Cologne du 68

Historic and stirring in its elegance and restraint, the lovely modern Cologne proves the incomparable expertise of the venerable house. At a time when perfumery adorns itself with ostentatious luxuries, Cologne du 68 returns to basics...

A modernized Cologne for a return to Guerlain’s roots

The legendary address of the Guerlain boutique and workshop on the Champs-Élysées embodies all the grandeur and importance of the reputation of a house of perfumery soon to turn 200 years old. In fact, by settling in what was still in 1914 merely a modest shopping avenue, Raymond Guerlain once again made a bold but winning wager. Very quickly, Parisian women flocked in great numbers to this temple of fragrant creation and luxury, which would never move from this address, so symbolic is it of the fabulous history of the house of Guerlain.

In order to pay tribute to this rich past, Sophie Labbé, together with Sylvaine Delacourte, developed a pure and brilliant fragrance, modern and refined, while affirming the values of the past by daring to revisit the Eau de Cologne, a category with an old-fashioned connotation for decades nonetheless.

Cologne 68 hardly needs loud communication to exist and prefers to surround itself with the finest raw materials to let its gentle scents of the South breathe, offering them to the fortunate customers who know to seek them out...

Cologne 68, or the encounter of raw materials of excellence for an ultramodern Cologne

Far from Guerlain’s great commercial successes, Cologne du 68 aims to be understated, pared-down and restrained, at the opposite end of the spectrum from the great fragrances that built the house’s magnificent reputation. Thus, for its only luxury, the Cologne 68 bottle is adorned with a precious wood cap, though its glass is simple and its label is decorated only with the 68 raw materials composing the fragrance. Nothing more, for the magic of the composition is there to do the rest!

Sylvaine Delacourte, an admirer of Corsica and its floral, spring scents of immortelle, states that with Cologne 68 she wanted to pay tribute to this fantastic scent: at the origin of Cologne 68, this creation is in a way a summary of my vacations, between the salty freshness of the beach shores and the spicy warmth of the maquis. Thus the top notes turn citrus thanks to green mandarin and petitgrain, while being punctuated with delicate aromatic touches such as star anise from China, coriander from Russia, or cardamom from Guatemala. Then the floral, syrupy heart of orange blossom and immortelle from Yugoslavia is colored with pepper, ginger, cardamom and coriander, giving it body or “Corsing” it on the skin. Finally, the deep woody scents of this Cologne 68 come to propel all these raw materials of excellence, making them resonate like the strings of the finest instrument.

Cologne 68 carries no commercial concept, no face of the campaign, no flattering advertising. Instead, it carries with it the memory of a vacation stroll that irresistibly melts onto the skin, only to bring it back to life as fragrance.