{"id":73232,"date":"2026-10-21T10:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T06:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/?post_type=articles&p=73232"},"modified":"2026-10-21T10:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T06:23:08","slug":"scents-of-purpose-guerlain-delphine-jelk","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/scents-of-purpose-guerlain-delphine-jelk\/","title":{"rendered":"Scents Of Purpose: Guerlain\u2019s Delphine Jelk On The Fragrances That Shaped Her Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"scents
Art: GRAZIA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Delphine Jelk, Creative Perfume Director at Guerlain, fragrance is a profound source of comfort, connection and emotion, shaping both her life and her career. Through an olfactory journey of the scents that define her, Jelk reveals the memories, places and moments that nourish her soul.<\/p>\n

The scent that makes me feel like a child again is\u2026<\/h4>\n

apricot oil from a Swiss brand called D\u00e9esse. It comes in a little pot, and my whole family uses it for everything. It smells amazing. When I was little, my mother and grandmother used it whenever I had a little booboo. It\u2019s so good for your skin, but it\u2019s also good for the soul. It was our little oil for everything, and I still use it today, on my lips and on my kids. It\u2019s really difficult to find, as you have to call someone and they come and deliver it to your home \u2013 you can\u2019t buy it in the shops. But it has a fabulous scent. When I smell it now, it\u2019s just so familiar \u2013 it\u2019s part of me and my life and brings me security and comfort.<\/p>\n

I also love the smell of the baby product Mustela, which was important in my childhood but also for my kids and me today. It actually inspired Guerlain\u2019s new reinterpretation of L\u2019Heure Bleue. I always had the smell of it in my mind, because when I smell a woman wearing the original L\u2019Heure Bleue from 1912, I think the drydown smells like Mustela.<\/p>\n

\"scents
Art: GRAZIA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The scent that transports me to my favourite place in the world is\u2026<\/h4>\n

the smell of my favourite beach in Corsica. It\u2019s what inspired the perfume I created called Aqua Allegoria Forte Bosca Vanilla Forte. It\u2019s this idea of the end of summer, when everybody\u2019s gone, but you still have the smell of sunscreen from the week before, and you can smell the eucalyptus, the driftwood, the immortelle [Helichrysum italicum plant] and the sea salt \u2013 I love those kinds of notes. I think it\u2019s very emotional, and it almost gives you hope that you will live it all again \u2013 that you will be back. It\u2019s a place where I have a lot of memories because I\u2019ve been going there for 20 years. It\u2019s beautiful and I love going there.<\/p>\n

The scent that saw me through my teenage years was\u2026<\/h4>\n

White Musk from The Body Shop, which is the perfume I wore then. I have so many memories of it, whether it\u2019s the smell of a pub or the smell of my boyfriend at the time. Even the smell of the school gym where we did sport, which always had such a distinctive scent \u2013 it\u2019s all linked to this musk. I wasn\u2019t a rebellious teenager, but I was both wise and mischievous. I knew I had to do what was expected of me, so I was good at school, and I wasn\u2019t about doing crazy stuff that could be bad. But, in secret, I could be mischievous [laughs].<\/p>\n

I never think of scent as being something that gives you confidence, as for me it\u2019s more about protection. Confidence I can get from high heels or makeup, but for me, perfume is like my armour \u2013 something that protects me. As a teenager, I just wanted to smell good, and I got so many compliments when I wore White Musk. It was so me, and I loved what stayed on my sweater or my scarf. To this day, I still love the drydowns of perfumes. I want my fragrance to last, to leave a trace \u2013 or, what we call in perfumery, the sillage. I love that musky, vanilla, ambery, very sensual background, and that\u2019s what I got with White Musk.<\/p>\n

The scent that got me addicted to fragrance is\u2026<\/h4>\n

vanilla, which I love. I studied aromachology, and I learned that vanilla is like your mother\u2019s arms \u2013 it\u2019s so comforting and reassuring. Fortunately, at Guerlain, vanilla is the queen, so I work a lot with it. I love it in perfume, but also because it reminds me of sweets from my childhood and good moments in life. It\u2019s very comforting and brings back happy memories. It\u2019s so addictive.<\/p>\n

Bitter almond is another of my favourite ingredients, and I think it\u2019s something that also comes from my childhood, as I have such good memories of that smell. I love blending it with rose. I did a perfume called Rose Ch\u00e9rie, which is one of my favourite perfumes, because it\u2019s a similar accord to La Petite Robe Noire, which was my first perfume for Guerlain. When you blend almond and raspberry, you get this cherry note. With almond, you can do anything.<\/p>\n

\"Art:
Art: GRAZIA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The scent of a loved one I\u2019ve lost is\u2026<\/h4>\n

rose, which makes me think of my mother, who I lost when I was a child. I can still remember the smell of her perfume, and for many years, I kept her silk scarves in boxes because I didn\u2019t want to lose her scent. She wore a perfume with a lot of rose \u2013 quite a spicy rose. Today, rose is one of my favourite smells, and I love to work around it. Rose was her, and it\u2019s very emotional.<\/p>\n

I also have so many memories of the smell of my mother\u2019s lipstick, and it\u2019s still a scent I love so much, with those notes of iris and rose. Those smells are very important to me.<\/p>\n

The scent of my first love is\u2026<\/h4>\n

Dolce & Gabbana for Men, which is a perfume that I love. It has a lot of tonka bean, and it\u2019s so delicious. I suffered a lot because we broke up and it was terrible, but now we are very good friends, and thankfully he doesn\u2019t wear it anymore [laughs]. But when we talk about it, we laugh. The smell of someone you love is something so important.<\/p>\n

The scent that makes me feel safe and comforted is\u2026<\/h4>\n

mandarin essential oil. It\u2019s amazing for when you feel stressed and anxious \u2013 it really helps you feel more grounded. It\u2019s such a delicious smell and it really has that calming property.<\/p>\n

The scent that got me through a tough time is\u2026<\/h4>\n

Incense from church. It\u2019s funny because I love to work with incense, but I always need to contrast it with something very happy and joyful, like a fruit. I went to Oman to see the incense trees, and I think it\u2019s delicious and such an interesting note. But for me, it\u2019s something sad, so it has to be blended with something joyful.<\/p>\n

\"scents
Art: GRAZIA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The scent I wish I could bottle forever is\u2026<\/h4>\n

The smell of my children\u2019s necks when they were little. I absolutely loved the smell of their necks, even when there was a little bit of milk there and it was a bit disgusting [laughs]. There\u2019s something crazy addictive about that smell. When they stop being babies, it\u2019s different \u2013 it\u2019s over. There\u2019s something totally animalistic and primal about it.<\/p>\n

The scent I want people to associate me with forever is\u2026<\/h4>\n

Vanilla, because I wanted to create the best vanilla fragrance imaginable. Vanilla is part of the Guerlinade and one of the pillars of the house, so it has always been incredibly important to Guerlain. As you now know, it\u2019s also something I personally love so much.<\/p>\n

With Vanille Planifolia Extrait 21, Guerlain and I created something together that is having a lot of success right now. The vanilla is macerated in alcohol for 21 days, allowing all of its naturally woody, ambery and gourmand facets to come through. I\u2019m so proud that it\u2019s being recognised as one of the best vanilla scents, because vanilla is such a foundational material for Guerlain. I feel like I was able to make vanilla the queen again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42675,"featured_media":73688,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[47,35],"yoast_head":"\nGuerlain\u2019s Delphine Jelk on the Fragrances That Shaped Her Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guerlain perfumer Delphine Jelk reveals the scents that shaped her life, from childhood apricot oil and White Musk to vanilla and incense.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/scents-of-purpose-guerlain-delphine-jelk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scents Of Purpose: Guerlain\u2019s Delphine Jelk On The Fragrances That Shaped Her Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guerlain perfumer 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