Jicky

The first modern perfume that paved the way for all other creations, which would from then on draw inspiration not only from Nature but also from the imagination of their creator. Ambivalent and complex, contrasted and striking, in the image of Guerlain's muse, Jicky remains an olfactory legend in its own right.

Jicky, or the perfume revolution by Aimé Guerlain

Aimé Guerlain, still a young perfumer at the end of the 19th century, decided to discover new horizons and left Paris for England. Beyond his many discoveries, he found love there in a passionate and impetuous woman whom he wanted to bring back with him to Paris to pursue his career and take over the perfumery left by his father. Unfortunately, faced with the refusal of the young lady's parents, he had to return to France alone.

Twenty-eight years later, in the era of the Eiffel Tower and multiple industrial revolutions, Aimé Guerlain chose to pay tribute to his impossible youthful love by creating a wholly original fragrance in her name: Jicky.

Beyond the olfactory revolution that Jicky represents in presenting synthetic facets alongside natural raw materials, Jicky tells a story. Jicky is dreamed and imagined, then felt. Unimaginable in the era of Eaux de Cologne! Yet Jicky, fresh and sensual at once, would seduce an audience that was far more masculine than feminine, because the sublime fragrance, in addition to being wholly innovative, presented a striking androgyny that would cause a stir... And which would then seduce whoever came near it.

In the image of all its striking contrasts, the advertising devised for Jicky would play on these different effects to better astonish... The birth of Jicky would mark a decisive turning point for the house of Guerlain toward a now international and thoroughly unassailable reputation!

Jicky, the very first perfume of modern perfumery, an androgynous revolution

As already noted, whether through its name referring to Aimé Guerlain's first love or to Jacques Guerlain (also called “Jicky”), his nephew, Jicky is mysterious. Deliberately ambivalent, Jicky would parade in a bottle with very masculine, very geometric lines, reminiscent of pharmacy vials.

As for Jicky's composition, it is also very mixed, able to be worn by a man as much as by a woman, but also highly innovative through the use, for the first time, of synthetic notes such as vanillin or coumarin. Indeed, the top notes seem at first rather masculine, marked by the freshness of the aromatic notes of lavender, bergamot and rosemary. Then, surprisingly, the heart is instead very feminine thanks to the floral magic of rosewood, jasmine and rose. Finally, we witness what specialists would call the first stirrings of the Guerlinade, thanks to powerful, animalic base notes of civet, tonka bean and coumarin, punctuated by the gourmand character of vanillin.

With Jicky, for the very first time, a perfume was described as built on accords of abstract perfumery, unlike its predecessors in figurative perfumery (inspired solely by the scents of Nature). Playful and dynamic, sensual while remaining bold, Jicky quickly became men's favorite perfume, before finally being embraced by women years later. Heralding new modern olfactory works, it [Jicky] is the founding father of the legendary Shalimar, according to the house of Guerlain.