How do you know you're a Guerlain Girl?

Compiled by Asali and Ines.


1. You know where the flagship store is located.

2. No visit to Paris can pass without the visit to the afore-mentioned store.

3. You know which Mr. Guerlain did which perfume (and frown upon those who don't differentiate).

4. You recognize when other people waft Shalimar/Jicky/Mitsouko/insert Guerlain of your choice - this only counts if you recognize more than 5 different ones (don't have to be those mentioned above).

5. Even those older Guerlains you can't wear as they aren't you, you appreciate them and the way they were made.

6. You own at least one Guerlain perfume in several variations.

7. You hunt down vintage Guerlains (and are jealous of people who find them).
 
8. You try to recruit people for the Guerlain appreciation club, and smile a little condescendingly when they say that it "isn't quite them", saying "oh, don't worry, you'll get there".


9. At least one holy grail is a discontinued Guerlain.

10. You use words like guerlinade and bee bottle as frequent as you use the words sillage and base note.

11. More than one (or two, or more?) Guerlain perfumes feel like "home" to you.
 
12. You bemoan the fact that some of the best ones are discontinued or re-formulated.
 

13. You look at batch codes before you purchase Samsara/ Shalimar etc. from the Bay.


14. You think of Thierry Wasser as the "adopted son" and rightful heir to Jean -Paul. :)
 
 
I'd say if you find yourself in 10 of these statements, there is no doubt about you being a Guerlain Girl (as we're writing this from our female perspective).
 
Let's hear it - do you have anything else to add? :)

Finally Shalimar! Or how orientals are taking me over

There's just no point denying it, I'm on oriental perfume freak. I seem to be falling deeper and deeper into the mysterious cloud they are creating around me and more and more are in that cloud.

As you can see from the title, my new oriental find is Shalimar. Or, more like, we finally hit it off. All we needed was a second meeting and we're ok now. Well, more than ok actually.

The thing is, lately, Shalimar has been jumping out at me from all over. First, I saw a Katie Puckrik clip where she's also all over it. Then, I was browsing through a store here, and it winked from a shelf. I never ever noticed it before on a shelf anywhere. Only to end this weekend with Angelology and one of the girls (the rich one) wears it as her signature scent at the beginning of the WW II.

So, I located my mini bottle and re-acquinted myself with Shalimar. We've been hanging out ever since. :)

Btw, if you are ever in search of notes, there is quite a lot of them to be found if you keep searching. Here are all those I managed to gather.
Notes: bergamot, lemon, jasmine, rose, iris, incense, opoponax, tonka bean, vanilla, tangerine, cedar, patchouli, orrise, benzoin, peru balsam, leather, vetiver, heliotrope, civet, sandalwood.

I have no idea if all of them are in my EdT but it certainly smells great. I guess you just can't barge into the world of perfumes and know what stuff is great or what family you prefer. Some perfumes are going to reveal their secrets only after you cover a lot of ground.

So, what I like about Shalimar is that on me, it is not a sweet oriental. I was actually surprised by the beginning which is dry, spicy, slightly almondy but austere in appearance. It strikes me as being quite strict, no soft smiles on this lady. Only after a while it mellows a bit but don't you dare think it is a nice and lovely girl. Oh no, it's a strong woman with serious backbone, one that will seduce you and you won't know what hit you.
One of the reasons I kept on searching for notes was because I was surprised by smelling patchouli in there (some dryness and earthiness combined) so I felt quite good when I saw it listed together with cedar which I realized was alongside patchouli. The things is, you just can't describe Shalimar through the notes. Although I can say that jasmine was hiding each time I tried it. :)
As soon as I can, I'll try the EdP to see if the underlying booziness will get stronger (I would love that benzoin to get a more prominent role).

In the meantime, I'm falling asleep each night with my wrist under my nose...