Guerlain has launched Guerlain Homme L’Eau Boisée, a new aromatic woody citrus flanker to 2010's Guerlain Homme L'Eau (itself a flanker to 2008's Guerlain Homme)...

Guerlain has launched Habit Rouge L'Eau, a new modern variation on their classic 1965 fragrance for men, Habit Rouge...

Guerlain will launch Idylle Eau Sublime, a new flanker to 2009's Idylle, in September. Idylle Eau Sublime follows the recent Idylle Duet...

Jasminora is the latest addition to the Aqua Allegoria range at Guerlain. You old-timers already know the drill: the Aqua Allegorias were introduced in 1999 as a youth-oriented, (relatively) reasonably priced line that was supposed to showcase particular natural materials; they generally add two new light-and-summery fragrances a year, and only those that do well hang around (they're essentially limited editions). Some years I like them and some years I don't, but I do own a few of them, in fact, most of the modern-day Guerlains in my collection are from this range — I own Herba Fresca, Anisia Bella and Mandarine Basilic, and if a cheap bottle of Laurier Réglisse came my way, I'd buy that one too.

Last year, if I'm not mistaken, was the first time they released Aqua Allegoria fragrances that weren't named for specific notes. Flora Nymphéa and Bouquet Numéro 1 were mixed florals, although only the first one went into general distribution in the US. This year, they're back to form with Jasminora, which is a light summery jasmine. It's in what I think of as perfumer Thierry Wasser's "young, fresh and dewy" style, in fact, it has a lot in common with Flora Nymphéa (and by extension, Idylle) although it's very clearly focused on the jasmine note...

Guerlain has done flankers of Shalimar before (Shalimar Ode à la Vanille, Fleur de Shalimar, Eau de Shalimar, Shalimar Light and Shalimar Eau Légère, to name just the ones I've posted about). They tend to make some perfumistas cranky, because, well, it's Shalimar, right? It's like messing with the Mona Lisa or something.

But sometimes they're quite nice. Many people, including me, liked the recent Ode à la Vanille, although personally I agreed with Kevin that regular old Shalimar was still the better fragrance. I very much liked Shalimar Eau Légère despite the fact that it was clearly Shalimar aimed at people who most probably wouldn't wear real Shalimar: younger people, perhaps, or just people who liked lighter, cleaner fragrances.

Shalimar Parfum Initial, the latest, ups the ante: it was reportedly developed by Guerlain house perfumer Thierry Wasser at the request of his niece, who wanted a Shalimar she could wear. I took her request to mean that Eau de Shalimar, the latest of the "Shalimar, lightened up" flankers, was perhaps a bit too mature — or just not trendy enough? — for her 17 years...

Guerlain will launch Shalimar Parfum Initial in March. Shalimar Parfum Initial is a flanker to the iconic Shalimar fragrance (1925) and follows numerous modern variations on the theme, including Shalimar Ode à la Vanille, Fleur de Shalimar, Eau de Shalimar, Shalimar Light and Shalimar Eau Légère...

I had little hope Guerlain Shalimar Ode à la Vanille would be a good perfume. Ode à la Vanille PR didn’t stress the fragrance but the Jade Jagger redesign of the Shalimar bottle, which Guerlain is using for Shalimar Eau de Parfum and Shalimar Ode à la Vanille. Harrods even had an online feature showing Jagger, looking a bit uncomfortable at a desk, ‘sketching’ her designs. Harrods listed the iconic perfume as “Shalimar by Jade Jagger”!

Guerlain house perfumer Thierry Wasser developed the new, vanilla-enriched Shalimar Ode à la Vanille; it includes fragrance notes of lemon, bergamot, rose, jasmine, iris, incense, opoponax, tonka bean and two types of “infused” vanilla: Madagascar vanilla and Mayotte vanilla. Shalimar Ode à la Vanille starts off with a wonderful leather-tinged bergamot-lemon note. Quickly, Shalimar Ode à la Vanille begins to smell “creamy” — like a chilled vanilla-citrus custard. The florals, especially the rose and jasmine, are discernible in mid-development but really become apparent in Ode à la Vanille’s extreme dry-down. As Shalimar Ode à la Vanille segues from middle to base notes it becomes amber-y-floral — first, with dark vanilla, opoponax, a hint of frankincense, some tonka bean and leather-musk notes, then with a vanillic flower accord. (There’s also a transitory indolic note that stays close to skin.) Shalimar Ode à la Vanille smells natural and delicious...

Guerlain has launched Shalimar Ode à la Vanille, a new limited edition variation on their iconic Shalimar fragrance for women.

Shalimar Ode à la Vanille is an oriental...

About the author: Nina is our guest shopper for London. If you missed her review of the Perfume Diaries exhibit, you can find it here. She took all of the images for this article.

The Perfume Diaries season at Harrods is not just about the exhibition. Throughout September, there are a number of evening events featuring some of the people and processes involved in the production of perfume.

For me, the most exciting of these was ‘The House of Guerlain’ on 9 September, with Jean-Paul Guerlain himself, and current in-house parfumeur, Thierry Wasser. I went along with my friend and neighbour Stephanie, fizzing with excitement.

All of the events are first-come-first-seated, apart from this one, which was a very hard gig to get into. On the night, the exhibition area was packed, with guests being checked off carefully on a list and absolutely no interlopers allowed to gatecrash...

I am not passionate about Guerlain's L’Art et la Matière line: so far, they've been (mostly) nice, but my wallet does not quake in fear when a new one is launched, as it does when it hears of an upcoming Hermessence. My favorite so far has been the lovely Bois d'Armenie, by perfumer Annick Menardo, but despite the fact that I've been through a few samples and small decants, so far I've not been moved to buy it.

The seventh and newest in the range, Tonka Impériale, was developed by Guerlain house perfumer Thierry Wasser. As Wasser also did the only one of the group that I seriously disliked, Iris Ganache, I didn't really get excited about Tonka Impériale until I started seeing glowing reviews. So here I am, joining the bandwagon rather late: this is really wonderful stuff...