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Guerlain () is a French perfume, cosmetics, and skincare house which is among the oldest in the world. Many traditional Guerlain fragrances are characterized by a common olfactory accord known as the "".
The house was founded in Paris in 1828 by the perfumer Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain. It was run by the Guerlain family until 1994, when it was bought by the French multinational company LVMH.
Its flagship store is 68, Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris.
The success of the house under Pierre-François peaked in 1853 with the creation of Eau de Cologne Impériale for French Emperor Napoleon III and his Spanish-French wife Empress Eugénie. This perfume earned Pierre-François the prestigious title of being His Majesty's Official Perfumer. Guerlain went on to create perfumes for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Queen Isabella II of Spain, among other royalty.
As Guerlain's second generation in-house perfumer, Aimé was the creator of many classic compositions, including Fleur d'Italie (1884), Rococo (1887) and Eau de Cologne du Coq (1894). However, many would argue that his greatest composition was 1889's Jicky, the first fragrance described as a "parfum" rather than an eau de cologne, and among the first to use synthetic ingredients alongside natural extracts.
Among the outside perfumers to compose perfumes for the firm after 1994 was Mathilde Laurent, who worked for Guerlain at the end of the 1990s and in the early 2000s. She composed Aqua Allegorica Pamplelune (1999) and Shalimar Light (2003, reattributed to Jean-Paul Guerlain and relaunched in 2004 following reformulation). Maurice Roucel, a perfumer of Symrise, composed L'Instant de Guerlain (2004) and Insolence (2006). As the niece of Jean-Jacques Guerlain, some thought Patricia de Nicolaï would have been a candidate for the position of Guerlain's in-house perfumer, though the presence of a glass ceiling in the company prevented her selection for position.
In May 2008, Thierry Wasser was named the in-house perfumer for Guerlain. Wasser, a Switzerland perfumer who used to work for Firmenich, created Iris Ganache (2007) and Quand Vient la Pluie (2007) for Guerlain before his appointment the following year. Jean-Paul Guerlain stayed on in an advisory consultant role, both for fragrance design and ingredients. Wasser was to work closely with Sylvaine Delacourte, Guerlain's Artistic Director. In 2010, the LVMH Group cut ties with Jean-Paul Guerlain as their consultant due to his racist comments on French television.
Russian model Natalia Vodianova has been the face of Guerlain campaigns since 2008. Vodianova began advertising Shalimar to celebrate the perfume house's 180th birthday. For the Fall 2013 makeup collection, Olivier Echaudemaison, Guerlian's Creative Director of Makeup since 2000 commented "Every season we fantasize with Natalia's image and invent for her a new role. For us, it is not just a model, which advertises cosmetics, but above all, a great actress".
In October 2011, the company named Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as a new spokesmodel. Yeoh is an ambassador for the Orchidée Impériale line of skincare.
In 2018, Guerlain founded an initiative to raise awareness around bee protection which launched globally in 2021. As part of this initiative, the House invited friends to lead Bee School Sessions to raise awareness among the youth of today. UK ambassador Camille Charriere taught a Bee School Session in May 2023 in Notting Hill at Hampden Gurney Primary School.
In February 2024, the Emirati artist and singer, Balqees Fathi became the Regional Ambassador for the brand in the Middle East.
| 1830 | (): Guerlain first released a cologne by this name in 1830, but it came to widespread attention in 1853 when it was adopted by Empress Eugénie, the wife of French emperor Napoléon III. She liked the composition so much that she named Guerlain an official purveyor of colognes and toiletries to the imperial family. It is a classic cologne, with rich lime and lime-flower notes. Over a century and a half later, the cologne is still in regular production. |
| 1889 | : Said to be named either after the nickname Aimé Guerlain gave to his nephew, Jacques, or after a girl who broke Aimé's heart as a student in England, Jicky is widely heralded as the first "modern" fragrance, and the first to be referred to as a perfume. Jicky was among the first fragrances to incorporate synthetic odorants (vanillin and coumarin) in its composition. The fragrance, an aromatic fougère, is known for its main notes of lavender and vanilla over animalic civet. Although marketed by Guerlain as a women's fragrance, it was initially more successful with men and has proven to be a popular unisex fragrance. Over 120 years later, Jicky is still being sold, making it the oldest non-cologne fragrance in continuous production. |
| 1894 | A classic cologne featuring prominent herbal, lavender and citrus notes. |
| 1904 | An aromatic fougère created for men, this fragrance is close to the olfactory profile of Jicky, with aromatic lavender and a semi-oriental base. It was in very limited distribution for much of the 20th century, until becoming more widely available in the early 1990s. |
| 1906 | : The name of this fragrance translates to 'after the rain shower.' Après l'Ondée is a light floral fragrance reminiscent of bitter almonds, with anise and herbal notes. Its composition includes violet, iris, heliotrope, hawthorn, anise, and herbal notes. |
| 1912 | : Meaning 'Blue hour,' L'Heure Bleue is a floral oriental fragrance with the dusky scent of candies and almond cake bought in an old world apothecary. Its powdery accord is similar to that of Après l'Ondée, but L'Heure Bleue is denser, richer, and has a more confectionery quality, while Apres l'Ondée is more floral in character and lighter and more transparent in feel. Both Apres l'Ondée and L'Heure Bleue are often perceived as melancholy scents. |
| 1919 | : Named after the heroine of the novel La Bataille by Claude Farrère, Mitsouko is said to herald the ending of World War I. Due to a bottle shortage at the end of the war, it was marketed in an identical bottle to that of L'Heure Bleue, and is sometimes considered to be that fragrance's warm counterpart. The structure is based on Coty's long-discontinued 1917 perfume Chypre, with added notes of peach and iris. With Coty's fragrance no longer produced, Mitsouko is today considered by Luca Turin, a well-known perfume critic and reviewer, to be a reference fragrance in the chypre olfactive family.Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, Perfumes: the A–Z Guide, Expanded Edition, Penguin, 2009, 384–5. |
| 1920 | This classic cologne foregrounds the notes of the citron fruit, with lemon, neroli, herbs and other notes. |
| 1925 | : Named after the garden in Lahore, built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Shalimar is one of the world's most famous oriental fragrances, and was one of the first perfumes to successfully incorporate large amounts of vanillin in its composition. The scent of Shalimar is densely constructed, with a cascade of many notes, including bergamot, smoke, tonka bean, iris, and vanilla. This is the flagship perfume of the House of Guerlain |
| 1929 | Liù, named after a tragic character in Giacomo Puccini opera Turandot, is an Aldehyde floral that is said to have been inspired by the wildly successful Chanel No. 5, released in 1921. Like No. 5, it features aldehydes over a jasmine-rose heart accord. Though not especially well known compared to aldehydics such as Arpège or Chanel No. 5, the fragrance has never been discontinued. |
| 1933 | The name is the French term for the Leeward Islands (Society Islands), the Îles Sous-le-Vent. This perfume was said to be composed for the dancer, singer and French Résistance member Josephine Baker, who spent much of her life and career in France. It was a green chypre with notes of tarragon, galbanum and oakmoss, and was discontinued in 1972. |
| 1933 | : Composed as a tribute to flight, celebrating the novel of the same name by pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Air France, this is a green, semi-oriental chypre with notes of iris, galbanum, daffodil, and oakmoss. Vol de Nuit's use of galbanum made it among the first fragrances to feature pronounced green notes.Roja Dove, The Essence of Perfume, London: Black Dog Publishing, 2008, 116. |
| 1936 | This floral aldehydic fragrance was inspired by the star Vega, the brightest in the night sky. It featured aldehydes layered on a jasmine and ylang-ylang floral heart over woody notes. The fragrance was discontinued by the 1960s, but was rereleased in a limited edition in 2006. |
| 1959 | This was Jean-Paul Guerlain's first fragrance after taking over as the in-house perfumer at Guerlain. A men's fragrance, it was created to replace the company's earlier Vétiver perfume and was originally targeted to the Mexican market. The original composition was an eau de cologne, but it was strengthened to an eau de toilette in the 1980s. |
| 1962 | Designed for and marketed to younger women, Chant d'Arômes ('Song of Scents') is a soft chypre, with notes of citrus and honeysuckle over oakmoss, vetiver and jasmine. Quite popular in its day, the fragrance is now one of Guerlain's more obscure fragrances. |
| 1965 | Considered the first oriental for men, Habit Rouge is a dense composition of bergamot, woods, spices, opopanax and amber. Like Vétiver, it was originally an eau de cologne but was reformulated as a men's eau de toilette in the 1980s. |
| 1969 | : Named after the novel by Françoise Sagan, Chamade is a floral oriental fragrance with a pronounced topnote of galbanum introducing a core of notes including hyacinth, blackcurrant buds, and vanilla. In French, the word Chamade refers to a particular signal to an enemy made by rapid drumbeats or trumpets of an offer to negotiate surrender. Packaged in a bottle representing an upside-down heart pierced by an arrow, the fragrance is said to symbolize a total surrender to love. |
| 1974 | Eau de Guerlain is a unisex citrus scent inspired by classical colognes, such as Guerlain's own Eau de Cologne Impérial, Eau de Cologne du Coq and Eau des Fleurs de Cédrat. Its notes include bergamot, lemon, verbena, neroli and oakmoss. |
| 1975 | In French, a parure is a matched set of jewelry, typically a necklace, brooch and earrings, sometimes with a bracelet and tiara. This is a fruity chypre fragrance featuring notes of plum, lilac, rose and oakmoss. Fading popularity, coupled with International Fragrance Association and European Union regulations on some of its ingredients, led to its discontinuation in the early 2000s. |
| 1979 | This floral oriental fragrance was inspired by the legend of a sultan who had twin daughters, the gentle and obedient Mahane and the fiery and passionate Nahéma. Built predominantly around rose notes, Nahéma was an early fragrance to feature damascenones, a set of newly discovered aromachemicals with a profound fruity-rose character. Like Parure, Nahéma was not a sales success, but the EdP remains available. |
| 1983 | Named after a formal garden planted within the Bois de Bologne on the western outskirts of Paris, Jardins de Bagatelle is a white floral with notes of magnolia, jasmine, tuberose and sandalwood. |
| 1985 | A dry, woody-leather scent for men, Derby was not a sales success for Guerlain. The composition features spices, sandalwood, leather, oakmoss, birch sap and tobacco. The scent was periodically available from the 1990s but discontinued in 2021. |
| 1989 | : Composed by Jean-Paul Guerlain and Anne-Marie Saget, this is a heady oriental fragrance featuring main notes of jasmine, ylang-ylang, and sandalwood.Edwards, Michael. Perfume Legends II: French Feminine Fragrances. Édition Emphase, 2019. The name is a reference to the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth or reincarnation in Hinduism and many other religions in South Asia. |
| 1992 | This is an aromatic, spicy, woody scent for men, with notes of lavender, coriander, patchouli and sandalwood. Released as an EdT, it is one of a few Guerlain masculines that later became available as an EdP. |
| 1996 | The first major fragrance by the company released after the sale to LVMH and the first not to be composed by a member of the Guerlain family. Though it borrows the name of a 1904 Guerlain fragrance, Parfum des Champs-Elysées, the 1996 Champs-Elysées was an entirely new composition. It is a bright, sweet mimosa-based floral. |
| 1999 | Pamplelune was one of the original five Aqua Allegoria fragrances released by Guerlain in 1999 as simple, fresh, light compositions designed to appeal to younger consumers. It is a sunny grapefruit-dominant citrus fragrance, with notes of grapefruit, blackcurrant buds and patchouli. |
| 1999 | The second of the original five Aqua Allegoria fragrances that has never been out of production, Herba Fresca is a light, fresh green fragrance with herbal notes, green tea and spearmint. |
| 2000 | A heady floral oriental fragrance of jasmine, tuberose, ylang-ylang and vanilla, Mahora is named after the French demonym for the people of the island of Mayotte, an overseas department of France located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa. Though a major launch for Guerlain, the fragrance sold poorly and was discontinued quickly. In 2005, it reappeared under the name Mayotte in an exclusive line, but was discontinued again in the mid-2010s. |
| 2003 | Another floral oriental in the range, L'Instant begins with notes of citrus and honey before moving into an accord of magnolia and white flowers over vanilla and amber. |
| 2006 | Insolence harkens back to Guerlain's early floral orientals like L'Heure Bleue, with notes of violet, iris, and orange blossom, while adding new, modern notes of red fruit and white musk. |
| 2008 | Guerlain Homme's top notes represent a "mojito accord," with sweet lime, peppermint and rum, over a woody base of patchouli, cedar and vetiver. |
| 2009 | The first major fragrance composed by Thierry Wasser after taking over as the in-house perfumer at Guerlain in 2008, Idylle is a soft, modern chypre with fruity notes, rose, patchouli and white moss. |
| 2012 | This fragrance, memorializing the "little black dress," was born after the accidental, unexpected success of a limited-edition fragrance by the same name composed by Delphine Jelk and released without fanfare in 2009. Its popularity convinced Guerlain to release a second limited edition in 2011, and when that also proved successful, in 2012 the company released a tweaked version of the 2009 Petite Robe Noire composition as a mass-market fragrance. |
| 2014 | Guerlain's first major launch for men in six years, L'Homme Idéal ('The Ideal Man') is a relaxed fougère with citrus top notes and a heart of sweet amaretto notes over cedarwood and patchouli. |
| 2017 | Originally inspired as a modern-day counterpart to Jicky, Mon Guerlain is a sweet oriental featuring lavender, jasmine, vanilla and sandalwood. |
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