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Twice a day, in the moments between sunrise and sunset, the world is enveloped in shades of blue. In this time of quiet contemplation, when dualities fade — day and night, sky and earth — Guerlain believes the light “blurs the contours of reality and awakens the imagination.” The provocative blue hour, or L’Heure Bleue in French, thus lends its name to the Maison’s latest launch: a reimagining of one of its most poetic perfumes.
Originally conceptualised by Jacques Guerlain in 1912 for his wife Andrée, the fragrance has now been reinterpreted by Delphine Jelk, Guerlain’s Fragrance Creative Director. It is an expression of femininity for women and by a woman, designed to draw on the shades of power and poetry with which blue is synonymous. Composed in three movements — an airy freshness, a powdery heart and an enveloping base — the new eau de parfum is built to suspend, as the Maison puts it, “the emotion of a moment beyond time.”
The signature scent sits at the intersection of three core olfactory notes that unfold chronologically. To start, there is a subtle ozonic accord that combines components of pears and almonds to bring a nuanced softness to the perfume’s first impression.
This is paired with orange blossom and iris flower that form the core. The latter is a striking garden perennial that exists in two forms within the fragrance — as a butter for its smoothness and as a tincture produced exclusively by the brand through an age-old technique where the rhizomes macerate in alcohol until they release what is wanted.
For the final trace that lingers, the haute creation discloses vanilla. The play on gastronomic and earthy notes from the brand’s insignia is combined with ambroxan, a synthetic creation that mimics a dry amber musk akin to the natural scent of clean skin. The result is a base that is at once intimate and powerful, evoking the moment when, in Guerlain’s words, “the night has not yet found its star.”
To commemorate the Maison’s milestone launch, the brand has unveiled two exceptional technical feats in the form of 1500 ml bottles of the signature eau de parfum, as is tradition. The classic design has been supersized by French glassmaker Waltersperger.
Drawing on the vintage blueprints of the trademark “inverted heart” lid created by Georges Chevalier over a century ago, the iconic hollow cap is a reflection of the Maison’s commitment to being bold but romantic. The modern take involves a unique lacquering effect that paints the bottle in gradient shades of blue and jewellery-adjacent details like the bevelled base and textured Italian leather ring.
Yet the true testament to the label’s dedication to stun is the limited-edition bottle adorned by Turkish artist Begüm Khan. Her prestigious creation draws on the fragrance’s key ingredient — the Iris flower — to create just 66 collector’s items worldwide. The special edition bottles are covered in an ornate cascade of no fewer than 12,224 gems in shades of sapphire, turquoise and indigo, hand-set in 24-carat gold-plated bronze.
All in all, the Maison’s newest collection blends the richness of gold with the elegance of blue to seamlessly entrench its products in poetry and modern femininity.
