L’Heure Bleue is the eau de parfum that Jacques Guerlain composed in 1912 for Guerlain, a floral amber that the house now sells under the name L’Heure Bleue 1912, in the Les Légendaires collection. Anise and bergamot in the top notes, carnation and neroli in the heart, iris, violet, vanilla, benzoin and tonka bean in the base; inverted heart bottle, 75 ml.
The 1912 inverted heart bottle, with Art Nouveau volute shoulders and a hollowed-out cap: Guerlain credits it to Raymond Guerlain, with Baccarat according to Delacourte.
Guerlain attributes the 1912 bottle to Raymond Guerlain and considers it a technical feat: a hollowed-out heart-shaped cap, called an inverted heart, which the house deems avant-garde, set atop shoulders with Art Nouveau volutes. Delacourte confirms the name of Raymond Guerlain and adds the collaboration of Baccarat.
Feydeau, for her part, credits the design to Georges Chevalier at Baccarat and counts five glassmakers involved in its production: Pochet et du Courval, Baccarat, Saint-Gobain Desjonquères, the Cristalleries de Nancy and the Romesnil glassworks. She recalls that an identical bottle had held Fôl Arôme in 1911.
The hollowed-out cap, which Feydeau also calls a gendarme's hat, would be used for Mitsouko in 1919, like two apostrophes bracketing the Great War, she writes; Delacourte sees in it a parenthesis opened and closed by the war. In 2012, for the centennial, the house revisited it for its special editions.
The 1912 version is now sold in a 75 ml spray bottle, with a complimentary personalized engraving. In 2026, Guerlain reuses this shape for its new eau de parfum, in a deep blue gradient with gold lettering, designed to be refilled.