Idylle

For the first time since its august beginnings in perfumery, the house of Guerlain chose in 2008 a nose who would not be a Guerlain, but rather a great creative talent named Thierry Wasser. Barely arrived within the venerable house, he composed his first perfumed creation, which would be called Idylle. The divine Idylle takes us into scents of joyful roses and a creamy, wonderfully enveloping patchouli.

Idylle, or the very first perfume by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain

Throughout its history, the house of Guerlain has offered roses and joyful, sometimes radiant flowers, always elegant and at times even sophisticated. Of course, these floral perfumes were accompanied by the no less famous “Guerlinade”, composed of woody and intense depths, which since Après l'Ondée has become the hallmark of Guerlain perfumes.

When Guerlain decided to break with the tradition of the family inheritance of the house's official nose, it turned to a creative and modern perfumer who brought new life to the venerable fragrances of the house. Thierry Wasser came to shake up Guerlain's codes while still drawing on the house's ancestral compositional patterns, and his very first creation, Idylle, quickly set the tone for what the era of Guerlain perfumes under Thierry Wasser would be.

Idylle, though highly innovative, is above all the perfume of boundless romantic happiness, the joyful perfume of encounters that change a life or mark it forever.

Thierry Wasser reveals that at the time of creating Idylle, he was very much in love and very happy, and that he wanted to shout his happiness and tell a light, cheerful and happy story.

Idylle, or the tribute to a modern and joyful rose chypre in a perfume

Idylle would thus be the perfumer's delicate compromise between traditional Guerlain floral scents and gourmand or sensual modern touches.

Thus, for Idylle, Thierry Wasser chose raw materials that are as rare as they are delicate, remaining faithful to Guerlain's tradition of prestige. For example, the Bulgarian roses in the top notes are, as the house of Guerlain tells it, hand-picked in the Bulgarian valleys at sunrise. Of course, the floral bouquet of the heart is likewise very faithful to Guerlain traditions, but these floral notes awaited the perfumer's creativity to truly bloom.

The top notes of Idylle are far fresher than usual, but above all they are paired with a fruity rose enhanced in its gourmand quality by lychee and raspberry. Finally, the depths are far more tied to chypre accords than to the traditional Guerlinade, a first, and quite a bold move at that. The roundness of the powerful and very present patchouli of Idylle nestles into velvety white musks, also entirely unprecedented for Guerlain. These modern and enveloping depths naturally highlight the roundness of this luminous, floral perfume, exuding the traditional generosity found in all the great Guerlain perfumes after all.

I succeeded Jean-Paul Guerlain on June 2, 2008. On the 3rd, I began working on Idylle, which was launched in 2009. I made this bouquet that today, with six years' hindsight from its creation date, I would call a bit naive. Yet Idylle is dear to my heart precisely because of that kind of naivety. Le Temps, Thierry Wasser for Idylle by Guerlain.