lot lately. You know, those heavy, ozonic rain storms.  They only come after intense heat and humidity, when you can barely see a few feet ahead, there is such a deluge. So of course, this brings to mind a perfume, and of course, that perfume is Guerlain Après L’Ondée. Après L’Ondée translates more or less to "after the rain shower" and was created in 1906 by Jacques Guerlain. It has often been called "heartbreakingly beautiful" by those who wear it. Some so much that they simply can't wear it- it makes them too sad. I adore it, maybe because it feels therapeutic to  wear a perfume that can evoke such emotion. Jacques Guerlain himself has said "I felt something so intense, I could only express it in a perfume". Are we feeling what he felt in 1906? Maybe...

Après L’Ondée does to perfume notes what watercolours do to art. Guerlain calls it "a perfume of absolute romance". When I wear it, I can almost see Monet's Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies), with their almost ethereal blues and purples and that feeling of cool fresh water.

Iris butter (from iris rhizome/root) is one the most expensive perfume ingredients in the world...

I love the cool earthy and buttery iris combined with the most delicately sweet and green violet, both of which are wrapped in the gentle powdery vanillic heliotropin that only Guerlain can do. I also notice a delicious anise note, which is kept from being too sweet or "licorice-y" by a whisper of gently soapy carnation and jasmine. Oh, to be sure there are other notes, but they are so masterfully blended I can't really discern them.

Many complain that Après L’Ondée is also heartbreaking in that it's magical beauty doesn't linger long enough on their skin. Luckily, my skin wears this perfume perfectly, and from the first second I sniffed it, I loved it.  It does make me feel sad, but in a good way, the way a good cry during a sad movie does. It smells like a lush closed garden, at dusk, after a heavy downpour, when the flowers are heavy with water and weighed down, and air is still slightly electric, like the rain could come down again at any moment. Perfect.

Guerlain Apres l'Ondee eau de toilette in the 100ml bee bottle is available from Guerlain Boutiques. Some department stores in the US with comprehensive Guerlain counters also carry it.