Cuir Beluga

Guerlain presents it as an untamable leather softened by vanilla notes, as velvety as white suede, and gives it as its image an interior decorated by Jean-Michel Frank. In the 1930s, the house recalls, Jacques Guerlain entrusted this decorator with the boutique at 68, avenue des Champs-Élysées, lined with white suede.

2005, the birth of L’Art & La Matière

Sylvaine Delacourte, then creative director of Guerlain, recounts on her blog the genesis: an accord by Olivier Polge smelled one evening at a fragrance composition company, reworked the very next day around a synthetic leather note, sudéral, since birch was no longer permitted. The collection was born in 2005 with Maison Guerlain.

Now Smell This, in December 2005, describes a trio launched for the boutique's reopening, where three perfumers each showcase a material: Polge takes on leather. Juliette Faliu, on Auparfum, dates to 2005 what she considers one of perfumery's first modern leathers, a luxury handbag in a bottle.

What the house makes of it today

Guerlain markets Cuir Beluga as the collection's best-seller, in 50, 100 and 200 ml, with a hair mist and a scented ritual. Thierry Wasser, quoted by the house, sees in it a leather usually dark that, paired with vanilla, becomes powdery and addictive, in the spirit of Frank's pure and refined style.