L'Heure Bleue Eau de Parfum Guerlain for women

It's May and we should be enjoying blooming nature and lovely weather. But it rains all the time. For some mysterious reason, I'm wearing HB tonight and she is glorious. I have this bottle for more than a decade and most of the time it's too much. Of melancholy, anise and vanilla. And after few hours I end up washing away and changing clothes.
But, once in blue moon, everything falls in place and HB is incredible and I can't get enough of it. It just feels right.

Like a former socialite decaying in her sickbed, rouging her hollowed cheeks, surrounded by the dried bouquets given to her by suitors in her youth. Powdery florals with a medicinal undertone, not immediately pleasant but intriguing.

I am very curious to try this one, I love anisic perfumes. I wish Fragrantica stayed the cultivated place it used to be.
The review section is full of trolls, just like any other platform. I will integrate this comment as soon as I receive my tester.

I cannot get over that dominant anise note. It reminds me of Trident Cinnamon chewing gums.

LIFE STARTS AT DUSK

L'Heure Bleue - the blue hour - was born in 1912 by the hands and nose of Jacques Guerlain. The era was pre-1st war, the impressionist age, the crazy years, and the industrial revolution with its bourgeoisie starting the revelry in the blue hour... the dusk. It is a floral oriental fragrance with the dusky scent of candies and almond cake (by the strong heliotrope) bought in an old-world apothecary (due to its powdery accord).
Of the fantastic feminine trio I have labelled as minimally unisex - Shalimar, Jicky, and L'Heure Bleue - the latter has the less masculine facet.
The opening presents us with anise liquorice, too fleeting for my will, and that surrenders to the somewhat intense florals, with emphasis on the iris and violet (with its characteristic powder), the heliotrope (smelling like almond and vanilla), and for the clove (with a clove-like spicy scent). The spices are in the background - cloves, cinnamon, and tonka - rounding off the sweetness of the floral notes. Sandalwood, benzoin, and vanilla stand out later, and ensure a long and pleasant dry down, leaving the fragrance more unisex.
The performance is quite generous. Three spays are good enough for ten hours, with a sillage up to six feet and close to three hours of projection.
I have used this perfume in the middle of a group of people and for several times. I aroused curiosity and heard comments about wearing an elegant perfume that stood out among the reigning masculine ambroxan. I confess to have been very pleased with my choice whenever I used L'Heure Bleue.
In a woman, this perfume invariably draws everyone's attention for its oriental warmth, and spices charm framing the floral notes.
It is a true masterpiece.
How can I measure this twilight scent?
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
- Opening: 8.5 (semi-fresh sweet opening with anise and florals)
- Dry Down: 9.5 (long, more unisex bottom and dry down, with sweet spices and sandalwood)
- Longevity: 9.0 (3 sprays can last up to 10 hours)
- Sillage: 8.0 (up to 6 feet with 3 sprays; it projects for 3.0 hours)
- Uniqueness: 9.5 (It has its own individuality that has been sustained for more than 100 years now. I don't recall any similar fragrance besides its flankers, the older Après L'Ondée also by Guerlain, and, in a lesser degree, Esprit d'Oscar by Oscar de la Renta)
- Wearability: 9.0 (Almost a four seasons fragrance for outdoors or indoors, day or night; avoid the hot summer days)
- Versatility: 8.5 (A compelling oriental near unisex fragrance; excellent for a wide number of occasions even if its class and sensuality demand formal events. Very adequate for intimacy only if used by a woman. Don't use it in the gym or in the beach)
- Compliments: 8.5 (You will smell very good to everybody, and people will admire you; My classification reflects the average of my opinions: 8.0 for a man and 9.0 for a woman)
- Quality: 10.0 (well above-average quality ingredients, good flask, nice sprayer; handy refill bottles)
- Presentation: 9.0 (very good presentation, in my opinion, although quite feminine... but it is a feminine fragrance after all)
- Price: 8.0 (EdP 75 ml non-tester for € 55.00 + shipping on sale. Price of this flask usually starts at € 70.00)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Overall rating: 8.86 / 10.00
- between 7 and 8 = above average;
- between 8 and 9 = recommended;
- greater than 9 = do not miss;

My recommendation: This is a fragrance landmark, more feminine than masculine. I do recommend it for ladies. I can only recommend it for men after testing it and never as blind buy.

Music: Charles Aznavour - "Que C´Est Triste Venise"

Hauntingly beautiful iris and violets. Not dated but always smells powdery and old worldly. Sadly very hard to find now so I have to make the last of my 5ml last.

I used to spend over $300.00 a month on cigarettes. They made me stink. They made me sick. They made me feel weak. Now, every once in a while, I take some of that previously wasted money and spend it on something beautiful.

I’ve read reviews of people saying it’s impossible to describe what L’Heure Bleue actually smells like; they can only describe how it makes them feel. Now I can appreciate what they meant.

After I unboxed my new treasure and sprayed it on my wrist, my immediate response was “Oh no. How old lady-ish and dreadful.” But there was something fascinating and wonderful waiting just under the surface begging me to be patient for a minute or two. By the time I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down, L’Heure Bleue was ready to show her real face. I can’t explain what this fragrance smells like. It’s way too complex for a working girl like me to describe. Or is it meant to be mysterious like that? Maybe so. All I can say is that it invokes a sense of sublime moodiness, personal accomplishment, and silky sexiness.

I think I’m gonna go shower, layer this masterpiece on my clean skin, then walk around Whole Foods like a queen. Class meets sass. Ne sois pas jaloux de mon chic.

TanaC, your review is beautiful! I feel the same way about LB.

P.S. If you love spraying lots, like me, but want to conserve, try layering with Vanderbilt or Oscar. I started with both as stand-ins for LB but have come to love them in their own right.

I know I have reviewed this before, more than once probably, but every time I wear it, I feel exalted. L'Heure Bleue is poetry in a bottle, the perfect expression of violet and incense. I remember how surprised I was by the anise-clove note, which reminded me (pleasantly) of the smell of Band-Aids, but I'm so used to it now in vintage Guerlains that I have other associations now. I hope Guerlain never discontinues this. I have never smelled anything quite like it, even though other vintage violets have their places of course. The drydown is like a Beatles bridge.

Gorgeous gourmand! The most beautiful dessert ever concocted! So rich, heady and sweet. So luxurious and scrumptious that you might only wish to wear it for those big occasions in life but I often wear it to be whisked away to the best patisserie in the Champs Elysee if only in my dreams!

I definitely feel like a queen wearing this classic iconic masterpiece.
it's love of my life ❤

Ah, such spell-binding mystique from this classic fragrance. A truly poetic experience.

The one thing "melancholy" to me about L'Heure Bleue is that I'll likely never be able to smell her in her original, vintage form, unless I get lucky. Between regulations, reformulations, changing tastes and changing times, I am certain that this 2021 edp bottle I own is a ghost of her former self.

Guerlain wanted this to convey a blue moment of dusk mingled with the smell of flowers on his walks.
If I had smelled L'Heure Bleue without knowing the opinions of others, it would have never conveyed sadness so much as it does genuine, old-fashioned artistry and quality.
So, as for this "sad and melancholy", no - not to me. It certainly does evoke emotion, though, and for me that emotion is wonderment; wonderment, in the way that I ponder the twinkling of the stars and the grace of the moon.

Overall, I really can't think of a more genius blend of florals and spices such as this.
As many others have stated, the magic is in how it changes while you wear it. It is a spicy floral orchestra from the get-go, and it's simply gorgeous. As it wears on, it gets tolerably powdery, but much smoother as the florals somehow manage to become darker. L'Heure Bleue is comforting in the way a hand-knit cashmere shawl around your shoulders would be.
Lasting power is fantastic, and the sillage dependent on how light or heavy your hand is.

Sure, L'Heure Bleue could smell very dated when you're in a perpetual haze of gourmands and fruity florals, as we have been for the past 20 years.
Our tastes vary, and what we get out of something can be very subjective...
But this is very much like taking a Rennaissance painting out in a gallery full of modern art.
Modern art is easy to get along with, but the master craftsmanship of the Rennaissance piece is unmistakably superior.

There's no denying that she's a little bit of a masterpiece. The opening is strange, a little mysterious - violets, powder, citrus - but not as challenging as some would have you believe. But it's the evolution of this fragrance that really makes it special: slowly, a beautiful garden of well-blended florals rises in the background, though it is always pierced by that powdery violet, preventing it from becoming too sweet or generic. It smells ancient, somehow. Later still, the vanilla and tonka bean base starts to raise its head, as well as a touch of sandalwood. In the very last death throes of the drydown, (it lasts ages by the way), the violet *finally* lets go, to reward you with a simple, sweet and easy vanilla. Quite an experience.

I can feel the scent enter me and linger in my lungs and a sort of terror rises in my chest. I get the overwhelming desire to shriek and fling the bottle far away from me. How can I describe the sensation?

L'Heure Bleue is a peace of mind.
Do you want to know Guerlain?

You buy L’Heure Bleue and sniff alone.
You will know what’s call “Guerlainade”.

The opening is not iffy the best.
But when the floral had bloom.
You’re in the middle of the bloom garden.
Lay on bed of cocooning sweet powdery iris.

That’s all, Essential of Guerlain.

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Extension of previous review.

I pass this to my partner, which mostly hate any perfume I put on.
And he is not into perfume, he is stinky boy. He had zero knowledge about perfume.

I ask him “how was it?”
He replied “Yes, this smells good”

“Is it smell old?” I ask again.
He told me “No, this is not old, this smell like something a noble should wear. it is not old, but it is a scent that class people would wear in pervious time”

I freeze, he doesn’t even know the background of this parfum but he replied correctly.

This ends up smell like soft nivea cream on my skin. A true blue.
A true blue.
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Extension 1 on Feb 20, 2024

After I received the bottle of L’heure bleue. I used to almost every night.. (only 1-2 night that I used Eau de Guerlain) but when I wake up in the new morning. I never really satisfied as a night I use L’heure bleue…

It starts to become part of my night time ritual.. after drying my hair, puts on some cream. I feel incomplete without 4 sprays of L’heure bleue.
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Extension 2 on Mar 17, 2024

I can't still figure it out where is L'Heure Bleue belongs in perfumery wheel.
It is somewhere between Floral, Powdery Iris and Amber.
Is this amber-floral?, is this florentlal? or is it touch floral woody musk?
I have no idea.. at this point.

But I know that I enjoy her company every night.
I love the fact that all my bedsheet and pillow smells like softly L'Heure Bleue.
Because the scent I spray on my body and cloth transfer to them.
And I feel cocooning comfort every time I get into the night.
I am starts to wonder.. that Fragrance venturer can enjoy certain this much..
But, yes I do.. now.

my 100 ml. bottle from 2017 having quite a gap now. 10ml. has been usage to pamper
myself every night since last day of January 2024 and I feel like other scent doesn't really matter but L'Heure Bleue.

L'Heure Bleue is a piece of mine.

Love of my life, what a soft stunner! Gorgeous with my body chemistry. Blended beautifully, nothing too sharp, nothing headache-inducing, yet there are spicy notes and floral notes. The balance of this is what I've been searching for for a long time as a younger "old soul". This doesn't smell old, though. This smells classic. Classic spans decades and generations for a good reason. I've been a longtime lover and wearer of Insolence, but lately have been feeling that it is missing something, and this soft, spiciness is exactly what it is.

It was a blind buy (which I promised to myself I will never do again), but I'm HAPPY I did. The perfume is awesome, after all, it's Guerlain, and I haven't smelled anything from this house that I didn't like.
I feel it has the distinctive note which I find as well in Mitsouko and Shalimar, the one that makes them just a bit similar. But it's different, of course, from these two. Like a sister to Mitsouko and a cousin to Shalimar🥰🤩

On me, this is a heliotrope bomb, intensely floral and cloyingly sweet. It is the perfume equivalent of powder-blue chintz curtains. Bertie Wooster's aunts would wear this.

Not my cup of tea, but I may just dislike vanilla. I gave my sample to my mom and she seems to like it, so take that for what you will.

Guerlain is easily my favourite perfume house. I have 15 fragrances from them and love them all equally (except the hype monster that is/was L'Homme Ideal Cologne, which I was literally completely nose blind to!?). What I love about the house is that it's unapologetically a perfume house first and a commercial designer second. For this reason, Guerlain's best fragrances do not easily slip into the 'generic, office friendly, sweet-gourmand, blue freshie' categories that (too) many contemporary releases end up as. Guerlains best fragrances could perhaps be described as 'challenging' to the modern nose. They aren't designed to be immediately appealing, but are designed with conceptual awareness - like a piece of artwork, to captivate, intrigue, be open to interpretation and Guerlain's L'Heure Bleue does this effortlessly. It is no wonder this was Queen Elizabeth II favourite perfume. It is at once sophisticated but mysterious, captivating but cryptic, enticing but remote, cosy but cold. It is a scent that you spray and cannot stop smelling, going back to your wrist for another intoxicating inhalation. It is a fragrance to be savoured like a good, full bodied red wine, like Jickly, heritage and Shalimar, it cannot immediately be described but needs to be experienced. Like its heady cousin Mitsouko, L'Heure Bleue is a must in any serious fragrance collection along with many others from this wonderful, traditional, creative and innovative house. Put simply Guerlain IS the 'perfumers perfumer'.

maybe there’s something i’m missing but this just kind of smells like baby powder or nivea cream to me

I made a splurge and purchased a bottle of this glorious gem recently. Like others, I was off put slightly by the opening notes of this scent...not sure what I was picking up.. perhaps the coriander note. BUT.. the scent did soften quickly on me, into a soft, powdery, super-feminine scent reminiscent of Raffinee or Gloria Vanderbilt but slightly less sweet. This scent is sophisticated and classy and old school. I am thrilled with my purchase and happy to add to my collection. I definitely feel like a queen wearing this classic-I can see why Queen Elizabeth wore this her entire life! Love it!

This was a blind buy, I dare to take that risk concerning all the main stream perfumes by Guerlain which have proven themselves for decades.

I do like it a lot. This is the first day I am wearing it, but I absolutely do not regret buying this classic.

It’s very powdery, which I like, and floral with an oriental touch.

I am not a newbie, but certainly not an expert concerning perfumes. I am not a snob either, I like mainstream and I am a bit careful when it comes to niche scents. I do like a few creations by Serge Lutens, though, like Ambre Sultan, Fleur d’Oranger and Feminité du Bois.

I can smell that Oscar de la Renta, Boudoir and even Gloria Vanderbilt ‘learned’ from this very successful and popular scent by Guerlain.

If you like powdery scents, I can recommend it to you.

I've been out of the fragrance world for years but have recently started to slowly dip my toe back into the fun testing water.
I decided to start again with a few classics I wasn't interested in when I was in my 20's.

This is my 2nd Guerlain; the first being Mitsouko.
The two are on totally opposites of the spectrum.

L'Heure De Bleue is soft, powdery confection with an alluring quality.

I honestly can not decipher single notes, it seems very well blended so I'll try to give an overall impression instead.

The opening is stark for me. A blast of lemon and bergamot that I do not find pleasant as it comes across on my skin sharp. It quickly dissipates into vanilla powderiness with a sweet edge. It isn't gormound....it's vanilla powdered sugar. And while that description does sound sweet it is missing the syrupy, heaviness that I associate with gourmands. L'Heure De Bleue is light and airy in its amiable sweetness.
In the dry down I can pick up a VERY soft sandalwood.

It is a lovely subdued scent in my opinion. I don't get an melancholy, longing or pensiveness from this like some do.
I'm probably going to be rebuked for saying this but speaking for myself I honestly find this quite forgettable.

This could definitely be holy Grail if it fits into one's style and personality. But for myself I like scents with attitude and a bit more depth.

L'heure bleue, a wonderful old fashioned perfume, an amazing classic by Guerlain. For me is the smell of melancholy, memories, the sound of my loneliness.

I wanted to love this…
I love carnation, Red Door was my signature for a minute. I love Shalimar, my moms main signature (just got an edt, still so so delicious), so I expected this to be a love love love.
Nope.
It turns into calamine on my skin, mixed with the smell of message heart candies on Valentine’s Day. 🥲
My body was naht vibing with this.
And it wasn’t a new bottle. I got a bottle of the old juice, edp, Mitsouko style bottle and older lettering on it. And don’t get me wrong this stuff is hella potent and lasted all night on my skin.
But this one is not for me. At least not in summer. And not a bed scent, just too strong. Night yes, bed no.

There is slightly less than a third of the bottle left, I hope I like it in the winter months.
Otherwise she gotta go.
Imma try again later. Wish me luck smell pals.

Update*
Still too sweet and flat. Dusty carnations and purse sweets.
I decluttered her and got Habanita, but she is the slightly spicier more interesting version of THE SAME dna. I'm not feeling it but I’ll give her time too.

Another Guerlain Great and my most recent perfume purchase. And again, another blind buy, but I feel like I can't go wrong with Guerlain. And I was right. L'Heure Bleue is my wildly romantic floral, spicy vanilla power scent. On my skin the vanilla is very prominent, but that's more my skins chemistry, and I can smell Iris, Violet, Jasmin and Rose as well. This reminds me a bit of walking through an overgrown, wild garden in full bloom. I don't find it melancholy at all, more of a yearning for something just out of reach. I read that it was designed as counterpoint to Mitsouko and I can somewhat see that. If Mitsouko is the mysterious, aloof sister, L'Heure Bleue is the slightly more approachable, warm one. But still with a confident, does-her-own thing, wild quality to her.

It feels like a cup of chamomile tea, but nuances from heaven. Powdery, almond-y, floral. Exemplary Guerlainade is present.
It's not just a pleasant perfume, it sets a mood, it's an experience.
If you know you know.

I finally get it! I have been sitting on a bottle of L’Heure Bleue EdP for about 5 years. It was a blind buy out of sheer curiosity. I couldn’t find it anywhere in my country to test before I purchased it. I am ashamed to admit I disliked it. I appreciated the artistry; I loved the bottle and the history. But wearing it made me feel so uncomfortable. I always picked up on a “non-sweet, sugar free marshmallow dipped in an herbal tincture” note that just turned my stomach and ruined it for me.
Up until a few weeks ago. I don’t know what exactly changed, but now it is the softest, most beautiful and feminine scent on me. It is powdery, it reminds me a little bit of vintage make up. I don’t get the weird marshmallow note on my skin anymore. I pick up on the iris note the most. The heliotrope is there, but it blends beautifully with the rest of the scent. There is something a tiny bit bitter and medicinal that I am not familiar with, but that note adds a subtle depth to the perfume. The benzoin and vanilla create a sweet and warm base. The vanilla is not sugary, it is more reminiscent of vanilla pods than the normal gourmand icing sugar vanilla of today’s perfumes.
I am so glad I did not give up on this beauty. It is absolutely not modern; this is extremely vintage and “dated” in the best possible way. I really love this perfume. This is a romantic snap shot from the past, I feel so feminine and beautiful when I wear this.

Queen Elizabeth ll wore this nearly every day

Firstly I have to say once again, that I am a Guerlain girl. But. L'Heure Bleue was and is a shocker. The opening for me is odious, really repulsive. It smells like an Indian shop with all these incense sticks. Exactly the same. You go by an Indian shop and you have it. Everything smells of this oriental something. An offensive smell. I have this idea, that Jacques Guerlain got the recipe for this perfume directly from India. No alterations needed. For sure it was exotic and intoxicating in the year 1912 for Europe, but not for the Orient. Is it possible, that he just copied an ancient oriental recipe? I could imagine, that women from 1960's had to love it. I can see a hippie woman wearing it. I don't know, it confuses me. I really try to love it as many Guerlains in my collection, but I just can't. I have respect, but not love. I adore Shalimar, there are some strange, confusing similarities between them, but L'Heure Bleue is to rude, to brutal and barbarous for me. I can smell something similar to Insolence, which I love, as well. The warmth in Both is similar, but L'Heure Bleue is more incence like.
It is a very strong and long-lasting perfume for sure. The sent stays almost the same through the whole drydown, just less intense. Perhaps it becomes a little bit warmer and more wearable, although not significantly. But you need to wait an hour or so for the sent to become more pleasant. After a few hours more, it is more and more enjoyable. I have it in my collection as a fossil, because I honour the perfume's heritage. But. I do not use it often. It might be, that it has to mature in the bottle. I wear it perhaps really only on a stuffy summer night, or a cold winter night. As the name suggests. L'Heure Bleue. The time of twilight. To conclude. For sure, a must have for rare occasions! I encourage you to try it. After all, it is a legend.

I have truly come to really appreciate this fragrance so much the more I keep wearing it. I've recently downsized my collection but this is a fragrance I can't let go of. It's so beautiful and the iris in this fragrance is perfect. Every time I wear it my family really enjoys it and I can't get enough of it. A timeless well crafted fragrance. If your not sure what this would smell like..Imagine Chanel No 5 with that luxurious vintage soap smell meets the most lovely beautiful smooth iris with some hints of golden sweetness. Guerlain is known for blending in their fragrances with the most lush iris notes and this is top notch. I actually love this more than my Chanel No5. Never thought that would happen. But I love vintage scents and the blend of this fragrance is masterfully done. Though this is considered a melancholy fragrance it doesn't do that to me at all..it actually uplifts me and makes me feel confident the whole time I wear it because I love it so much. It really is that good. I will never be without a bottle of this honestly. And it's harder to get in the US but I will replace it when I'm finished for sure.

This is pure artistry in a bottle. I disagree that it is melancholy. For me the tears are like the ones I feel arise in the corners of my eyes when I see or hear a masterful work of art, music, drama, dance. The tears come because the artistic work has touched your soul and the deep connection brings the yearning teary feeling. This scent is an olfactory performance. And just like responding to great art, there comes an amazing calm that has overtaken me like when I feel like I appreciate and connect with an exquisite or intriguing plot/musical form/ artistic composition. An analogy might be how some people react to Van Gogh’s Starry Night or how I react when I hear the final movement of Beethoven’s 9th symphony.

My bottle of L’Heure Bleue just shattered on the bedroom floor and soaked into the carpet.😭 I can smell it from downstairs and all over the second floor. Not a review, just a rant. Only you guys will understand how tragic today has been.

When it comes to l'heure bleue, all the parameters related to a fragrance, whether it should be worn in summer or in winter, longevity, projection, it all becomes irrelevant. To be able to bottle a whole experience.. I can't even imagine the level expertise, or even wizardry that went into it.
Every time I feel like wearing it, which is always before bedtime, it takes me to some dusty attic, where I am chatting up a Victorian ghost or something lol. This is a moody fragrance and for me, wearing it requires a certain introspective mood.
L'heure bleue took the fun out of my fragrance journey and replaced it with a mad passion.

This is a dream in a bottle. It wraps you in an incredible aura of class. One of those scents that portrait the meaning and purpose of fragance. It's not old; it's the epitome of elegance and refinement. It smells heavenly good even to me, a spice and fruits freak. The violet hugs you and doesn't let go during the good eight hours it lasts. The powder here is not reminiscent of a scent, it's more of a sensation; maybe what you feel when you apply perfumed dusting powder after a long bubble bath? It's a perfume that everyone must try at least once in their lives for the sake of knowing. It's in the origins of it all.

I will be honest, the first time I tried it, I thought it reeked. I have noticed that a lot of modern perfumes tend to have excellent top notes and then never again live up to those first 2 minutes (I blame perfume counters oddly enough)--whereas vintages seem to have rather ~challenging~ openings which completely disguises the 6-8 hours of beautiful dry-down that follows. And this one lasts forever on me! Unfortunately, many people smell the opening and immediately scrub--especially if doing a TikTok or youtube review--they scrunch their noses and end scene. I am so glad I gave it a chance--the dry down on that first day intrigued me, although I still liked it the least out of the vintage Guerlains I tried. However, I kept coming back to it, not on dates or part of daily use but as part of a post shower nights spent alone deal. Slowly it's become one of my favorites, not just of vintage guerlains, but of all time. My partner recently smelled my neck and said it smelled like heaven, I think that's rather apt--it's soft and ethereal. I typically am a fan of bold spicy ambers or bitter chypres or heady indolic florals and this is none of those things-- but it is beautiful-- in a quiet, thoughtful way that is currently underrated.

This is very personal and hard to share, but I owe myself this paean.

I vow with my life, that even though there are thousands and thousands of reviewers, articles, wearers… this perfume is the deliquesced essence of my soul. My blue, saline, pagan soul. if I could keep it like a secret, bury it within the abysmal depths of the sea, I certainly would.
It’s not only that blue is my favorite color, phooey. It’s far beyond that.
L’heure bleue is a liminal hour of melancholy, 1920s, fleeting like the apparition of a young tender girl pale as a February rose. Fleeting like the caress of a mother, like the febrile wet kiss of a lover who’s bigger than life, like the gracile instant of death.
The day I met my fiancée, kissing twenty two years old, my fiancée who is my soul, who is the love of all my lives before and all the lives to come, who is my etching and my mercy, the solemn core of my heart, I was riven with an almost catatonic ecstasy and fear. What perfume does a girl wear to a collision such as this ? (I knew from the start it would be this flacon…) On this first meeting he purchased me a Pearl necklace, that dangles on the décolletage, and a Pearl bracelet. I recall being terribly sweaty consequently after the very first kiss, and so like every girl would, I said I must go to the bathroom. There I perfumed my neck, hair, wrists, thighs, ears. I come back to the seat beholding an august Russian man, dressed quite casually. He smelled me and said I smell like heaven, like a church. The whole evening was suffused with this totally otherworldly aroma of my skin, L’heure bleue, his skin, his hands. Today, he carries with him a small golden vile with this perfume, telling me “it is you”, taking comfort in the absurdly soft, terribly angelic and sad perfume, that I will wear for the rest of my life.

Yes, I am a Guerlain and chypre fanatic, Yes, I am longing immensely to have a vintage extrait, yes, it is “old lady” so keep it for the old ladies if you wish to disrespect it, and yes, it is simply not for everyone, and that’s how it should be.

The dry down is the best on me! I started to wear this now in the spring although our spring is ending up to be a summer. Once it dries down the violets really come out, it smells so delicate and sits close to my skin but does project when I walk around! Longevity is excellent because this was made in the early 1900’s and it does have the vintage type of smell but NOT in a bad way at all. It’s nice to smell something that has different DNA than some of todays fragrances. This also has a guerlain dna which also can be vintage (again not in a bad way at all). For me and on me this is better in warmer weather not so screechy on me like in the winter, but again the dry down is absolutely beautiful! Very feminine but I do think anyone can pull this off. Highly recommended 9/10.

I wish I could pull this off, but it sits like soap or baby powder on me. It really is a beautiful medley of poetic class. It evokes European essence. Think Claire de Lune. Think Paddington. Think Oriental Express. That's what comes to mind. L'heur Bleu can be either sophisticated in a prim and timeless way, or it can smell quite motherly. It honestly met my expectations completely.

But I think I will have to pass on anything from Guerlain as their brand tends to create powdery fragrances which don't work on me.

This reminds me so much of insolence but If insolence is a prepubescent virgin this is her very well-endowed and experienced older sister. Where insolence turns into candy violets, this deepens into a leathery Iris, Tonka, and god knows what other heavenly ingredients. Can’t believe it took me this long to try it!

Beautiful. Very feminine powdery fragrance for an elegant woman. 8/10

L’Heure Bleue is all about potential. The most amazing violet and iris create a tender moment that hangs in the air for hours. It feels as if anything could happen. To know my full feelings on this, listen to Eric Satie’s Gymnopedie No 1.

Hands down one of the most beautiful perfumes I've ever experienced. And I don't say that lightly. Upon first spray, I was wrongly under the impression that it was similar to Chanel No 5, but soon it settled into the softest, ethereal dry downs. There is definitely a sense of sadness or longing that this fragrance evokes. The image that comes to mind for me is one of a beautiful woman who somehow exists outside of time...and she is waiting to be reunited with her lover who may or may not return...not sure if that makes sense. I also think of Claude Monet's "Blue Water Lilies" when I wear this. Grateful that we still have access to vintage gems like this. I'm so bored of the overdone sugary, vanilla bombs that are currently on the market. Fragrances like this are timeless.

I have almost 500 perfume bottles and am trying hard to find a way to, you know, downsize. Reign it all in. It's getting out of hand.

When I wear the old Guerlains Shalimar, Vol de Nuit, Mitsouko, Chamade, Chant d'Aromes, L'Heure Bleue, and for good measure my signature Samsara, sometimes I think I can just be vintage lady and bask only in these masterpieces of Olfactive Art.

There's too much to say about L'Heure Bleue so I'll try to keep it pertinent to my latest wear. I love L'Heure Bleue during these (unseasonably) warm days that feel like early spring, the sun feels warm in the afternoon but when it drops the wind turns cool and mentholated, the sun has a long cast, and while the ambiance is fresh and hopeful this parfum is not, it smells sweet and spicy, the Anise verges on cherry like sweetness, but with a spicy licorice undertone, coriander and lemon brighten things up with a scent of sharp kitchen herbs, and the floral bouquet, on so lovely, clovey carnations, sweet purple heliotrope, roses, and probably more but the cloved carnation heliotrope is dominant, if the bouquet had a color scheme it would be purple and pink -- with flecks of brown for the spices. The drydown is woody and almost grainy with iris, sandalwood, vanila/benzoin, vetiver, it's strange because L'Heure Bleue has a suggestion of handcream behind it all but since this is an old scent the drydown is so pleasantly woody too.

This scent is an experience to wear and I'm so grateful to have it on my shelf. Thank you Guerlain!

(This is based on a vintage eau de cologne.)

Finally got to smell this classic. It smells...vintage to my young nose, which is used to designer and modern niche scents. It is heavy but it feels nostalgic. I do not smell anything separately, but the overall scent is floral, spiced, quite dry and it gives a very nostalgic vibe.

I like a lot of perfumes and love some, but never have I come across one that felt like a missing part of me. L'heure Bleue was that for me. Wistful and poetic, the drydown journey is an incredible impressionistic olfactory masterpiece capturing the ephemerality of dawn and dusk. Here, I am reviewing the 2021 reformulation of the Eau de Parfum and already think it's amazing. Would love to sample the vintage versions if I ever have to good fortune to come across it!

L'Heure Bleue is a promise of eternity.

Emblematic of a style of perfumery and a time of which will never return.

L’Heure Bleue was created in 1912, so it has the built-in nostalgia factor of a bygone era, especially poignant for being before the World Wars. But its nostalgia value for me is more personal.

I wanted to try LHB, loving its name and image, but I was expecting to hate it. It features anise and carnation, two of my most-detested notes. And I did indeed loathe it the first time I tried it–visions of mothballs danced through my head. What changed? I don’t know. I’m not even sure why I bothered trying it again. But then…

…still anise, still carnation, but I found them unsettling in a weirdly pleasant way. This was alienation in a bottle. For some reason, it reminded me vividly of a field trip in the fourth grade. The only thing I remember about the trip was the bus ride home. It was winter, and the sun was almost down at 4:30. I was the new kid in school (my radio-announcer stepfather moved us to a new city almost yearly) and had no friends. I was lonely and misunderstood and self-pitying. It was, well, the kind of time you write about later.

LHB’s sharp powdery opening then swirls into flowers and powder and smoke, beautiful in a blue-gray sort of way, like the unhappy memory once you’ve had time to process and make sense of it (and perhaps recast it in a more appealing light).

And then…the happy ending. The scent changes to golden vanilla with an almondy cast, as if you end your journey in a brightly-lit kitchen, filled with the smells of your grandmother’s baking (rather than the smells of my mother’s wine-inflected sauces–appetizing, but not perfume material). Or, to change metaphors, the effect of the sun still glowing on the horizon, giving hope to mortals.

I started wearing L’Heure Bleue again by mistake bought an EDT instead of EDP (some shops don’t carry both but they both still exist). However I am still having half of an old bottle of EDP from around 2010. How interesting to compare them. Of course one is EDT and one is EDP and old, so starting from different formulation at basis. The EDP become a dark red concentrated liquid by now. Yet, totally same character, with the EDT much brighter on the citrus part of the opening while the coriander comes out strong in the old EDP. Then in the EDP a strong leather note comes out - very likely due to time - with violet and iris in the background while the coriander note still lingers on. For the EDT the notes remain in comparison much more green and dry throughout. I find the current EDT quite dry compared to the iris-violet-praline rather sweet and enveloping reputation of L’Heure Bleue (which comes out as such in the EDP but topped up by the very leather note (which again I think it’s due to evolution over time). Anyway, both marvelous, really deserve to be tried and worn, there is nothing old in a perfume of such majestic and unique formulation as L’Heure Bleue. And for those more afraid of the powdery leather iris depth of the L’Heure Bleue DNA the EDT can be a good compromise.

I've read a lot of the reviews here (I know, I do that), and given that I owned a bottle not that long ago, I thought I should add something. Fully agree that this is a classic, and that current iterations are relatively faithful. But, just for a second, could we consider the aesthetic behind an olfactory creation? I am at an age where older family members used to wear this and other classic perfumes when they were at their best. I know how they are meant to smell on someone, and also the trail they are meant to leave behind. It has to do with intention (by the perfumer), i.e. what the aesthetic is meant to be. The word I find fits best, is exuberance. Going beyond mere utility. Giving something more. Is the current bottle of L'heure bleu doing that? Some might say yes, but for me it's a no. Simply because it's too toned down (toned down in it's aesthetic intent). I don't think this has anything to do with regulations or reformulations (in fact I have nothing against these, they are part of evolution). I think it has to do with perception and understanding of the original intent. Perfume can be considered an art form because it transcends the chemistry behind it. So, a reformulation of this (or any other classic Guerlain) is not just about reconsidering the formula, but understanding the aesthetic of it as well.

Btw, to clarify something in the blurb above the pyramid, Raymond Guerlain designed the bottle for the perfume, not the perfume itself.

L’heure Bleue is a very interesting, old fashioned yet completely timeless perfume. I go through periods I like it a lot - then it gets too much and I pack it away for a long time - until it comes around again. There is something very special about it, the powderiness of heliotrope counteracted by just enough spice so that it does not get dull and boring, the benzoin tonka base keeping it smooth and sweet enough but not too sweet, the violets and iris being balanced with tuberose and carnation. Its velvety and a little bit mysterious, a little clandestine, hidden. I like it in late autumn early winter when it really comes to its own - dark evenings, footsteps on an empty cobbled street, maybe sneaking out to meet your secret lover. I get compliments about it and people asking what is this lovely scent. I recently purchased a 1950’s pure perfume and its divine, so smooth and rich. The current version is not too bad, not too different from the original but it doesn’t quite have the same depth and velvetiness. Nevertheless its still good. A timeless perfume.

It is beautiful but strange. I get warm honey flowers, maybe a weird motor oil note (not unpleasant), or maybe it's...buttered popcorn?

It's beautifully blended, complex. I love the saltiness but a turns bit soapy for my taste. Lovely though, I wouldn't turn my nose up at it.

Dry down is pleasant, becomes a bit jelly bean.

The original powder bomb. So pretty but has a lot of depth in there. At times some leathery accents, leather isn’t listed, has to be the mix of other things. Just realized I’m reminded a tiny bit of Chanel No5 EDP. I think it’s the Iris. And a bit of Cacharel LouLou. But more anise like. More purple smelling. If you love the classics or are interested in fragrance history, get a bottle!

Ohhh she's a moody one. The opening is difficult. It sinks its teeth in with an earthy, pungent aroma I can't exactly place. Maybe frankincense? I knew from that moment this was not going to be an easygoing fragrance. Definitely from a bygone era. It isn't that I disliked it, but I struggled to understand it at first. After the initial aggressive blast, the vampy middle notes started to come out and she started to show herself. A ceramic hand-painted lamp appeared in my mind with a thick layer of dust on its crystal-tasseled lamp shade. It sits in an abandoned Victorian house that's melancholy and a bit spooky. Musty and complicated, an elegance that doesn’t quite... fit in today's world. It's a bit disturbing. But it's sexy and you want more. It draws you in. Further into dry down and and its oriental qualities come to life. Then I realized: she's the godmother of Shalimar and Chanel No5. This bad b**** made those fragrances what they are. That really made sense to me after about an hour or so.

This for me is the perfect Halloween fragrance as it is just so mysterious and moody. As much as I struggle with it at times, I feel like I need it in my life. I enjoyed this immensely. Everybody should experience L'Heure Bleue.

* * *
"The hour of enchantment begins with L’Heure Bleue” . . .
(from vintage ad)

Launched in 1912, nostalgic L'Heure Bleue conjures memories of actresses in film noir; the song "Mood Indigo"; twilight's "blue hour"; times mysterious yet hauntingly familiar. Powdery iris, violet, hint of heliotrope, dry-down of vanilla, sandalwood, and amber—soft yet enduring.✿

Current formulation's longevity on me: long-lasting
Scent family: Amber Floral

Smells like a woman. She is 20 century woman. She wears lipstick and silky stockings. Somehow that image doesnt exist anymore. Maturity is demonised, youth is an imperative just like sugary linear perfumes. Complex, mature fragrances are becoming smell of the past.

It is the same vibe as Chanel 5 Premiere. Has a lit in common with Mitsouko but more powder and brightness.
This is again, Guerlains absolute magic

Gentle incense with a faint vanilla background. Quite pretty. If someone bought me a bottle I'd wear it, but I wouldn't bother to buy a bottle myself

The best of Guerlain pastries. Encaustic waxy goodness, spicy carnations, luscious florals and sweet oriental tobacco from the guerlinade, almost gourmand. What else would make a decadent perfumista happy ?

L’Heure Bleue is unusual, old-fashioned, and most certainly not for everyone. this originally debuted in 1912, and it shows! for me, however, that’s the opposite of a problem. there’s a brief bite of bergamot followed by licorice soap and pencil shavings — later evolving into violet powder, creamy white flowers, dusty warm spice, and just a hint of vanilla. odd and unsettling, in a good way. while a completely different fragrance, LHB has the same antique-shop appeal as Mitsouko.

the only downside is performance, at least for me: starts off rich and hearty but vanishes far too quickly, even in the eau de parfum concentration. fitting for the concept of a fleeting twilight, i suppose, but disappointing nonetheless.

musical accompaniment: “Cloudbusting” by Kate Bush

EDIT 9/12/22: ok so i didn’t want to give up on this because i REALLY like it. so, i over-applied it the last couple wears to try to get it to stick around a bit longer. it sort-of worked, and i have to say— the morning-after pillow scent is divine, all unsweetened vanilla-benzoin powder. i woke up this morning and was like, “what’s that really good smell? oh, it’s my hair!” wow. <3

/current edp

For people who love to layer, this is a softening base.
On it's own, it's beautiful, uncomplicated, and vintage without bombastic florals or sharp soapiness.
There is something about this scent that feels there is no need to rush. There aren't green notes in here demanding you feel refreshed.

The first time I ever wore this was before bed. It was relaxing, powdery and softly beautiful. I woke up in the middle of the night and for a couple of seconds felt like someone else was in the room! I had forgotten that I'd put on this perfume. It didn't smell like it was on me, it felt like it was mixing with someone else's smell near me. Needless to say, this is soft and in some ways simple, yet it really has it's own character and presence.

This is for people who want something vintage and beautiful like Chanel No5, but who don't get along with jasmine. Although, this isn't No5 minus jasmine.
If No5 is sparkling and in the sunshine playing croquet because of it's aldehydes and citrus, L'Heure Bleue Eau de Parfum is indoors reading poetry in their gilded boudoir next to their powdered wig and corset because of the iris, heliotrope and anise.

I own and have only smelled this Eau de Parfum version. I blind bought it years ago after reading about it and seeing vintage ads. I wear it on cold Spring and Summer days, and it becomes witchy and mysterious in October.

The most beautiful blend of spice, powder, florals and vanilla I have smelt. It is just gorgeous. I can't get enough!

Granted, I am only a year or so into my obsession with fragrance, but this is the first perfume I've had that's given me whiplash. After sniffing a few other Guerlains, I blind-bought this, thinking I had an idea of what I was in for. Nope.
I love the opening; I get all that neroli and anise. And there is a tiny cloud of powdery violets around the bottle in repose that is bewitching to me. I LOVE THIS! Then the strong incense-y smell takes over. I HATE THIS! Then more violets, and the rest of the florals. I LOVE THIS! Then a fecal/animalic scent that I can't put my finger on appears. I HATE THIS!
On and on, ad finitum, until my nose collapses into submission. I find this scent won't stand still on me, and every half hour or so, that fecal, "off" note returns and makes me nauseous. My revulsion is visceral.
I've given it a year. I've tried it in all seasons, in all sorts of weather, at all times of the day. Masterpiece it may be, but it's just not for me. That's the beauty and the tragedy of perfumery, I suppose - you can't force a scent to work with your chemistry.

I did a complete 180 on this perfume. Early in my fragrance journey, it was easy to dismiss as a soapy floral. Now, having embraced heliotrope and powder, this is a favorite and one of the few scents I actually crave. Purple floral really is a melancholy unisex genre, and L’heure Bleue an especially elegant entry-- I mostly get smooth, buttery iris, carnation, anise, and spiced vanilla. There are so many floral accords that the overall effect is extremely delicate and soft. It’s only the tiniest bit sweet, despite being ultra feminine, which really resonates with me. Crisp, earthy, contemplative; somehow iris and powdery scents just feel right on me, as a moody girl with dark hair and a cool white complexion. This is an easy reach whenever I’m in blue or violet, shines best during spring and summer, and wears like a second skin. I know people will think I smell like baby wipes, but I don't even care because this scent is so serene and uplifting to me.

L'Heure Bleue is a completely timeless perfume. It is at the same time a product of its time and completely modern. It is pure magic.
A classic masterpiece of perfumery like this must be tried on skin by everyone (although it says it's for women, I'm a male, and I absolutely love how it performs on my skin). Very very powdery, with the right measure of woodiness, wonderful and ethereal.
It opens with a potent dose of anise, but immediately there's this spicy and powdery flower explosion; this is potent and with a lot of character. Good longevity and good sillage. A forever favorite of mine.

Today I smelled it for the first time, I'm in a train at the moment, it's blue hour, fresh spring afternoon, enchanted by "L' Heure Bleu". Luminous parfume that leads to introspection. I can imagine a writer like Virginia Woolf wearing it.

I'd been wanting to know what this smelled like for a very long time, so I finally bit the bullet and bought some.

It starts out smelling sweet and powdery - for some reason candied violets come to mind - which might be the orchid mixed with the violet notes. I would say there's lots of iris in there, as well. Then it quickly and temporarily develops into a bit of a medicinal scent, while still retaining its sweetness. The woods and vanilla, as well as some of the other flowers - I think I can single out ylang-ylang and heliotrope - develop afterwards, as well as a very faint citrusy element mixed with spices, like one of those old-fashioned pomanders made with oranges and cloves. I would say it ends up being a woody, powdery, sweet floral on my skin.

It has good longitivity, lasting most of the day. And I love that it came out in 1912 - it's like owning a piece of history. It definitely has a nostalgic, yearning feeling to it that I can't really explain. It's a drab, rainy, chilly afternoon right now, which seems to fit its mood quite well, but I think it would work year-round. It's a...thoughtful?...fragrance to me, meaning that it is a fragrance that you deliberately and thoughtfully put on, and then stop and really smell it and experience it and check on it throughout the day. That's the best way I can describe it. :-)

I came to buy a bottle of the EDP (off of eBay) strictly because one of the characters in my novel wears it, and I figured I'd better see what it smells like to see if I'd described it correctly. (If not, there was nothing I could do about it since the novel was published two years ago.) I chose this perfume because of the reviews. When my bottle arrived, I sprayed some on immediately and fell in love. I was trying to rotate my perfumes, but found myself every day craving L'Heure Bleue. Something I've noticed: when I spray too close to my skin, I have a loud and long-lasting camphor note. I really do smell like Campho Phenique. If I spray further from my skin, the camphor note is much milder and short-lived. Anyway, this has become my favorite scent, and I'm so glad I took the chance on it (and gave it to my character!).

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This is an old fashioned smelling powdery musty floral. I like the citrus opening which blends well into the floral mid notes. It’s lovely and different with a make-up vibe. Everything is soft, gentle, easy going, doesn’t scream. I enjoy the powdery heliotrope as it settles down. The only thing that kind of bothers me is a mild mustiness, muskiness-I could go without those. There is also a pencil shavings note at the end which is unnecessary and doesn’t do anything positive for this scent, except maybe bring in dustiness. It does have a grayish violet blue feel in scent. I like it on rainy days or after the rain. I am however going to explore it in all seasons since it’s been sitting in the drawer ignored for a long time. I had a decant of edp that was older and better smelling, darker, more intense in every way, than the juice in the bottle I have in the original design bottle. I guess I don’t love it for that reason, because I’ve smelled a better version of this edp.
7/10-nice opening to mid notes, dusty musty end.
Would not repurchase.

She stumbles into your office just as the streetlights start glowing through the downpour.

She's soaked down to her slip, shivering even under your trench coat. She smells like trouble beneath the baby powder, sweet flowers, and hints of Shalimar. There's something as cold and unyielding as frozen earth just under her surface. She's not as helpless as she seems. She's not telling you the whole story. She's probably going to be the death of you.

But right now, you don't care. She's dabbing daintily at perfect lashes with a perfumed handkerchief. She's weeping tearlessly at your feet. She needs your help—and she'll do *anything* to get it.

~~
This is such a pretty, sexy, calming scent it makes me want to write pulpy noir novels. I get strong floral + spices + Shalimar DNA from the first 20 minutes or so, and then it dries down to a nutty, white-floral powder that almost reminds me of a much less cloying Mon Guerlain.

Just like other classic perfumes, L'Heure Bleue makes me feel like I've just traveled back in time. It's somber, but in a calm and sexy way. If Lemony Snicket's obedience-inducing laudanum tincture had a scent, this is what it would smell like. She's a dangerous, drowsy flower who makes you eager to do whatever she asks. You've made peace with your inevitable fate, and you're content with one last, perfect kiss before it happens.

Beautiful, even if a little musty

I never imagined a fragrance would smell very much like its name. I don't know how the "blue hour" of twilight would smell like this, but I'm guessing that Jacques Guerlain had synesthesia. Perhaps he was just an expert at translating an image into a scent.

This fragrance is heavy, fresh, ripe, enchanting, and calming. The opening reminds me of a flower garden just after a spring rain. Specifically, it reminds me of a lilac bush that grew next to my house. I'm not even sure if there is lilac in this, but there is a kind of heavy floral sweetness reminiscent of lilac here. I'm also getting petigrain--a twiggy, woodsy citrus. There is also some aromatic spice, but it's blended so well into the sweet base. There is a touch of musk here as well.

Beneath it all is the heavy "blue" sweetness that anchors it all together. The benzoin here is quite pronounced, as is the vanilla and tonka (which are all closely related in scent). At best, this smells like an enchanted spring garden at dusk after a rain. At worst, this smells like turkish delight or gum drops dusted in powdered sugar.

I find this fragrance to be very comforting. I don't know if I'd wear it personally, it leans a bit too sweet, powdery, and floral for me to confidently wear in public. When I smell this fragrance, I imagine the moment just between being awake and falling asleep, when the heaviness of sleep is about to pull me under into the limitless blue oblivion.,

I wanted to love this perfume, I truly did. I normally enjoy powdery white florals. Neroli and jasmine being particular favorites of mine. Iris and violet also appeal. I loved the idea of its vintage classic history. But to my nose and on my skin it is sharp and too heady. If anyone would like to trade, please message me. It seems a waste to have it languish on my shelf.

In my opinion L'Heure Bleue is the most approachable of the great Guerlain classics. Of course it still smells different from the most recent releases, but it doesn't contain any really challenging notes like animalics or bitter chypres do. Its vintage charm stems from a huge dose of powder and a big blended bouquet of very classic, perfumey flowers like carnation, jasmine and ylang ylang. The perfume is quite sweet for its time and I see it as the predecessor of gourmand perfumery. I'm pretty sure this was the closest you could get to smelling like a snack in 1912. I don't believe that anything can be truly timeless, but L'Heure Bleue comes close.

This is mainly a purple floral scent. Iris, violet and heliotrope are the central notes and make the scent powdery, romantic, and yes, a bit melancholic. Some people say it's a sad scent, but I wouldn't go that far. It conjures faded lace decor, afternoons spent alone in a quiet house and the hues between blue and violet. It's doesn't make me think of despair and true loneliness.

Underneath the flowers there is a lot of vanilla and tonka. Like it often does, the tonka bean smells like a more powdery cherry note to me. So after it has dried down for a bit, L'Heure Bleue reminds me of a cherry vanilla pastry that was made inedible by dusting it with lots of fine iris powder. There is also a fizziness in this that I can't really put my finger on, it reminds me of aldehydes but that can't be it, as they only appeared in perfumes after 1921 and I don't think they were randomly added to L'Heure Bleue in later formulations. Maybe it's just the interplay of citrus, flowers and spices.

Generally speaking this is a very well-blended scent that can't be picked apart completely. It's purple flowers, vanilla and tonka with an extra vintage touch, but the latter can't be defined exactly.

I already liked this about 15 years ago, when I was ~19, but I never got a bottle. Do you know the old Guerlain ads with the drawings of women that ask "Are you her type"? I think I might just not be LHB's type. When I smell it I imagine a more introverted woman, who likes to wear muted pastels and maybe has blond hair. Which doesn't mean that I think extroverted brunettes can't wear it, just that it doesn't feel right on me. Maybe some day? It's definitely a beautiful perfume that everyone should experience at least once.

This is wonderful. The smell takes me back to my childhood and the smell in my great aunt’s bedroom.
Powdery yet spicy, and that old fashioned perfume smell to the top notes, but still with a totally up to date feeling base with the vanilla, spice, powder and tonka beans.
Surprisingly still relevant today.
If you haven’t smelled it you need to!
Not sure I’d buy a full bottle but I’m happy to have a little for when the mood arises.

Guerlain L’heure Bleau (1912) - magic hour - #jacquesguerlain created a perfume inspired from this moment during the day/night where you see both daylight & darkness. I can definitely sense that. Iris, Powdery violets, Carnations with a spicy anise backbone. Yet, at its base, I would smell Almond-like Tonka beans, Sandalwood, Vanilla, and Amber resins. Refined, well-integrated, and a marvel of perfumery.

This one is a treasure! Wonderful sillage, complex, surprising and comforting. Don't judge it right away, especially if you are conflicted about the anise/lemon at the top. It gets deeper, softer and warmer until you are delicately wrapped in a blanket of precious vanilla/tonka powder heaven!

Opens with a blast of spices, joined after a couple minutes by a herbal note. It soon settles significantly, but the herbal note is what remains most prominent.

L'Heure Bleue opens with a medicinal blast of anise, coriander - and like another reviewer mentioned - carrot seed. Very potent and slightly off-putting to my nose. Herbaceous, earthy, and unpleasantly camphorous. At this point, I am worried that I'm not going to like this scent at all, but as I have learned with the initial gasoline-esque opening of Guerlain's Shalimar EdP, patience is a virtue.

Shortly after the opening, I get some spice from the cloves and a bit of florals begin to peek through. Within 10 minutes, L'Heure Bleue shifts into its next form - a heavy, purple-tinged shroud of musky violet and iris, velvety rose, and a single carnation. Powdery, yes, but not in a light and fluffy "confectioner's sugar" sort of way; this stage is deeply romantic, moody, and very vintage, almost smoky.

The drydown is beautiful with honeyed neroli, jasmine, and ylang-ylang. Much lighter, sweeter, and a bit more green. Very dry talcum powder provides the base, dotted gracefully with iris petals. Despite its winding journey, L'Heure Bleue retains the same melancholic purple/blue note throughout its life (its name does translate to "the blue hour" after all). I've read that this fragrance was inspired by the blue colors used by impressionist painters - it really does feel like opening a capsule into another time.

I so wanted to love this; however, on me and to my nose, it was just a baby powered headache

Another purchase inspired by Turin and Sanchez’s perfume books, and of course the quest to sample all the Guerlain greats. Sadly I could only lay my hands on a contemporary bottle with the juice In a startling radioactive shade of yellow, so I expected this incarnation to align more with Sanchez’s updated review on the current formulation of it being a ‘pretty stranger’ who, though in no way resembling the girl I once loved, nonetheless has dementedly waltzed into my life trying to convince me that It is indeed her. No matter, I never knew the original, so the pretty stranger might yet become my new love with no prior comparisons to contend with.

Synaesteticaly L’heure Bleue is more L’heure Fuchsia; less Parisian twilight and more Bali Hai in that scene in 1958’s South Pacific. The first spray is an ambush of neon-bright white florals, in particular a septum-searing dirty Jasmine which is both a headspace floral (quite akin to Molinard’s Jasmine) and very reminiscent of flower stalls selling garlands during a Hindu festival. Its timbre is further escalated by The creamy carnal sweetness of the ylang, maybe the tuberose, though tuberose as I know it seems almost demure by comparison, and only begins to reveal its more voluptuous side in tandem with the Tonka-vanilla-benzoin guerlain base in the drydown - that soft edible gournmand facet that Luca Turin often cites as the most pleasurable aspect of a classic guerlain, irresistible from an intimate distance and an hour after initial application. It will be an hour before it reaches that soothing stage, though here it retains a certain carroty spikiness rather than languishing into a soft powder, and I think one will have to like Jasmine quite a bit at close quarters to enjoy the reckless, wind-in-your-hair, convertible ride to that destination; yes it is a sexy ride.

What has become a revelation to me however in my mental join-the-dots game of perfumery, is discovering that final destination, Guerlain-ville, the Ithaca of the Nose, in its family of classics, from peppy Jicky to Debonair Mouchoir de Monsieur to L’Heure Bleue to the great Shalimar. The conveyance is always different but it always ends in comfort and familiarity, even if you have just experienced It. It also made me re-evaluate the drydown that my perennial favourite, Penhaligon’s Tralala, was going for - less Shalimar and more L’Heure Bleue... the powdery lilac-hued violets so predominant in Tralala are the logical progression of L’Heure Bleue’s dazzling fuchsia, slowly fading in intensity as it is tamed by the passage of time.

One spray of this immediately made my temples start throbbing, it was definitely overwhelming at first. It calmed down into a powdery ladylike scent within ten minutes. I’m glad I got the chance to try this, since it’s a legendary classic. I’ve realized I dislike powdery perfumes though, so I definitely won’t be wearing this out.

Carrot seed....lots and lots of carrot seed and iris.

Not bad, but I don't love it. I was hoping for more orris root butter smell. All I smell is carrot seed and iris petals.

This stuff is legendary for a reason and I encourage you to get your nose on it. Batches and noses, therefore impressions, can vary greatly.

One of my favourite perfumes. Purple flowers, powdery, sweet and soft but full of character, very spiced and so much greater than the sum of its parts. I get most the powdery iris, the violet and the clove/aniseed but this is a complex perfume. The EDP smells to me better than the EDT and it is dense and tridimensional. As opposed to Mitsouko, Shalimar or other very vintage perfumes, this was love at first sniff for me so it may be easy to like if you are not used to smelling classic perfumes.

In short: this is a masterpiece. To me this perfume encapsulates the best of Guerlain. I would love to know how previous formulations compared, but the current version is really good.

This review is for a decant of the current EDP. I was really looking forward to trying LHB, but I was underwhelmed. I liked the opening and middle notes, but the drydown is just too sweet and powdery for me. It does smell like an expensive French fragrance and lasts for 8 hours plus on my perfume-eating skin. And there's decent but not obnoxious sillage. I would say you get your money's worth from it, if you're OK with the drydown.

I think the issue I have is with the benzoin note in the drydown. I'm not sure I've tried a fragrance with benzoin before; possibly this just isn't a good note on me.

I'm glad I tried it because it's a classic. But I won't be buying a bottle.

My perfume love of my life. It took so long for me to get the proper motivation to write this review on it because I didn't and still do not have the right words to express my love for it.

I fell in love and wore this perfume when I was a young 18 year old young American woman in Prague with my first love who I adored very much who is now, as these things happen, out of my life. It reminds me of young me in a romantic atmosphere who was so full of life, hope, and aspiration. This is the kind of feeling this perfume evokes and it is how it makes me still feel. Although now I am older and more cynical, it is now also tinged with a bit of melancholy.

So now to get down to how it actually smells. What is cool about L'heure Bleue (I call it Blue Hour because my French pronunciation is ghastly and embarrassing), is that it's no longer an "old lady" perfume. I also hate the term old lady, but I say this so that you know what I mean. The women who wore this perfume when they were young girls and this perfume came out are not alive. So this perfume has the power to transcend generations. It's powdery iris and anise are gorgeous. I also think this perfume leans slightly gothic. This perfume is the essence of the house of Guerlain in my eyes along with Mitsouko and Shalimar. I'd absolutely die and go to heaven for the extrait and am mourning the fact the U.S. store now only sells the anemic EDT...

L’Heure Bleue will forever be a hug in the stillness for me. The kind of embrace that brings comfort AND the feeling of fragility: not to take anything for granted. I imagine that the sand in an hourglass smells like her, or the dust from a moth’s wing. Beautiful, graceful, wise, and decisive.

I have an older EdP and smells divine. Heliotrope and anise. Perfection. Smells like Calvin Klein Eternity oddly enough. They share the spice and heliotrope notes.

Unfortunately, everything I dislike about older perfumes is here-- lots of iris, baby powder, a soapy impression. Too vague and "pefumey" for me.

My experience of this scent actually made me wonder if my sample might have been mislabeled! To me, this is the smell of a tea house gift shop or those little fancy soaps at a Victorian bed and breakfast. I get soapy florals, powder, and violets; no spicy or gourmand notes. The sillage is pretty powerful but otherwise this doesn't strike me as an evening fragrance. I appreciate L'Heure Bleue for its role in perfume history but I feel like a kid playing dress-up when I wear this. It just rings false and is decidedly not "me."

*Strange. I thought I had written a review for this but apparently it's now missing...*

-L'heure Bleue is a melancholic scent from another era.
-This is an elegant scent that brings to mind a formal ball held in a 1900s ballroom, complete with the entire works: polished floors, smart tuxedos and intricate ballgowns.
-More specifically, L'heure Bleue conjures to mind the imagery of the Titanic's maiden voyage, where well-dressed gentlemen and gentlewomen danced to classical tunes, and raised their goblets to toast merrily to the launch of the majestic vessel...all whilst blissfully unaware of the impending tragedy to unfold.

-L'heure Bleue is a soft, feminine and powdery scent that is --above all-- rather vintage.
-It feels almost disrespectful to even entertain the thought of reaching for this fragrance, for it is a memory from another time- one meant to be preserved in its museum-endorsed glass casing.

-Sample with caution; this scent will take you back in time.
-Brace yourself for that wave of melancholy, for it is bound to catch you off guard for sneaking that cheeky glimpse into the grand evening that once was.
-A melancholic scent from another era. L'heure Bleue. (-)

Old classic Guerlains do not work for me, they are too powdery, and, on me, usually too much from another era. I wish I understood them and loved them, like other reviewers. My mom wore LB in the 1960s, but only when dressed up, and she was a vision and smelled beautiful. She was a gentle but regal soul and LB suited her. I snuck spritzes and thought it was wonderful. But not now. I've tried decants of several Guerlains recently and I find it so mysterious: I don't click with most of them at all, but completely clicked, like rarely before, with one of them. Maybe they really do mysteriously choose the wearer. LB did not choose me!

Nostalgic beams down on me with a warm and bright glow as I cry under the weeping willow. Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,I breathe the fragrance myself and know that velvety warm feeling. My favorite vintage perfume.

Lovely, warm and velvety, old-fashioned in the right way. This might be Aprés L’Ondée at a much lower pitch

I received my bottle today and sprayed it to test. First impression - WTH is this?!? It was like every perfume in my perfume closet, my grandmother's dresser and my mom's medicine cabinet exploded and a cacophony of fragrances hit me at once. I just knew I hated it ...... but not for long. Not even five minutes later, the scent started developing into something else; something soft and old-fashioned, but in a nice way. After the dry-down, the fragrance stirred up memories. I can see my grandmother at her dresser with her ornate mirror putting on her nice jewelry after getting dressed up. I feel like all the fashionable ladies I saw in church growing up would wear this with their finest outfits. This doesn't smell old, it smells vintage classy. I'll update after I wear it out - and I "will" wear it.

I love this fragrance, for the life of me I can’t figure out why , but when I wear it I am transported to Ann Arbor Michigan in the 70’s, in January, at dusk, and it must be sloppy weather. Very specific. Odd that the fragrance literally takes me to the Blue Hour, which is my favorite.

Vintage dusk perfume, A representative of the soft oriental tone, Accompanied by Recuerdos de La Alhambra.
L'Heure Bleue, inspired by Coty L'Origan, is a variation of Apes L'Ondee.
It was Jacques Guerlain who changed the instruments used from the piano to the violin.
Similar smells, different moods.
It belongs to that category -- the most, the romantic traditional French perfume.
The essence of L'Heure Bleue is warm and matches the deserted streets.
As part of the Guerlain family's memory, Jean-Paul Guerlain recalls that L'Heure Bleue turned out to be a gift from Jacques Guerlain to his wife Lily, and later became Lily's signature perfume.
Old EDT, the spice that gives priority to waking up the sense of smell is anise.
The base of the tonka Bean beans retreated to the last, the lris, neroli, violet , vanilla. These four main elements, mixed at the tip of my nose, are interwoven into a cloud of blue-purple. When the clouds are foggy, you get a very sweet smell.
It's really fluffy.
Heliotrope and mimosa, Each version has a powdery texture of almonds, and my favorite is the old EDT.
The new version of EDP is still very good, although unlike in the past, there is a fuzzy soft light.
The smog's mesmeristic feel is unique to L'Heure Bleue and is jacques Guerlain's style, logo creation.
Now it's changed, the lines are clear.
The old version of the mood can not be replaced, the new version is just a more in line with the current trend of "clothes."
I don't think it's a pastry.

This feels like a comfortable clean hug. It stars powdery and finishes as a deodorant. On me this feels like a hug from an old friend.

Wear it before bed and it will attract benign pastry spirits to sweeten your dreams with powdered sugar.

This was yet another surprise for me… with “sweet” as bottom accord, iris, vanilla, sandalwood, and tonka in the base, it seems like it wouldn’t work on me, as I would expect it to be too sweet. It’s not! Not same scent as Samsara, but similar effect in that the powder is anchored enough to not be cloying.
In best possible way, diabetic version of marzipan - herbal, thyme-infused and incense-y deep cherry marzipan powder with cloves, glorious cloves! And the cherry has been reduced, and reduced, and reduced, and not had sugar dumped on it.
If it were tomato sauce, it’d be the pressure cooked then slow cooked version.

Not the longest-lasting, but just beautiful. Demure, elegant, nothing red light about this, but def not bacon grease. I imagine if any of my relatives in 1912 had anything to dab on other than bacon grease, they’d have been ecstatic, and if they’d had this, they would have felt like a queen, transported out of the scorching fields or stoves and into another dimension, one where you not only get regular baths, you get to smell like a lady. And an elegant one.

Beautiful. Timeless. Feminine. Comforting.
Perfection.

I don't get the reference to melancholy many others mention, to me this feels more nostalgic- not sad or "down" at all. (Unless perhaps melancholy for time long since passed....)

This scent is a glorious cloud of fluffy pollen tinged vanilla powder. The introduction is a bit sharp, medicinal maybe, but gives way to powdery iris and heliotrope with a touch of ylang. Bee pollen clouds. Drydown is warm soft vanilla and that tonka reminiscent of childhood dolls.

The most reflective, melancholic scent I have ever worn. If you are sad, it is not the moment to test this vintage beauty for the first time! If you are happy and outgoing, it still might not be your scent. A particularly lovely scent suitable for the reflective introvert, NOT prone to depression. ;) Not pretty, not smiling, not even cute. She is elegant, secretive, and elusive. You must also love the classic 'Geurlainade' blend, for she has that same DNA. Not precisely seductive, but on the right skin absolutely addictive! I get hugged a lot while wearing this fragrance, and I do think it has a decided allure of it's own.

TIME TRAVEL. You have entered another era altogether, one in which ladies wore clocked stockings and had not even heard of 'panty hose'. One where young ladies could still choose between becoming a debutante and a suffragette! One where makeup is considered slightly scandalous but worn secretively anyway... by the sophisticated. In short, another world altogether.

When first testing L'Heure Bleu I had a sense of deep appreciation but also curious puzzlement. Would I WANT to smell this way? But shortly after love took over - and it was a quick flight to passionate desire. Cravings for a scent this complex and unique are hard to explain but easy to justify. There IS nothing else like the elegant, mysterious, enchanting dynamics of this beauty.

Though actually, there ARE scents in the same family! L'Heure de Nuit has the same DNA but a much brighter and happier personae, thanks to the dominance of orange blossom. It is a modern and updated sister, without being trite or boring. An excellent choice for those seeking to love L'Heure Bleue... but not quite managing it! I am also a fond fan of Oscar de la Renta's original scent, as well as the flanker, Esprit d'Oscar. Both of these are more like cousins - the first herbal, arid, and uncompromisingly dated in the best possible way. The second heavy in mimosa/heliotrope powder, less herbal, and still arid and boudoir vintage. I have both, wear both, and like both.

All of that said, if I had to choose from all of the above for a Most Memorable, Evocative, Emotional scent? L'Heure Bleue, hands down. I have the edp and recommend that version, as current edt's from Guerlain tend to be short lived. GOOD Dupes of classic Guerlains are nearly unknown and so are fakes. Tester bottles or half used bottles on ebay are likely to be the real thing, at a steep discount. Obviously, sampling is highly recommended. Guerlain counters still exist in some department stores and samples can also be ordered. Though not a blind buy, what a BEAUTIFUL buy! You must not blame yourself for disliking any scent, but to experience historical scent, L'Heure Bleue is more or less obligatory!

To sum up: HIGHLY recommended, if a bit challenging.

I got this hoping for a vintage gem like Chanel no 5. The opening is very pleasant almost a vintage vanilla scent but after 10 min it becomes very medicinal and smells like bandaids . No no , not for me I will stick to Chanel

I don't know what to think about this fragrance. Maybe I am to much a modern woman to fully understand it. It is like smelling a piece of history. I don't even remember my Great Grandmother's wearing a fragrance like this one. The anise note in the opening is very strong, very overpowering. The spices and florals are very dry, arid in the opening. It is to much in the beginning, you want to put it away and then the powder, ah yes the most dustiest, makeup, powdery heliotrope/iris combination comes in and then you realize what all of the fuss is about w/ this perfume. This smells of an era long gone by, an era where we still had our innocence but were on the cusp of losing it. 1912 was the year the Titanic sunk and we were on the verge of a World War and didn't know what horrors awaited a whole generation. This perfume is a piece of the past frozen in time, another world gone forever. And as I continue to smell this perfume I have to conclude that I do love it, but in a reverent sort of way, the way you love your elders, and you do love them, but you will never understand them. This fragrance speaks a language that I do not know but I want to learn.

It makes the air taste of powdered praline. Not too sweet. Delicious! As with all classic Guerlain masterpieces, no one note stands out too much. Instead, they’re so well-blended that the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. Almond vanilla slightly anisic hazelnut praline. Oddly, it reminds me a bit of Hypnotic Poison, which I respect but cannot stand.

Amazing edible scent.

Coming from someone who gets nauseated by vanilla in fragrance, this is the smoothest and most wonderful vanilla. Vanilla done right!

As with so many, Guerlain is one of my favorite houses. Top shelf. The notes in this classic are some favorites and being Guerlain I bought this blind without pause. Imagine my shock when I found I could not stand this one. It makes me sad. It makes no sense. I tried it again and again thinking it was one of those that had to grow on you but no luck. I don't understand. I adore most of the notes so why oh why is this so horrid on me? I thought maybe it was my chemistry. I sprayed it on a robe and tried to cozy up to it but still no. I waited months and came back to it but no change, just as bad. It has to be the anise combined with the coriander and cloves ...those are the only notes that have been issues before. For my nose they end up dominating and don't work for me. I recently sold it on mercari and practically gave it away because I wanted it out of my collection.

Cloves, violets, almonds, vanilla.

I don't get blue so much as dark golden yellow, like the quality of the last bit of sunlight. Smells like a Maxfield Parrish painting.

Violet : “I love you once. I love you twice. I love you more than beans and rice!”

finest dream filled with the most beautiful emotions . mesmerizing beauty , with a sad heart . floating in the sea of destiny . free from restraints . pure and innocent

twilight saga of most delicate emotions

Masterpiece.

It’s a masterpiece, wonderful fragrance ! Spicy and powdery violets to my nose come with iris and amber... Nothing funny, not playful just melancholy! If it had a color, it would definetly be blue, just like its name! I don’t understand, it’s like a riddle! It takes you inside blue cage and you want to be imprisoned in it forever...

Powdery spicy lemony - then softly floral with something watery(?). Settles in spicy vanilla and woods. Still floral. A gentle spice. Beautiful and romantic.

I feel as if I'm talking about an old friend. My bottle is only about a year and a half old and I've just about finished it. I return to this scent so often - especially in solitude (I used most of my bottle in the early days of the pandemic). It is dusk - true to its name - late Spring or early Summer sitting among trees and grass in crepuscular hours. Old fashioned yes but a real gem. It holds up.

I got this one at the same time with Shalimar, Mitsouko, Mon Guerlain, Bagatelle, Spirituese, and Samsara. This is my favorite along with Shalimar and Samsara.

Bottle Code: 7x02, 2017 Batch

This is one of my signature fragrances, and it truly was "Love at First Scent" for me.

When I think of Guerlain's "House Fragrance" I think of L'heure Bleue. I purchased this fragrance alongside Mitsuoko, and I like to think of Mitsuoko as the golden hour that fades into the melancholic dusk of twilight that is L'heure Bleue.

Many focus on the color blue, which describes the emotional state, but to me that is only a small part of this fragrance. To me, it conceptualizes the paradoxical essence of nostalgia. The essence of time and its unrelenting and unyielding progression.

I once read somewhere that the word "nostalgia" was derived from the greek roots of "Path" and "To Look Back". The compound word was an effort to describe the painful yearning of one's ability to look back at their path of life,l while never being able to go back. And I think this idea is well represented here, in this olfactory orchestration of life and death as two necessary sides of the same human experience.

This fragrance is not quite nightfall. It is that transient space of complexity where the warm embrace of the day still lingers, but with an un-ignorable existential malaise bleeding through to urge you to seize the day because time waits for no one. It's at the same time nostalgic, and unknown. Familiar and foreign. And there is great beauty in that simple dualistic complexity.

Truly a fitting name; 'Blue Hour', the scent of the sky, that is the only way I can describe this fragrance. 'Blue' iris, heliotrope, and violet are the most dominant to my nose, carried by a warm 'yellow' anise, vanilla, benzoin, and ylang. Pleasantly nostalgic, I think we all know someone we cherish who smelt like L'Heure Bleue. Wonderful all year round, but I genuinely prefer in the warmer months.

I am surprised that there are not more mentions of Parma Violets. To me this is the dominant note. Not unpleasant but unexpectedly powerful. One spray and you are in a purple cloud all day. 2020 batch.

Of all the fragrances in Guerlain's current line up, this is the best exemplification of the Guerlinade at present, not denying Jicky and Shalimar their worth but they do have a whole lot else going on with them. And the yesteryears saw the release of a fragrance named Guerlinade (1921, 1924, the release dates are a bit conflicted), but that is now a relic preserved in the flagship boutique.

At first spray, L'Heure Bleue (released in 1912) gives you the impression of being transported to the boudoir of say your hôtel particulier in Paris, at the height of La Belle Époque (1871 - 1914).

You sit bereft of all your clothes, pressing a fairly large and ornate powder puff into a container that is full of a glorious smelling talcum, you dab this onto your skin and take in the redolent powdery whiff of the hefty iris butter, heliotrope (which is what makes this so powdery smooth), violet, benzoin, tonka, vanilla commixture, supported by decadent spices and carnation which give it that slight nose piercing bite. The sandalwood and musk become increasingly evident as it delves into its dry down, and you finally discover for yourself the 'sweet stink' of perfumery of the old, the raunchy and suggestive dry down, indicative of the debauchery and the passion of the turbulent nights... This is the very best of French perfumery, the pinnacle of superb craftsmanship and a monument to the creative genius that was Jacques Guerlain.

Many will tell you this is a melancholic elixir, to them I say, "All things beautiful have a little sadness to them, for it is from this sadness they derive their beauty".

This is my 600th review on Fragrantica. (Blows party horn, throws confetti on self) I decided review 600 should be about something classic, iconic, important and well loved. Turns out I've never reviewed L'Heure Bleue!

I consider this the quiet, reserved older sister of the more cheeky and vivacious Mitsouko. About seven years ago, I first sampled it and couldn't really forget it once my sample was gone. I saw a vintage bottle of it in a thrift store of all places but for whatever reason, went home without buying it. Regret clouded my thoughts. A few days later my sister called and mentioned that she was shopping at that particular thrift store. I yelled into the phone instructions for what part of the store I'd seen it, which shelf it was on, described the curlique bottle shape and promised I'd pay her back right away if she could please please find it and buy it for me. It was still there (how did the other thrift store shoppers never see it??) and once she brought it to me, I knew why it had haunted my mind so badly. It's a haunted perfume. Mitsouko is also a haunted perfume. Otherworldly, possessed by a spirit of an era, unforgettable, larger than life, having a personality that takes the wearer on a fantastic journey to another time.

The standout notes for me are heliotrope, anise, vanilla and tonka. It's powdery in the very best way a perfume can be. Reading through the other reviews, you'll notice how it reminds different people of different things. Some smell the gourmand notes more strongly and some sense it to be more floral, but almost everyone finds it nostalgic. It's soft and comforting, elegant in the way of old Guerlain. Images of the twilight hour are perfect for this.

L'Heure Bleue came out in 1912, the year Titanic sank. I always wonder how many fashionable ladies were wearing it on that fateful night. Some of them went to a watery grave, making it the last perfume they ever wore. Others perhaps wore it and survived but could not bear to wear it again, due to the painful memory associations that fragrance has on our hearts and minds.

I suppose this could be a signature scent for some people. To me, it's not an every day mood. It's melancholy, elegant, romantic and feels like it is meant for the most special of occasions.

Blue moment of melancholy? Not really...this is pure sunshine and pollen dust. Imagine wearing a long, white summer dress and a straw hat with a black bow. Like impressionists paintings...But, somehow, it pairs very well with a white, thin blouse and faux leather skirt. I believe that L'Heure Bleue inspired few legendary perfumes like Poeme, Vanderbilt, Oscar, or even maybe A Sweet Pastry In Paris by Zara today. It dries down like vanilla sugar powder, a quality that especially stands out in the EDT version. A strong anis note amplifies the retro character in the beginning. Wear it like a family's jewels.

My second day wearing L'Heure Bleue: I have been thinking about the strangeness of this perfume being a favorite of Elizabeth II, Jean Rhys (a writer whom I have admired since adolescence), and myself, three women who would not appear to have much in common besides a steadfast devotion to Guerlain fragrances. L'Heure Bleue has a piquant citrusy top note of lemon and bergamot infused with a medicinal Belle Époque twilit quality: an aromatic bouqet of French thyme, anise, and cloves cutting through a sweet and creamy neroli and vanilla base. Hours later the fragrance intensifies to floral powdery, a late-evening sublimation of ballerinas backstage. The notes of iris and violet are quietly spectacular. Hints of sandalwood and vetiver, a kiss of marzipan, musk, Bulgarian rose, and jasmine round out the fragrance. Personally, I like L'Heure Bleue best when it has lingered on the skin for several hours. The eau de parfum is also lovely on a scarf, hat, or pillowcase.

Gorgeous lemon-soapy iris and violet confection, with sandalwoody amber drydown. Love it so, so much.

I have an aged bottle I used to like and now LOVE
and CRAVE. It got darker with time, and richer. I
LOVE Jicky Extrait and now I LOVE L’Heure Blue
EDP aged 10-15 years. Just utterly Exquisite, as
some1 said it’s not just a smell it’s an experience.

Vintage has awesome orange blossom and iris + animalic + incense

L'Heure Bleue took some time for me to warm up to, just as Mitsouko did. I simply had not been exposed to this style of perfume before. One day I just started craving it; that spicy powdery cloud!

Anyone looking to develop their nose can easily stock up on current formulations of classic Guerlains. There are great deals on discount sites.

I have not tried the vintage versions of LB but I have heard they were much more interesting and animalic. I prefer the edp to edt. (Perfume Posse blog advises to bypass the edt and try the edp as a general rule for Guerlain and I agree).

If you have the budget, Grossmith Shem el Nessim is a more refined version (actually a predecessor of the original LB).

My first Guerlain. My favorite Guerlain. It has always defied description for me, and I’ve been wearing her for 12 years now. There is a note someone called out once and I shall not repeat it here so it doesn’t spoil the perfume for you reading my review. Hearing the note called that made this beautiful perfume unwearable for me for some time. :(

This perfume is remarkable for me because it creates a very real emotion or emotional quality in me. It’s beyond a smell, it’s a feeling. It’s also remarkable for me because it’s so “well-blended” that the notes are not discernible to me. It’s just a gorgeous perfume. A beautiful experience.

I don’t wear this one very often, but there are just some times that call out for this. I always feel like I’m wearing a part of history when I put this one on. I can’t do Jicky, but this one settles in quite nicely. This is one that needs to be sampled on the skin - your own skin. And wait a while before deciding. The first ten minutes or so are heavy and you might think, “Oh my god, what have I done?”

So I recommend putting this on at the start of your routine. By the time you’re doing your mascara, you’ll realize this has settled into something quite lovely and special. It’s a classic for a reason. It’s complicated enough that I can’t describe it more than saying that, on me, it settles into a powdery floral with a hint of spice.

I'm crazy about this opening. There happens so much and beautifully, that my brain did not keep up, and I will never be able to solve the mystery.
I think L’Heure Bleue is completely ageless. Equally, it could be the latest Guerlain as a vintage classic.
Perfect in itself and absolutely excellent for layering! This has saved me from so many too sweet scents !!. This is going to be in my closet forever. Love.

Don't be fooled by the powdery in the description. This is not an easy powdery scent like Narciso Rodriguez Poudre. Compared to this, even Chanel No. 19 Poudre is casual (which is not). It is sophisticated, complex, heavy and clean at the same time. Like a very expensive bar of soap. I like this a lot, but my wardrobe is not made for this type of scent so I don't wear it very often.

Quite simply:

It’s one of the most beautiful and evocative perfumes ever created. I see a deep, dark almost purple when I wear this. Like laying your head on a velvet pillow as you drift away to dreamland on a cloud. Very surreal, and fantasy like.

I picture the Smashing Pumpkins video “Tonight, Tonight” when I smell this. As a man who regularly wears classic masculines, I’d take this over Heritage or LIDGE any day.

Pay attention: This is not utilitarian. This is the art of perfumery in its purest form.

5/5

I ordered a sample of this because I wanted to expand my tastes away from the sweet gourmands I prefer and I love geurlain so I thought I’d give it a try. When I first opened the package I got a harsh blast of clove and powder and I thought I’d made a mistake. Nevertheless I continued and the first spray opened with a very strong violet scent. I thought I’d never get on with it but it opened out to a very interesting violet/floral note with some spicy background from the cloves. I kept sniffing and liked it more and more and it eventually mellowed into a sweetish vintage powder. I really like it

My least favorite of the Guerlains, and I love most of them. I am sure it is not the scent itself, but what my skin does with it. I get a constant and long lasting medicinal smell, which I thought was heliotrope, but another reviewer mentioned French Thyme, which appears to be the base of many Guerlain perfumes. To me it smells like band aids, dentist gauze, and Gold Bond foot powder. To others the scent is divine. Definitely to be tested before purchasing.

I don't know about it being a melancholic scent, but I do find it nostalgic, especially when I catch a whiff of it on a chiffon scarf. It reminds me of the floral water my mother used to put in my bath when I was a child. It is comforting in that way. Iris, violets, cloves and marzipan and powder are most prominent to me.

There was a time when I thought that I'd have to grow into this perfume. I thought it would take at least another decade before I'd be ready to wear this. I was so wrong. One year later and my nose has become so bored with modern perfumery that I went searching for L'Heure Bleu again. It hit me so hard. The love and respect for this magnificent perfume is just beyond.... I now see the beauty that so many others were professing. The powder is so comforting and the violets are almost gourmand. I have sprayed this all over my scarf on this 55F temperate day. It is not a surprise that this perfume is still so popular after being created so long ago. It takes a certain level of olfactory maturity and experience to appreciate L'Heure Bleu.

I wore a sample of the eau de parfum recently, and it hit me just how similar this smells to certain versions of Tabac Blond that I have smelled.

I was pretty unsure about this at first. There was a little bit of a medicinal smell or something. I think it was the cloves-they don't usually work on me. But, after about an hour...wow! I kept smelling my wrist and even sprayed again before bed. Beautiful powdery fragrance. I am so glad I picked this up. Definitely a keeper.

My first, and enduring perfume love affair. I first caught it from a tiny porcelain gift to my mum that came with a small bottle of the perfume. I was mystified and transfixed; the fragrance was unlike anything else. At 16, I started yearning for it, and asked for a bottle for Christmas. I knew I was too young, but I found I’d rather grow into it selfishly enjoying wearing it than wait. I’ve never abandoned this perfume since, and it has never failed me. I would riot at the Paris flagship store if it were discontinued.

A wonderland of emotions. Wearing this feels like home. She is comforting yet full of melancholy and happiness. I feel like this would be my signature scent if I had one. It's utterly brilliant.

L’heure Bleue EDP is a piece of history. It opens with beautiful iris and heliotrope notes. I immediately smell blue and purple! Very powdery similar to Coty Airspun powder, instantly makes me think of an Edwardian lady particularly a Gibson Girl at her vanity applying her face powder and of course L’heure Bleue. Yes I can detect vanilla and a substantial amount of violet and anise. I would classify this scent as beautiful yet sad. I always wear this when I read or watch anything set in the 1900’s. 🤫

Sillage is quite strong and it does last quite a while.

I ordered a sample of this and a full bottle at a good price just in case I liked it. I'm very glad I did! I have nothing like this in my collection. It's a very beautiful sweet powdery smell reminiscent of the smell you get in a crystal/incense shop and also the inside of a makeup bag and faint play dough smell, there's also a fizzy citrus sort of smell lingering under the powder which gives it an unexpected dimension. The powder in this is not baby powder (I hate the smell of baby powder) but rather a powdery violet similar to the kind found in Gloria Vanderbilt.
Considering this was created first in 1912 and is still wearable today in 2020 speaks volumes. I wouldn't say it's a safe blind buy but if you like sweet powdery scents or vintage scents and want something unique give it a try.
I'm 27 and shall be wearing this a lot, definitely not just for mature people

Anyone have an unloved bottle? Please IM me!!!!!

Wow, this is a sure masterpiece and so timeless. It does have a vintage, powdery character but it isn’t offensive in any way. It’s has dark purple flowers and a menthol, essential oil quality, similar effect to biting into a cardamom or a clove, a sweet, chilling and relieving scent.

it’s melancholy and gloomy, slightly gothic, but retains its sensibility and elegance.

What I love most about this scent is how fresh it is in an unconventional way. It isn’t overly soapy and doesn’t have white florals. The concentration of perfume oils is also considerably high. I’m beyond impressed.

Don’t take this the wrong way but it reminds me of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.

What a beauty!

I remember being scared of buying this perfume because of my reservations re: iris notes (I didn't appreciate them in Infusion d'Iris by Prada or Iris Rebeille by Atelier Cologne, for example) but I pulled the trigger as I'm becoming serious with my Guerlain collection. What a pity I waited so long!
To me, the iris/violet notes are very gentle and soft. After a while, LHB is a powdery/creamy softness on my skin. It immediately puts me in a calm and serene mood; a great scent for late summer days.
Knowing how "old" the perfume is, it nevertheless does not feel very dated which was a plus to me as I'm in my early thirties and wouldn't like to smell three decades older.

L'Heure Bleue EDP is so reasonably priced nowadays. You've tried the rest, now come home to the BEST. What are you waiting for? Guys, do you welcome a bit of powder? Do you enjoy Ideal, Habit Rouge, Jaipur, Tom Ford Noir? Then give L'Heure Bleue a walk-about.

I wanted it for a long time, and for a month or so I had the chance to grab it and call it mine.
I won't start praising what is beyond praise, or say how nice it smells to me - everything has been said. I only want to add that after 3-4 hours it grows chocolatey, like a good hot chocolate with rum and very little milk.
It is the first perfume that makes me drunk with happiness. It is like making love, when you are tired but you want more.

There are only three perfumes I truly adore and like soldiers they march in this order: First Sergeant Guerlain L'Heure Bleue Extrait, Corporal Christian Dior Poison EDT, and Private First Class Chanel No. 5 parfum (modern version). The Extrait of LHB is my signature scent. I love it in all it's iterations, however the Extrait just transports me. If you want the powdery anise and doughy almond then douse yourself in the Extrait and succumb to it's historical beauty. It is like an entanglement with a forbidden lover: cherished moments that will only give way to memories of blue starry nights caressing under a great big sky. Only the memories will remain. Some may call it melancholic, but I disagree. It is an imprint of what we want the most, but can never have. A romance that was never meant to last forever in it's physical sense, but forever in your heart. A standard that you will hold all other lovers to. The EDP is more nebulous in it's plushness. Warm heat from a paramour's skin, a hot breath of delicious whispers of affection in your ear. The EDT is the expected goodbye. So very sudden, but what else would do. Tender fingerprints left on empty wine glasses. Folded napkins and clothes left on the cold floor. A last look onward as things come to their end. It is not sadness that you are left with, but hope. That one touch that will last a lifetime.

The eighties extract is pure Edwardian extravaganza inside a psychedelic balloon decorated by Cecil Beaton - all pastry crumbs inside blue chinoiseries, plush benzoin leathers, velvet periwinkle curtains at hotel Crillon, champaca incense and Erik Satie. Applying orange blossom-heliotrope baby powder to your face while eating marshmallows at Sissi’s bedchambers.

Yet none of these particulars describe it as a whole. Most fragrances translate notes into perfume, old Guerlains distill feelings into smell. The more you try to take them apart the more you loose their understanding, like doing autopsies on spirits.

It could be described as "sad" in a way that is not bleak, gloomy or self-abjecting, in the very dignified, private old-school manner they used to carry sadness , the way an aristocratic hostess type would keep mementos from people she has loved and lost in her life and save them inside violet pastille boxes in her boudoir to look at them fondly and smile.

Once the sharp citrus has evaporated you are left with soft baby powder. Clean, sweet, powdery, innocent and timeless. I prefer l’heure de nuit much more over this, but this is cheaper

I have just re-purchased this and am adoring having it back in my collection. It was my signature for years and I wore it through a steamy summer on the American East coast two years ago - it blooms beautifully in the heat and I highly recommend it. When unpacking last week after a house move, I came across a pack of (paper) tissues that had come with me on that trip and they still smelled of L'heure bleue - that was the longevity I needed in my life!
The scent evolves a fair bit - it is a spicy fragrance and the cloves, anise and carnation take it close to the world of Nu and Opium before the scent grows more powdery and soft with the floral notes of violet, iris and heliotrope, which are once again very common in many contemporary perfumes. However, it is not a nebulous gauzy scent and it is bolstered by the orange blossom and tuberose. It becomes increasingly creamy, vanillary and delicious as time goes down without ever losing its spicy edge.
The EDT is lighter and moe floral - if you are wary of the clove/carnation combination, I would go for the EDT which offers a more ethereal and pretty experience. The reviewer below says that the pure perfume is no longer available...? It is certainly available in UK and Europe in the traditional 30ml scroll bottles - I would love to have one of these for Christmas!
For me, this is THE floral-oriental: spicy, soft and delicious.

Beautiful and timeless. I got a sample of the vintage perfume and it breaks my heart that full bottles of the perfume are no longer for sale. Something about this reminds me of a store I went to often when I was younger that always had a sweet incense smell - they burned so many different varieties over the years that absorbed into everything in the room that one single note was no longer identifiable but was a beautiful blend that made the space feel lived-in and inviting. L'Heure Bleue is warm, soft, and romantic and absolutely reminds me of the "blue hour" between sunset and star rise. It has some powdery notes, but do not let that fool you because there is definitely something in here that gives it a playful bite (maybe the aniseed).

This is an evening scent, and I could see it becoming overwhelming in excessive heat or humidity. This is also one to be used in moderation: it's a fine line between "confident timeless woman" and "grandmother who can be smelled before she even enters the room" with something this strong.

@Cinnamonpeele --

For your mental association, we may thank the way McDonald's and other institutional restrooms/toilets have often used a faux-cherry scented room deodorizer since the 1960's. (How sickly-sweet faux-cherry is an improvement over feces and urine, I cannot guess).

The quasi-cherrylike qualities of almond and heliotrope, so forward in LHB, are what's giving you that impression of public toilets.

This is a peril that Jacques Guerlain and others could not have foreseen in 1912.

Just an aside: The "medicinal" or "Band-Aids" note one smells in the classic old Guerlains? It's French thyme.

For whatever reason, French thyme is never listed in the pyramids of these old Guerlains, but it's what bestows the slightly medicinal/aromatic note. Some even call it "dental gauze" or "dentist's office".

For example, the entire base of SHALIMAR owes itself primarily to civet and vanilla; but the whole upper structure of the perfume is scaffolded by French thyme... all the upper citruses and florals and spices "hang" on that "trellis" of French thyme, before you get down to the darker incense and leather qualities.

I think, in L'HEURE BLEUE, the thyme very cleverly prevents the gourmand-y notes and floral notes from ever seeming too sweet and cloying. It does the same thing in APRÈS L'ONDÉE, too.

French thyme is probably an "old-fashioned" note for many, as it crops up in very few new feminines these days.

The blenders of these classics from the first half of the 20th C would use natural EO's for what they could *do* purely olfactorily, not for giving you a mental/sensory image of that botanical. For example, the anise in LHB and others back then was added to amp up the perfume's sweetness, not to remind you of licorice candies, per sê. This was before noses had a litany of synthetics to choose from, as they do today.

The French thyme was added not because the nose wanted you to imagine an herb garden or food in a kitchen... but rather because its medicinal quality could-- purely olfactorily-- offset other notes in the composition, and do it in a subtler way than could, say, eucalyptus, rosemary, menthol or camphor.

This is very pretty as it dries down, and I will continue to wear it, but...

Am I the only one getting a striking resemblance to those air freshener disks in urinals??

I readily accept that this could be just me, as I get various public-toilet scents off the top of Louve and Fleurs de Citronnier too—both of which I love.

Weird.

I really wanted to like this, unfortunately, it is way too powdery and cloyingly sweet on me.
It does smell like a vintage purse to me, but unfortunately not in a good way..

The beauty of L'Heure Bleue is uncanny..I have never heard anyone make the comparison that it smells allot like Chanel No 5. Or is it really the other way around since LB came out first in 1912. So this is a beautiful sophisticated yellow golden floral sweet fragrance. It doesn't have the aldehydes that Chanel has, but the dna is in there for sure. Yet this is so much more complex. As it dries down it transforms into a violet iris fragrances along with the florals..to me LB is more interesting than Chanel No 5 and I never thought anything would beat that same scent, but wow this fragrance is so impressive and such a work of art. I love this so much and it was a great surprise..a vintage classic. This is a must buy if you love Chanel No 5. Bravo Guerlain.

One could describe this as medicinal baby powder however once this dries down a bit, it’s really a brilliant creation, smells very purple, and it is. The dry down, I do get some sandalwood, which I love. Great unisex scent. Totally old world but totally timeless. Starts off a powderey purple Iris, heliotrope, violet and anise but as I said the dry down which it I find comes pretty quick, you get the complexities(sandalwood, Ylang, benzoin) in this concoction.

Ahhhh, my new version is completely different from my prior version. Very strong like. And the way it changes and develops is gorgeous. And I finally recognized this is what my great aunt wore. She was young, gorgeous and very sexy. I remember nuzzling into her neck when I was little.

My house cleaner, who is like family, has gotten some perfumes that I no longer wear. I gave her my Vol du Noit EDT as I got the perfume propeller bottle for Christmas and I like it much better and won’t wear...it needs love! My skin eats EDTs and hers, it blooms. Today, I was testing this with the old one and she says this smells very different but has similar DNA to a bottle of Jicky I gave her. Her husband got a better job and she no longer has to work but kept my home as she says she goes home with “Sephora” all the time. And we are good friends.

This one smells great on me but on her, OMG. Her chemistry does something completely different. I just ordered her a bottle for her birthday next month as she said, this smells like fall and it’s sad summer is over so let me give you some comfort. She was so spot on! There is no way I can wear this in the summer. She was 1000% correct. I can’t wait to see her face. Christmas she is getting Shalimar....she calls it Christmas season hugging perfume when I wore it in January! ☺️

I want to add I believe this will smell good on men too. It’s got this warmth and can totally see guys rocking this. And definitely Jon Snow. 😉

In my possession is a 2002 batch (MEQXR) and from the very opening, it is everything I hoped to experience and more (I can only imagine the beauty of a well-preserved older vintage).

There's a radiant kaleidescope of cherry-pie-play-doh heliotrope, anisaldehyde-heavy aniseed, parma violets, spicy carnation, and cool and watery iris. Its a confluence of several favorite notes, and it is utterly BLISSFUL.

It smells of crepuscule, bittersweet and uncertain, but of a profound beauty. As time passes, it becomes more impressionistic, almost phantasmagorical, as if it follows into the night, unabated but mutating into woods, benzoin, and vanilla. Hours pass, and the legendary Guerlainade base remains, eventually whispering.

One of the few fragrances that is profoundly personal. I wear this at night, mostly for myself or for meaningful company. I don't think the world that is ageist and obsessed with what's de rigueur can really understand L'Heure Bleue, so why cast pearls before swine?

I’m kind of nervous. I know Mitsouko had a 2015 bad batch. I think I recall this had the same fate. Unfortunately I bought both and the batch numbers showed it was that time period but I found out years later My recent Risk of purchasing Mitsouko was a hit. I tested both and sure enough the prior one was horrible. My stepdaughter said I should sell on EBay but no way in the world would I put that crap show out there. It’s not fair to the integrity of such an icon or an unsuspecting purchaser. I won’t do that either with LBH.

I am hoping to all the powers that be my incoming version of this juice is like my new Mitsouko. I should love this and hope and pray it will be like it...what it is supposed to be. The reviews say I should have loved. Will update when I get this week.

This perfume is the perfect distillation of the time when the light is almost gone from a snow covered landscape. The world is literally blue. I love it very much

OMG OMG OMG!!! i received my first bottle of the EDP today and i was floored! totally captivated by the amazing opening and the evolution of the notes thereafter! i don't know how i was living without this for so long! i've always read that it's a sad perfume and that Mitsouko (which i have and loveed for years) is joyous so i wasn't sure if i would like it. i should have known as a Guerlain fan, that I would fall in love! and love it is! the sillage is phenomenal, even my kids loved it! it doesn't smell old or 'old granny' to me at all! it's a classic, sophisticated, strong fragrance. it's so beautiful and i understand what people meant by the sadness about it. it's not sadness, it's the moment of a beautiful day ending and the anticipation of the night. it's a promise with slight trepidation which is comforted and assured by the wonderful fragrance. love love love it!! i want to bathe in it!

very strong powder. then it wants to morph into a beautiful incense, but that doesn't last very long and poof just powder and vanilla. long lasting powder, powder, and powder and not a good powder :(

Some have compared this to John Galliano John Galliano for women... that's a big NOT as I love John G John G and completely dislike this one- nothing alike.

How is powder romantic etc? Nope. Big disappointment.

Update: Gifted it to mom, she loves it and loves powdery fragrances.

I've been a lifelong (60yrs) devotee of Shalimar/Bellodgia and Jicky, though have always considered Shalimar to be my 'signature' scent. That all changed this week, as I received a bottle of L'Heure Bleue EDT as a gift. This fragrance is everything that is fabulous about Shalimar to the nth degree - but an indefinable "ever so much more so" without being loud or cloying. The powdery notes are what first struck me and even after 5 hrs, are still soft with the other notes blending in and wearing well. One problem I have had with perfumes in the past is my chemistry causing a 'stale' (I'm sorry but I call it an 'old lady smell' (I AM an old lady, now - LOL) but this remains fresh and lovely. The carnation remains true and wonderfully spicy. I am absolutely infatuated with this marvellous concoction!

Oh my this is going right to the top of my favorites. A powdery, magical dream. The first thing I personally get hit with is the sandalwood, carnation, and heliotrope. Then, everything melds together into that perfect, powdery dream. I find that this fragrance is perfectly named as it is definitely, to me, a blue fragrance. I also get the coty airspun vibe from it as others have mentioned, but more complex of course and sweeter. Powdery, floral, sweet, woody. A garden of magic. Timeless. Bewitching. Intoxicating.

*update*
Though I still love this, I wish it had better lasting power and sillage. I find that I need to use about 4-5 sprays if it's going to last moderately.

This perfume feels like a stormy summer night. The sky is starting to darken, there is rain and lightening and thunder. It is hot outside and the fragrant smell of flowers and dirt are potent. Mysterious and a bit melancholy but also relaxing and cozy. Perfection.

A few years ago, I was reading reviews about this fragrance and couldn't stop thinking about it. Is it really melancholic, nostalgic and sad, as some reviewers describe it? I kept asking myself. Is it really as cold, musty and dark as an old dowager's boudoir? Or is it something that many people describe as an "old lady" perfume? Is it really powdery and sweet, as some say? Would I like it if it was?

I couldn't wait to try it out. But alas, in my country you can't find anything niche or historical. The perfume stores here only display the most popular (and contemporary) mainstream fragrances, so where could I find this mythical perfume named L'Heure Bleue?

Eventually, I found it on a website, but they only sold full bottles of perfume. I gazed at the picture of that bottle every day, its Art Nouveau curves looking more and more attractive, reminding me of a long-gone era I only glimpsed in yellowed photos and silent films. Was the golden juice inside it worthy of that artfully made bottle?
One day I said, well damn it, I'll buy this historical perfume! I have to smell it once in my life!
And when the beautiful bottle finally arrived and I sprayed some of the mysterious golden liquid on my wrist, I was instantly in love.
Powdery? Yes. The finest powdery fragrance ever made.
Sweet? Yes, but not in a cloying way. It's the sweetness of a bouquet of carefully selected flowers, lending the fragrance a warm feminine vibe.
Woody, musky, sensuous? Yes, most definitely. And slightly soapy, maybe from the anise in it (in 1912 there were no aldehydes). But despite the soapy effect, this is not a cold fragrance, as others have described it. Nor is it an "old lady" perfume, at least not to me. And if powdery means "old lady-ish" to other people, then I'm not ashamed to say that I'm still young and I love old lady perfumes!😁
As for L'Heure Bleue being nostalgic and sad, I find it rather contemplative but optimistic. It always makes me feel comfortable, pampered and desirable. Also, my husband loves it on me.😉
As I smelled this unique perfume for the first time, I also felt I must have smelled it before, but I couldn't remember when and where. Well, that didn't really matter. I loved it and I was more than happy that I'd finally bought it. It was my only blind buy, and luckily a successful one.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a true masterpiece of a fragrance. Don't be afraid of its age and if you can, go ahead and give it a try!

I love Guerlain fragrance. Nothing will ever break me and my first love up - Insolence EDT. But my goodness this powdery beauty is sliding in at number two. There is something of historical importance in the fragrance - like it is a message to us from the past about optimism, subtlety. The dry down is my favourite part, the opening has a touch of medical aroma to it. For me this fades quickly to reveal its heart and beauty of vanilla, powdery, cosmetic notes. In Australia, this is a cooler months fragrance, too warm and giving for humid summers.

I once wore the EDP (at the time only a small decant) to a Great Gatsby themed summer wedding. Sequin dress, bling head-peace, feather boa, silver shoes and all. I couldn't have gotten it more spot on, my perfume felt like my second skin. Since then, I invested into a full EDP bottle, but because it evokes a certain era and style for me, I just don't see it as something that could be worn to work, on weekend or for going out. Instead, it became my bedtime fragrance, soothing and comforting in its powdery aniseed (aka slightly medicinal) opening; decadent, indulgent, and extremely personal in its sweet dessert-like (marshmallow meringue, I would say) drydown. If anyone associates it with an old lady scent, that's because most women retain their preferences throughout their lives. Your grandmother is likely wearing what she loved to wear in her youth and what was all the rave - L'Heure Bleue. When you are old, Petite Robe Noire (if it survives that long) will be considered an old lady scent.

I think this is a really good perfume, it's a cleaned up and sophisticated Shalimar. It's so classy and stereotypically delicate, dainty and feminine. Very 'vintage'. For me, powder is a no-no. But as a powdery fragrance, this is basically perfection. Absolutely inoffensive for this type of fragrance, perfect for a very classy engagement. 7/10

I am on my second bottle of L’heure bleue (bought backups fast of this beauty and it’s the version from a couple of years back, gold box) If I had to choose one fragrance to wear for the rest of my life, this would be it. It would be an amazing signature scent for all year round. I find it is just powdery/aldehydic in the very beginning, when it dries down it is spice and sweet flowers in blended perfection. It does not smell old or dated, it smells of timeless feminine beauty! Never had a single negative comment on this one, just compliments on how beautiful it smells,

Let me open by saying I met and fell in love with Esprit d’Oscar before meeting L’Heure Bleue. Due to reviews comparing the two, I felt this was going to be a love at first sniff. It was not. The top notes are almost too much for me. It’s either the anise or coriander that perplex me, maybe both. Once the top notes settle, I am pleased. A beauty similar to Esprit arrives. It’s still spicy (unlike Esprit), but not as punchy. I can see why this has survived the ages. It’s interestingly lovely. Maybe not easy for some to wear. It’s bold and demure, pensive and hopeful, harsh and soft. I feel like it’s full of contradictions. To me it even feels nostalgic and forward looking. I think it fits an adventurous introvert quite well.
The bottle is definitely worthy of being in my collection and on my skin.

This smells exactly like Coty Airspun face powder. It’s from another era. Not diaphanous and impressionistic. Dense and powdery. Powdery in the extreme. A dressing table scent from a bygone era. I personally find powdery scents a bit difficult to wear (in terms of finding an appropriate season or occasion) but this is an absolute masterpiece and I’m happy to have it in my collection. Every perfumista should own this. I wear perfume for my own enjoyment but I should note that men (my husband, my 5 yr old sons, strangers) never fail to compliment me when I wear this.

L'Heure Bleue - the blue hour - was born in 1912 by the hands and nose of Jacques Guerlain. The era was pre-war, the impressionist age, the crazy years, and the industrial revolution with its bourgeoisie starting the revelry in the blue hour... the dusk. It is a floral oriental fragrance with the dusky scent of candies and almond cake (by the strong heliotrope) bought in an old world apothecary (due to its powdery accord).
Of the fantastic feminine trio that I have labeled as minimally unisex - Shalimar, Jicky and L'Heure Bleue - the latter is the one with a less masculine facet.
The opening presents us with an anise licorice, too fleeting for my will, and that surrenders to the somewhat intense florals, with emphasis on the iris and violet (with its characteristic powder), the heliotrope (smelling like almond and vanilla) and for the clove (with a clove like spicy scent). The spices are in the background - cloves, cinnamon and tonka - rounding off the sweetness of the florals. Sandalwood, benzoin and vanilla stand out later, and ensure the long and pleasant drydown, leaving the fragrance more unisex.
The performance is quite generous. Three spays are good enough for ten hours, with a sillage up to six feet and close to three hours of projection.
I have used this perfumein the middle of a group of people several times . I aroused some curiosity and heard comments about wearing an elegant perfume that stood out among the reigning masculine ambroxan. I confess that I was always very pleased with the choice of using L'Heure Bleue.
In a woman, this perfume invariably draws everyone's attention for its oriental warmth, and spices charm framing the floral notes.
It is a true masterpiece.
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Overall rating: 8.86 / 10.00
Recommendation: This is a fragrance landmark, more feminine than masculine. I do recommend it for ladies. I can only recommend it for men after testing it and never as blind buy.
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Only reach for this on cool or rainy days...just fits the occasion for me.

I don’t have much to add here, except that this smells exactly like the crystal/New age shop in my town. Like, I dang near astral project there when I smell this. It smells like the mix of all the different incense they sell, flowers and a little bit of magic ;)

Just received my 75ml eau de parfum today. God, I love this. Smells so vintage, powdery, and of old-school romance. It's soft, but not weak. I bought this blind, and I"m sure glad I own it now. This juice is beautiful. Perfect for the begining of sprong. Everyone else has described it so well. I love the review that said it smelled like the scent of blossoms on the breeze as you walk by. So true. The bottle's very nice as well. Another beautiful Guerlain.

I couldn't like this fragrance when I was younger. I couldn't get past what I thought at the time as a play dough beginning. I have several worn Guerlain fragrances for many years and decided to try again. I have been missing out. This is the precurser to so many famous fragrances that I love.

I blind bought this and expected to love it based on the note breakdown. Unfortunately, on the drydown all I could smell were aldehydyes and ylang-ylang, which I associate with the notorious sour "old lady" smell. I have gathered that loving this fragrance is some sort of rite-of-passage in the fragrance community, but it's just not for me.

Summary: Beautiful classy powdery spicy masterpiece. Airy, comforting, intimate and simultaneously vaguely sexy (in an intimate, boudoir way). Delightful and like a serene hug.

Big sillage! Apply sparingly unless you are ok with making a fragrant impression everywhere.

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This is one of those grand masterpieces of perfumery, and it shows.

Deep, intense, powdery, floral and spicy at the same time, it somehow manages to not get heavy and dense. There's an airiness, a mistiness that envelops you in a different way of the dense, thick orientals (which I also enjoy) like Opium or Shalimar. Here, instead of the ambiance of opulence of the inner rooms of a palace or the deep, sensual majesty of an old temple, full of woods and incense, I feel the warm hug of a morning (for some reason to me this smells like an early spring or late winter morning, not evening) spent in a boudoir taking some time to pamper myself. It's very soothing to me, very comforting, while deeply elegant and rich.

In terms of notes, besides the clear floral powdery notes, and the sweet tonka and anise, I can smell something bitter and camphoraceous and herbal which I don't know where to fit. Maybe it's the benzoin mixed with the vetiver, I am not sure. I enjoy it, and I guess this is one of the accords that make people think of old, rich ladies when they smell this. I don't care. To my nose, this smells enjoyable, vaguely and unexpectedly sexy and still classy. Below, the sandalwood note peeks through, creamy and smooth.

However, this is not one of those perfumes where the notes shine as solo players. Here they mix and mingle together, and I have to really make an effort to smell them separately, cause they mostly appear together. It works here, so I enjoy the "orchestra".

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I own a partial bottle, no idea from when, courtesy of scarbo. (Thanks!)

I own L'Heure Bleue EDT long time and I love it, but some how I had always felt hesitation to use it.
Few days ago I used it and first time since I own, I just blow my mind by this beautiful creation.
So I started have interest of how is EDP , so I bought EDP.
I recieved white box EDP and I sprayed on my hand.
Wow, it was dynamite ! Very strong but more mild than EDT.
Just BEAUTIFUL !
I 'm happy that now I know this beauty.

I've owned L'Heure Bleue for over a year and have worn it a few times. I believe that Guerlain classic perfumes should be in my collection and an index/reference point. There are a few that are definitely vintage smelling and L'Heure Bleue is one. I've tried to wear it a few time but the last time I wore it, my tween daughter told me that I smelled like an "old lady". She had not been around older folks very much and even her grandparents don't wear strong perfumes but, her association is such. Therefore, I will keep LB in my collection for reference but I don't think I will attempt to wear this again until such time when I become an "old lady" myself.

I've heard this described as 'melancholic' and 'austere' before but it really does not give me that vibe at all. This is incredibly romantic and cheerful, though very classical and a bit restrained, and despite the name's reference to a specific time of the day at dusk, this really evokes early, bright blue spring mornings with birds singing amongst the flowers. I believe I have this association from having tried Esprit D'Oscar first. But where that one has a much brighter, aldehydic and sparkly opening this one is 'dustier' on opening, more soapy/spicy on skin but has that same beautifully gentle and feminine waxy iris trail. I think that is what makes some people think this smells 'dated' but it isn't. It's timeless. Like a memory that does not age.

This is a young scent. It was when it was created and it still is now. This is classically feminine, makes me think of a beautiful woman powdering her nose and applying her lipstick, much like Esprit does, but this one does have more refinement to it, as if this young woman is just a little more sensible and less naïve than her Esprit counterpart. And when I say young I don't mean in age. I mean in spirit. It has an enduringly romantic quality, like rococo décor and a thousand petticoats.

I tried. I really, really tried to like this one. On paper, I should love L'Heure Bleue. My garden is full of heliotrope and I'm a big fan of powdery perfumes. But this... Forgive me, but I'm going to swear.

It smells like old people.

Shalimar, Aromatics Elixir, Opium, Cinnabar, Coriandre - I love them all, and they are what many would call old lady perfumes. However, that old lady association isn't what I'm trying to say about L'Heure Bleue. I mean it literally has a tinge of that indefinable 'old people' smell, like a mixture of bad breath and and a general body odour which isn't stale sweat but isn't clean either. I wish I could see (smell?) the beauty in this, but I just can't.

L'Heure Bleue is Shalimar's powdery little sister.

Just received a bottle of L'Heure Bleue today. It was a blind buy because I could not resist getting it based on the amazing reviews and the fact that it is a classic scent that has been around FOREVER. First I sprayed it on a piece of paper to make sure that it was ok. I sprayed it on my wrist at 6PM. I usually spray once on one arm when testing.

The initial spray is really nice, I personally love a burst of citrus and citrus flowers in the beginning. It is now at 6:30PM, a purple flower. It definitely turns purple and it reminds me of the modern Guerlain flanker Insolence, but this is a drier version and it's absolutely lovely it's also powdery, but it's a powder I want to stick my nose in. it isn't nauseatingly fruity like insolence or headache inducing powder like Infusion d'Iris.

This is more of an evening scent for me a lighter evening scent, would be nice as a laid back night scent, because it's so comforting. I also have the Shalimar edp which is more of a cold weather evening fragrance with a strong spicy and citrus and resinous powder. I also own the Mitsouko EDT, which is another Guerlain classic and that one, I actually crave wearing, so I'm considering that one as my every cold weather day fragrance and this and Shalimar for special occasion or evening, in my pajamas with a glass of wine and my pups and husband cuddled by the fire.

I DO NOT find this to be an old lady perfume at all. I could actually see a teenage swearing this to their prom. It's so pretty and subtle, a very innocent fragrance.

What I love about Guerlain classic fragrances is that the scent doesn't seem, based on the ones I've tested as overbearing. I hate overly loud perfume, I just want a scent that can last but not overwhelm me. Absolutely stunning!

Haha, unpopular opinion here, but I'm young and tend to gravitate towards sweeter smells.

This perfume (which I blind bought because it was mentioned in a favorite book of mine by a favorite author) smells like the following to me:

-The beach
-Incense
-Wiccan/Crystal Indie shop
-Temple

I probably won't be reaching for this bottle on the regular.

*Update: It's growing on to me.

This is among my favorite fragrances yet I vastly prefer the EDT over the EDP. I love the anise-like note that is much more apparent in the weaker formulation. This note, to some, can be a bit off-putting, so I apply it very sparingly when going into public, but use it more liberally when at home. I especially like to spritz before bed, as it has a comforting quality.

Ok Blue, im on my third test of this.

it definately has a more vintage feel. i had been comparing it to Molinard Habanita. the talc is about all thats in common as far as wear on fabric goes.

clean/rounded
eraser (or some sort of flower)
florals??
older spicey clean
bit dry, soft

on natural fibres its a bit more rounded

this sits close ish to the skin, its a bit dry, not as far dry as prada diris or d'orangier, the spice is not green and bright fresh, theres a bit of a talc powder overlay.

i dont feel this is a hard wear, its dryish, clean, soft.

not a modern scent, it feels like its a bit generational, as is Habanita (for me at least), if youre used to the Jicky, Jardins bagatelle, opium, samsara, this will be a bit lighter than those, i guess you could say the clean feel is in line with chanel #5 (kinda) without the citrus or aldehydes...

Finally got to experience the classic, The Blue Hour, from Guerlain. L’Heure Bleue is not as gourmand as Shalimar, not as bittersweet as Mitsouko. It reminds me of quite a number of well known oriental and powdery perfumes today. But this one predates them. It’s the OG of this genre. You travel through this blue hour, the leather and smoke, the grandma floral, the baby powder (or what i call baby butt) but fortunately not too similar to diapers, the pharmacy in Chinatown. It’s an interesting trip for sure. Sillage is several feet, with potential to fill a room.

I like to wear L'Heure Bleue when I am by myself.

Often I vaguely pretend I am Jean Rhys, the author whose signature scent this was. A small ritual: I spray l'heure bleue on my old soft pink dressing gown and on my pulse points, order dinner, drink glasses of wine or even champagne, all while sprawled on the couch. Often it rains outside. There's something slightly melancholic, but also indulgent, warm, cherished in here.

Just received a new flacon of LHB in the EDP.

I'm positive that this is the latest incarnation of this formula, because it smells noticeably different to any bottle I've owned previously.

Older formulations of LHB EDP used to "sprawl" on the skin in a three-dimensional way; the different accords-- doughy, fruity, floral, spicy, medicinal--- used to separate themselves pleasingly into different "camps" on my skin... like a bracelet built of different-colored precious stones.

Not so the new stuff: it's now a much "tighter" fragrance, with all the well-known accords now telescoped sharply into one dominant impression that stays tightly focused on the skin. The result is perhaps a more "contemporary" "modern perfume" take on the concept. It no longer smells as "fatty", "musky" and "chunky" as it used to. Arguably less "juicy/fruity" in the opening moments, too; the "cherry/orange" juiciness has been reined-in significantly, and the salty heliotrope/Play-Doh nuance is more forward now. Something in the floralcy is different, too--- the neroli?-- and frankly smells more synthetic and "drugstore-y" than earlier batches.

Oh, it's gorgeous, make no mistake... Just more streamlined and, yes, less "three-dimensional" than older *jus* I've owned.

I've worn the EDP for 10 years now, and have just ordered a new bottle. I'm guessing my new flacon will contain the revised/refreshed Thierry Wasser version? Pruned of real oakmoss, bergaptenes and real iris and god-knows-what else? I swear, denying these notes to perfumers is like telling a carpenter he may never again build with knotty pine.

The more I wear this wonderful scent, the more I am convinced that IT, not Mugler ANGEL, was the first Gourmand scent.

LHB, along with its iris, sweet anise and Play-Doh heliotrope, seems to contain-- I could swear it!--- a farinaceous note of either oatmeal or cornmeal, which imbues the whole scent with a decided "sweet bakery dough" feeling... which even supersedes whatever "twilit floral garden" imagery it may conjure. In fact, LHB reminds me of the smell of the Italian Christmas sweet bread, Panettone.

I often get a jammy cherry-like quality from LHB, and I'm guessing that is a phantom note created by the confluence of heliotrope (in the old days, sometimes called "cherry pie plant") and sweet almond.

My grandmother, when she passed in the mid-Aughts, legacied me a bottle of vintage LHB in the EDP, which likely dated to the 1970's or even 1960's. It definitely possessed a more prominent anise/licorice note than any modern formula does. In fact, I'll sometimes dot my modern LHB application with a droplet of McCormick's Anise food flavoring... to get back that particular vintage quality.

Never mentioned in the Fragrantica pyramids of the classic Guerlains is the aromatic note of French thyme, which I believe is the "medical gauze"/medicinal quality they possess in their upper structure. Of course Jacques Guerlain understood that the lavishly sweet, "sucrée" notes in this fragrance would never cloy if they had that medicinal thyme counterbalancing them.

LHB is probably within my Top 5 favorite scents of all-time, and I hope never to be without a flacon. As much as I adore APRÈS L'ONDÉE, I see LHB as the "perfected" version of this perfume concept.

LHB is, for me, delirious happiness in a bottle, and no longer gives me the slightly sad/melancholy-- "a weeping angel just flew by"--- feeling it did upon first sniff, years ago.

Allegedly, LHB is HRH QEII's favorite fragrance.

- I received this fragrance in a swap from a generous fragrantica member. WOW! This smells like the 90s and my mom. I thought she was into Obsession but I think she must have worn this perfume too because the smell is incredibly familiar and smells like home. It's pretty hilarious that I never knew the name of the perfume. I didn't get into perfumes until I went to Uni before then I just wore fragrance mists.

I love carnations but I don't love iris or violets however I like them in this perfume. The fragrance is expertly balanced. Not a single note is out of place and the result is very pleasant. Bravo. To me it smells like my mom so it's not the right scent for me.

Narrative! Narrative! Narrative!

I am a painter, so naturally, I always identify my olfactory sense into the visual and into story-telling.

This perfume to me is an Impressionist painting of warm and cool, gold and blue, complementary colour with dabs of light and shimmery iridescence; of complexity, contrast, high and low, joy and melancholy. Like the painters from this era; it is preoccupied with Cathay. Love it or hate it- whatever you glean from it, it certainly doesn't lack in narrative. It is a Van Gogh in its naturalism, but also a bit worldly like a Gustav Klimt painting in its busy fusion of floral metallica.

L'Heure Bleue is unusual. It is a statement, but more; a story - and to me, one of defiance. It is a defiance of today's neatly packaged, post-modern, politically correct sterility. Perhaps a banter on my part. However, that is the beauty of art. Art leaves itself open to interpretation, and good art should ask more questions than give answers.

Immediately, this perfume evokes "Le Belle Epoque" in Edwardian Paris. Upon first spray, one's senses are dosed in the sophistication of pre-war Paris in all its luxurious glamour, decadence and romanticism. Heed not any pre-conceived notion of thick, saccharine sensuality. It is still heady. Serious, if I may. Old-world glamour throws notes of spicy, golden amber and bergamot. It starts iridescent; citrusy, almost Oriental. After the dry-down, this shimmery party sobers-up to a melancholic blue. WWI has come and now that golden dream is woken to a new world; a new paradigm. While not losing its warm earthiness, the blue-violet and brown palette of iris, tonka bean and ironically, benzoin unravels, contrasting this joyous celebration of warmth and light into quietness, darkness - but not Maccabe.

The final notes of powdery vanilla in the last chapter are the most feminine and are memories of an era that is passed.

In summary, this scent starts loud, climaxes to melancholy, and then that golden loudness is echoed in a meditative dance of memory. The dream continues. It doesn't look back though. It may seem very much of a nostalgic scent, but L'Heure Bleue is still somehow a very modern perfume. It is a classic and does not date itself, as any good story or painting should.

This is def not the perfume for me. I hate the start - way too powdery and something else my inexperienced nose can't quite identify, probably iris. While I love how Iris flowers smell, I found out in sampling several that I am not a fan of iris in perfume :( I waited for the dry down and still not a happy camper. Everything is so faint that I can't really smell much. I hoped for the spicy notes and vanilla that was much lauded, but it's not there for me. Just powder after the first 30 min. and no projection.

2.5 Hr later.....totally a skin scent, only if I sniff my arm, but at least now I get what all the fuss is about :) This is a lovely scent now, soft, spicy, a hint of sweetness. if only it had some real sillage and projection, not to mention longevity. I really love it at this stage, but can't imagine spending real $$$ on this.

Chanel no. 5 and L'heure Bleue are absolutely nothing alike in the least. No. 5 is all about bright aldehydes, ylang and florals, whereas L'heure Bleue is far more vanillic, powdery, heliotrope with that classic "Guerlainade" iris-bergamot base blend that Guerlain is famous for. Only an inexperienced nose would confuse the two classic fragrances. Of the two, L'heure Bleue is older, catering to the refined tastes of pre-WWI Victorian fashions. While No. 5 was seen as avant-garde and ground breakingly modern and original when it premiered in 1921. LB is magic in a bottle! I ADORE all the varations of L'heure bleue: the parfum and edp are sharper with spicy carnation and stronger Guerlainade base, while the edt is softer, more vanillic, like a caress. Sadly, the aldehydes in no. 5 render it unwearable on myself as aldehydes are migraine inducing to me.

Dear reviewer "nhledger", L'heure bleue can't possibly be a dupe of Chanel 5 simply because LHB comes from 1912 and Chanel No. 5 from 1921. Maybe the other way around...
And of course, LHB is so very beautiful, sophisticated and timeless, whereas Chanel 5 Edp fades soon to smth. very uninteresting. The Edt version of Chanel 5 is better.

Sombre and melancholy, the fragrance of a woman's cherished reminiscence of someone once loved. By the bluish light of evening, the remembrance of a treasured love, silken sheets, a secret longing, memories, and the ebbing warmth of the heart's flush. A floral embrace of rose, carnation, tuberose, violet and neroli on a warm, blue, romantic base of vanilla, tonka bean, iris and benzoin. Subtle, mysterious, contemplative, and complex, like the memory of a long ago love.

Heliotrope bomb. So soapy, powdery, cozy and comforting. Easily a signature scent. Such a beautiful classic that I really enjoy owning and wearing. I feel like I've finally "grown into" vintage Guerlain as I previously felt too young to appreciate this. These vintage Guerlains are like fine, dry wine. You have to develop a palate for them. So glad I'm finally here!

L'Heure Bleue, at least in its present form, is one of a dozen Guerlains which, if you've smelled one you've smelled them all. I wanted this to be a mysterious, wistful twilight enchanted garden. Instead it was the same old musky iris. Nothing else. L'Heure Bleue, L'Instant Magic, Iris Ganache, Parure, Shalimar Parfum Initial L'Eau Si Sensuelle...I'm getting tired of this game.

L’Heure Bleue is my new favourite scent for night and bedtime. I would describe this as a ”floriental”. It’s sweet, a little spicy, powdery and floral. On my skin it also turn a bit like the smell of a luxurious soap. This scent makes me calm and put all my stress away from a busy day.

This is one of the best perfumes in the world. It’s truly a masterpiece, so beautiful and elegant. Please go and sniff it if you haven’t!

I have very mixed feelings about this fragrance, which, like a few other Guerlain classics, is only cursed by its age and originality. When this first appeared, it must have been magical! The powder note has a certain vivacity to it, almost like an electric charge. I agree with other reviewers who have commented on the appropriateness of the name: the violet-neroli-rose heart has something of a faded blue melancholy to it. The drydown is by far the best part, and lasts quite a while: the powder fades and the carnation, tonka, and aniseed settle into a warm, spicy radiance. It truly is the olfactory analogue to the slow slippage from early dusk to nightfall. There is no doubt that this is a magnificent fragrance.

However, it seems pretty clear to me that many perfumes and other scented products that followed have adopted a similar note profile. At first spray, I was overwhelmed by an agressive baby lotion/mineral oil smell. It wasn't until I spent some time with L'heure bleue that I was able to appreciate the layers inside the powder bomb and the lovely drydown. I wouldn't say that this smells old, necessarily, or synthetic, but for many, the olfactory associations are going to be off-putting. Compared to her sister Mitsouko, L'heure bleue is less versatile, less elegant, even more feminine, and better for daytime wear. I get the impression that this fragrance would vary considerably depending on temperature and humidity, so it may just be a matter of finding the right season to wear it in. I think it performs better on fabrics than on skin; a spritz on your pyjamas or bedsheets before bed is a good way to approach it at first. I'm still very pleased to have this as part of my collection.

I can't review yet...I just purchased from Zulily. (PLEASE tell me that is a reputable site for perfumes.) Anyway, just wanted to say that reading all these reviews makes me so anxious to own a bottle. LOVE all Guerlains so far...maybe Chant d'Aromes not so much...but all the rest I have, I love. Wish me luck! ;)