u/LIFTMakeUp

I'm currently having a Légendaires hyper focus/mini obsession and am trying to narrow down my list of things to properly try on skin next...

Currently, my two faves that I'm wearing almost constantly are: **Idylle** and **Terracotta**.

They both seem to work for every occasion, are pretty and uplifting without being suffocating, whilst being comforting and almost...familiar?

I love the blend of lily and fresh, dewy white florals in Idylle, and in a total sucker for ylang, gardenia and tiare so adding a coconut note made Terracotta an absolute shoe in for me (and when I wear it, I can't stop shoving my head inside my t-shirt to take big deep sniffs!)

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I also own L'Instant de Guerlain but though it's very pleasant, currently the honey note isn't as much of a hit as it might be in cooler weather and for a perfect honey hit, I'd reach more for Tobacco Honey for the smokiness it beautifully combines with.

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So, on my hit list to try next, I've got my eye (and hopefully nose) on:

* Après L'ondée

* Chants d'arome

* Champs Élysée

* Jardins de Bagatelles

* Chamade

* L'heure Bleue

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*For reference, from the rest of the Guerlains I own here's my ratings:*

* Vetiver Fauve - 9.5/10 (something about the creamy fig with pineapple, made earthy with vetiver and cypress REALLY floats my boat! The way it evolves across the day is extraordinary).

* Angélique Noire - just unapologetically sweet, pink, feminine vanilla. 8.5/10.

* SDV - like a creme anglais with a hint of baked apple. Yum. 8.5/10

* Tobacco honey - photorealistic honey and tobacco. Simple but beautifully done. Insane longevity and perfect for a night out. 9/10

* Cuir Beluga - soft suede-y vanilla. So good. I love leather and this aspect really makes the vanilla soft and less sickly/gourmand on me. 8/10

* Pêche Mirage - a new sample but promising, after the dry down, I don't think I would pick up a peach note if I was blind sniffing, but it's still very comforting, creamy, rounded and pretty. Very hard to describe but lovely for warmer months, I imagine. 8/10 so far.

* Rose Cherie. Perfectly rose, but a little traditionally rose to me. 6.5/10.

* Oud Cherry. The only one I've tried that I've had to scrub, unfortunately. I could only get very pungent oud, which I'm not a fan of. No discernible cherry, alas. 1/10.

* Shalimar Millésime Rose. Early days but I don't get much of the Shalimar, just a very powdery rose. Pretty, but somehow reminds me of baby powder. If you have Rose Cherie, I don't think you need this. 5/10 so far.

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Other notes I tend to love:

Mimosa, tomato leaf, Cassis, Ylang, tiare, sunscreen/coconut, yuzu/lime, mandarin, black/jasmine tea, fig, jasmine, gardenia, iris/orris, tonka, creamy sandalwood, strawberry.

GUYS.

I've bought FOUR*. FULL. BOTTLES. Of Guerlain.

In a week.

Wth???

It started last week after already planning to get into a shop and get my nose on some of Les Légendaires....

Then seeing a post about Idylle whilst on my way to an airport that turned out to have a Guerlain stand in duty free (inc about 8 of Les Légendaires.... I call that FATE. Definitely nothing to do with being easily influenced/over consumption...)

I fell in love with - and ended up leaving with! - both Idylle and Terracotta.

But also with a piqued interest in L'Instant...which I then found for a great price (£67!) and bought the next day!

Theeeennnn a couple of days ago, Shalimar Millésime Rose was launched and I saw that it was selling straight out (in the US at least) so I decided that I would finally grab the discovery set for L'art and La Matière along with a bottle of the Millésime Rose (obvi a completely blind buy for this one but I consider Guerlain to be a relatively safe house when it comes to blind buys, and have heard great things about the other Millésime flankers - am actually on the hunt for the Jasmin!).

With the Discovery Set, I've had it in the basket for a while - though I already have a fair few of these - Angélique Noire, Cuir Beluga, Tobacco Honey, SDV - already in travel or mini sizes. But it's a great price (£45), and I wanted to properly try Neroli Outrenoir so I was happy to top up my mini sizes. Also, for whatever reason I thought it came with another I've wanted to try for a while: Herbes Troublant - but it doesn't 😭 it's the musc outreblanc.

Anyway, they arrived today, along with the two samples I chose (Pêche Mirage which I've wanted to try on skin for a while now, and another 2ml of SDV which I am never gonna knock more of!) - however, I realised looking through the samples that the Cuir Beluga is almost entirely gone, and the SDV is down to about a CM in the bottom! Not sure what's happened there - it was completely sealed and nothing is wet? Anyway, I've messaged them about that...

So, a mini review:

Idylle - a LOVE. I've worn this every single day since I've bought it. It's uplifting, spring-fresh floral without feeling cloying or old fashioned. It's clean, dewy lily/peony which give me soapy fresh and cosy in the best way, and I find it super pretty 😍.
Terracotta - amazingly, also a LOVE. And I never hear about this one, or had any notion of what it would be before I sampled it, but it's such a beautiful, comforting, happy fragrance. Fantastic warm weather scent (or to evoke the feeling of warm weather). To be fair, if I'd seen that it contained coconut, ylang, jasmine and tiare, I probably could have guessed that it is a bit of me, and would have been right on the money - summer, beach, tropical but still clean and cosy and almost familiar (probably because it is based on the terracotta makeup scent). I don't get a ton of coconut to be honest, but there is that sense of expensive sunscreen about it, and it gives me a bit of gardenia though that's not a listed note to my knowledge. Dry down is A+++. I just wished it lasted a little longer, but 4-5hrs is good and I've applied this in the evenings every day this week.
L'Instant - this is just a like so far, but might be due to how it's falling into the shadow of two LOVES (Idylle/Terracotta) which fit the season perfectly. I feel like this might find it's time to shine at another point. I certainly enjoy it, but not in the same, obsessively-huffing-inside-my-sweater way of the other two. Certainly not sad to have this bargain in my collection!
Discovery set: given the evaporation of the CB/SDV I'm not going to comment on the scents in the set as I think there is an overall issue with this box, but from the other samples I've got, I adore Angelique Noire (sweet, pink vanilla - I've ended up getting two 2mls and a 10ml of this but might stop short of a full bottle as it's not an everyday wear for me), SDV (smells exactly like vanilla crème anglaise with a hint of baked apple to me - in the best way), Tobacco Honey (an absolutely perfect representation of both tobacco and honey - simple and beautiful. Very unisex and chic) and Cuir Beluga (soft suede-y vanilla - yum).
Pêche Mirage - need to do a proper wear but so far it strikes me like a peach shampoo/conditioner smell. Which isn't a bad thing, but I think I was expecting something more unique. TBC.
Shalimar Millésime Rose - was super excited for this, though I have basically zero recollection of what the original Shalimar smells like! The bottle is STUNNING and the fragrance is slightly rose pink tinted which is a lovely touch. Sadly, I think this reads too traditionally, powdery rose on my skin for my taste. It is far from unpleasant but gives a talc-like/baby powder scent - however, I'll give it a proper wear over time before I make my mind up for sure.

Anyway, here are some pics from the new hauls and with the existing Guerlain collection (all travels/minis except one full bottle of Vetiver Fauve - my green/fig LOVE).

(*Oh, and this obnoxious perfume accumulation spree doesn't include the fact that I went to a perfume blending workshop at Experimental Perfume Club on Wednesday and have a 50ml of new fragrance I made from that! I didn't pay for that bottle as the workshop was a birthday gift but still...!)

Guerlain Les Légendaires: tell me your hits, misses and what's on your to try list!

A week of random Guerlain purchasing: the good, the bad, and the evaporated...