L’Instant Magic, so that the dream becomes reality. Guerlain was founded in 1928 by Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain. At first, this vinegar-maker-turned-perfumer sold sapoceti (whale-fat soap scented with natural essences), as well as eaux de toilette and skincare creams. Today, Guerlain is known worldwide. The house has established its style of elegance and luxury. Since its creation, Guerlain has imagined more than 300 perfumes.
In 2003, the house of Guerlain offered us the magic of the meeting of two bodies under the delicate name L’Instant. A beautiful floral oriental orchestrated by Marcel Roucel and Sylvaine Delacourte. Then in 2007, the venerable house of Guerlain offered us a new magical instant, both linked to the first and yet very different: L’Instant Magic, precisely… Magical through its woody scents, and so soft through its velvety musks.
L’Instant Magic, or Randa Hammami's “muscinade” for Guerlain
Although L’Instant Magic is the brilliant successor to L’Instant, it is nonetheless very different. As for L’Instant, the goal for perfumer Marcel Roucel was to draw the olfactory portrait of the carnal encounter between two beings. L’Instant is therefore a skin scent, but also a very luminous, fresh and amber perfume. As for L’Instant Magic, the aim is entirely different…
This new Instant bears no lineage in its genesis with the original L’Instant, except for a freshness that runs through the entire composition. The first is a floral oriental, whereas L’Instant Magic expresses a different sensuality. Sylvaine Delacourte on L’Instant Magic by Guerlain.
Indeed, the two perfumers behind L’Instant Magic, Randa Hammami and Sylvaine Delacourte, this time sought to represent the softness and voluptuousness of dreams through an overdose of musks. Thus, instead of featuring the traditional guerlinade, the creators chose to craft for L’Instant Magic a “muscinade,” as a delightful nod to the great successes of the house of Guerlain.
White musks also inspired me for L’Instant Magic, which I worked on with the same perfumer. I wanted an overdose of white musks dressed in a large proportion of beautiful natural materials. Sylvaine Delacourte on L’Instant Magic.
An Instant Magic elevated by a bitter almond scent worthy of the most beautiful dreams…
While Sylvaine Delacourte wanted reinforced white musk accords for L’Instant Magic, it was indeed Randa Hammami who brought to these cottony accords a completely unprecedented bitter almond note. The bitter almond from the perfumer of triple nationality thus gave L’Instant Magic its warm comfort, but also a slightly regressive quality!
The meeting between these two women, very different yet ultimately highly complementary, made it possible to compose a truly original olfactory pyramid for L’Instant Magic. While the bergamot freshness of the previous Instant remains in this Instant Magic, the splendor of roses and freesias is quickly tinged with Sylvaine Delacourte's famous “musks.” Thus, the overdose of white musks paired with sandalwood and cedarwood forms the soft bed of intense depths in L’Instant Magic. As for the bitter almond, it offers a reassuring and enveloping touch to these musky warmths.
L’Instant Magic seems to be the quintessence of four-handed work between perfumers. Between Randa Hammami and Sylvaine Delacourte, despite coming from very different backgrounds, an obvious synergy created the best of accords, and certainly one of the most original of the house of Guerlain. L’Instant Magic was such a success that they decided to collaborate again on a second perfume: Cruel Gardénia.