Mitsouko

By evoking the beginnings of its creation and its name, a fabulous impossible love story, or simply by understanding the historical and cultural context of that turbulent postwar era. Despite the decades, Mitsouko has kept its share of mystery and joy, of refined feminine independence and amorous lightness… The magic of a modernity that never fades.

Mitsouko and postwar perfumes for emancipated, free women

If, as one advertisement for Mitsouko proclaimed, the secret of charm is not to reveal everything, the beautiful love story behind this perfume fully deserves to be revealed.

In 1909 Claude Farrère, a close friend of Jacques Guerlain, published La Bataille, recounting the terrible 1905 war between Russia and Japan, but also the passionate love story that united an English admiral with a beautiful, mysterious and passionate Japanese woman, Mitsouko. A tragic story that revealed a captivating and profound woman, yet also dignified and determined, despite the evident impossibility of her romance. In tribute to this magnificent heroine and to his friend’s spirited writing, Jacques Guerlain decided to name his new perfume Mitsouko.

While Mitsouko is a literary heroine, she is also highly representative of the more assertive, liberated femininity of the postwar era, the famed Roaring Twenties. It is precisely to this new Woman that Guerlain dedicates its perfume: she is at once conquering and maternal, exuberant and deeply reserved. Just like Mitsouko...

Mitsouko and its innovative peach note, for the very first chypre-fruity

The bottle of Mitsouko, identical to that of L’Heure Bleue, serves its extraordinary juice by revealing a modern Art Nouveau artistic sensibility with its glass arabesques, while retaining the square shape so representative of Guerlain perfumes. As for the inverted heart-shaped cap, a technical feat by Georges Chevalier, it was designed to metaphorically symbolize the impossible love of the gentle Mitsouko.

The juice of Mitsouko, itself made of contrasts, offers both magnificent fruity modernities and traditional chypre notes revisited to perfection. In the top notes, the very sweet notes of bergamot, lemon and mandarin open the nose to fresh and precious scents. In the heart, one has the pleasure of discovering, for the first time in perfumery, a synthetic peach note recreated through the laboratory development of the famous Aldehyde C14. This velvety, sweet, almost candied peach blends beautifully with notes of May rose, ylang-ylang, jasmine and neroli. Finally, this magnificent perfume closes on spicy depths of clove and cinnamon combined with a perfectly executed chypre built on vetiver, labdanum, patchouli and oakmoss.

Mitsouko is a deep, captivating perfume that has never ceased to be loved, both for the richness of its floral and chypre scents and for its dazzling peach modernities. It speaks to women of character, and regardless of the era, it charms as much as it ignites passion… Today it is considered a masterpiece of balance and originality.