Chant d’Arômes: Jean-Paul Guerlain’s spring symphony for the woman of his life Chant d’Arômes is the first perfume composed by Jean-Paul Guerlain for a young woman audience. Far from Nahema and Chamade, voluptuous and oriental sweetness, Guerlain composes this beautiful perfumed music as a tribute to the woman of his life.
The house of Guerlain is certainly the most famous family saga, as each perfumer in the family, from Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain to Jean-Paul Guerlain, has managed to carry on the legacy of a unique expertise. Chant d’Arômes marks the passing of the legacy from Jacques Guerlain to his grandson Jean-Paul. Chant d’Arômes would be Jean-Paul Guerlain’s first solo perfume, but also one of the first perfumes for young girls in modern perfumery.
Chant d’Arômes, the first perfumed song by Jean-Paul Guerlain
As early as 1957, Jacques Guerlain, the house's esteemed perfumer since the beginning of the century, named his grandson Jean-Paul Guerlain as the house’s official perfumer. Having grown older, the creator preferred to accompany the new perfumer rather than continue composing himself. This is how the two men together created Ode and then the legendary Vétiver. But during the creation phase of what would become Chant D’Aromes, the grandfather stepped aside for his grandson, considering himself too old for modern perfumery, especially since the 1960s called for an almost constant desire for novelty.
Thus it was Jean-Paul Guerlain who, for the first time, found himself facing the perfume organ to compose Chant d’Arômes, an essence he composed so that his young companion, more fond of Ma Griffe by Carven than of Guerlain's perfumes for women, would finally wear a Guerlain fragrance.
Chant d’Arômes therefore marks a turning point in the history of Guerlain, both through its scents intended for romantic yet sensual young women and through the fact that it was the very first grand creation of the man who would distinguish himself as the master of contrasts and opposites. Moreover, well before Anaïs Anaïs, Chant d’Arômes is considered the first perfume for young women, a boldness very representative of Jean-Paul Guerlain’s style.
Chant d'Arômes is a charming spring bouquet. Filled with hidden meaning, its sillage hints at the warmth of fire beneath the ice. Guerlain on Chant d’Arômes.
One of the first perfumes for young girls, Chant d’Arômes by Guerlain
From the very first moments of this lovely Chant d’Arômes, it becomes clear that Jean-Paul Guerlain’s style of perfumery is a complex one that plays with contrasts and opposites to better seduce us. Indeed, while the flowers of Chant d’Arômes are meant to be soft, delicate and romantic, each one carries a precise meaning in the language of love. A meaning that is not without a certain sensuality, much like its intense depths...
Thus, the freshness of the top notes of Chant d’Arômes quickly gives way to a magnificent bouquet of flowers composed of jasmine, ylang-ylang and the rather rare, in perfumery, gardenia absolute. Gardenia thus lends the beauty of its green, opulent accords to the other sun-kissed flowers, bringing grace and luminosity right to the heart. Finally, the lovely Guerlinade of the house’s traditional perfumes comes to color this romantic spring bouquet with a touch of sensuality, beautifully capturing that delicate age between adolescence and adulthood, that age of the awakening of love...