THE GUERLINADE: ROSE The rose is universally regarded as perfumery’s queen flower, beautiful both to smell and look at. It takes 300.000 roses to obtain one kilogram of essential oil. There are various types of rose available to the perfumer, but they all add a sensual elegance to any perfume. At the same time, the rose carries a cool serenity that tempers and beautifies more heavy and narcotic perfume notes. Guerlain is extremely fond of the rose and needless to say, it is part of the Guerlinade. Jean-Paul Guerlain said it was his favourite of all flowers because it possesses around a thousand different fragrances, and Thierry Wasser often declares his love for Bulgarian roses. It was Jacques Guerlain who handed down the preference for the Bulgarian variety, which excels with vibrant facets of litchi, raspberry and citrus, and a continuous blending of oils from different rose cultivators, the so-called communelle, secures a consistent olfactive profile. When Bulgaria was locked into the Eastern Bloc after World War II, Guerlain had to use Turkish rose instead, but rose absolute from Turkey, as well as from Morocco and Grasse, is still used in combination with the Bulgarian sort. Most feminine Guerlains, and even a few masculines, contain rose. Rose is prominently represented in LHeure Bleue, Ode, Parure, Nahéma, Samsara, Rose Barbare, Idylle, Shalimar Parfum Initial, La Petite Robe Noire and Rose Nacrée du Désert — the latter being the first Guerlain to use the darker Persian rose. Read more about the Guerlinade below.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 20:00:00 +0000
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