French Week Day 7 - Guerlain Champs Elysees

It is now the last day of this year's French Week and I hope that you have found at least one or two new products and fragrances that you want to try.  Today we are going to look at a fragrance from the House of Guerlain, one of the most iconic French beauty and fragrance houses.  The House of Guerlain introduced the first iconic perfume, Jicky, back in the end of the 19 Century and has come out with a series of best selling, cult fragrances for over 100 years.  The fragrance that I am the most enthralled with from this line is the iconic L'Heure Bleu, created in the beginning of the last century for the French actress Yvonne Printemps.  However, this line has created so many wonderful fragrances that I find it impossible to pick only one of two fragrance to wear.

The Champs Elysee is the major boulevard in Paris, the one that has many of the most famed monuments and shop on.  This is the major area of the city that tourists want to see that most and I consider it one of the most beautiful parts of the City of Lights.  This area is one of the highest rent areas of the city and contains some of the most famous spots in the city.  When walking down this avenue, you will start at the Place de la Concord and continue on past the Arc de Triomphe and then the Grand Palais.  On this street, you will pass the flagship Louis Vuitton and the Guerlain store itself.  Every year on Bastile Day, the city hosts one of the largest militay parades on this avenue. 

This fragrance is getting harder to find in the United States, I pulled all of my information on it from the Guerlain website.  I believe that I have found it only in New York City so far.  Many of the Guerlain fragrances can be found on the Sephora website but only a select few are in the stores.

The Sephora website provides a description of the brand's history.  "Guerlain was founded in 1828, when Pierre-Francois-Pascal Guerlain opened his first boutique in Paris.  Trained as a doctor and chemist, he enjoyed immediate success thanks to his revolutionary work, which lead to many innovative 'firsts'.  Guerlain was the first to create scientifically based skincare and to sell kohl eyeliner and mascara.  Then in 1840, he introduced the very first lipsticks.  Even years later, The house of Guerlain continued this tradition of 'firsts' by introducing Terracotta, the benchmark for all bronzers, and Meteorites, the first product to incorporate colored pearl to create luminosity and even out skin tone.  Add to its oeuvre more than 700 fragrances (several of which are considered to be among the masterpieces of perfumery), the Guerlain name has become internationally recognized as a symbol of artistry, superlative quality, impeccable style, and ultimate grace."

From the Guerlain website itself, "The symbol of prestige and the influence of a city in perpetual motion, Paris' famed avenue is where the world meets - the Champs Elysees is the center of this perfume, and the center of everything.  A thrilling breath of life and the promise of infinite love.  For a chic and avant-garde Parisienne, Champs Elysees is a fragrance of intense seduction.  Life takes on an exciting, improvisational air and becomes a game for this joyful floral fragrance that celebrates the rose and mimosa.  An homage to the female form, the Champs Elysees bottle takes the shape of a strong silhouette.  Crowned with a broad cap, its polished glass extends and embellishes its evocative curves.  Its beautiful and complete fullness is solidly anchored on the triangle of life: It can be evocative of the perspective of the world's most beautiful avenue that stretches from I.M. Pei's pyramid to the Arc de Triomphe."

Instead of simply providing the notes of the fragrance, the Guerlain website provides a full description from the perfumers.  "Fruity floral.  Transparent, luminous, sparkling.  The perfume bursts forth with a crystalline laugh: The transparency of rose with frosted petals softens the rise of tender, crushed mimosa leaves.  In parallel, the light, acidic tempo of cassis berries harmonizes with the subtly of almond tree flowers.  The supremely refined and delicately sensitive heart palpitates with the silky shudder of mimosa flowers.  The minuscule sums catch fire and lend the skin unexpected sensuality, a buoyant dancing light that illuminates Buddleia, that enchanted tree known as the butterfly bush, which each spring welcomes clouds of butterflies that flock toward its spellbinding, lilac-accented scent.  This long caress becomes pure voluptuousness when the dry-down blends carnal accents of hibiscus seed with the softness of almond tree wood."

This fragrance is one of the softer Guerlains, it is one of the easier ones to wear and I have read that it is often a young lady's first fragrance from this company and then they graduate to the stronger fragrances.  The heart of rose in this fragrance makes it one of the ones that I must travel to New York City to purchase.

Anothe French Week has come to a close and I hope that you all have enjoyed learning a bit more about some of the best French beauty lines and that you are deciding to try something new from several of them!

photo courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman