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…
Stella McCartney in conversation with Alexandra Shulman (video, talks about new scent L.I.L.Y) http://t.co/VAKYigvK "French parfumier Guerlain on trial over 'race slurs'" article at Telegraph http://t.co/lVDxoZMi Vote for NST's Mood Board on FB and win a Zoya Nail Polish collection! http://t.co/MXHMN7I3