A citrus breath over the Shalimar fragrance. The Guerlain family has always been fascinated by exotic lands. Thus, many countries have served as a source of inspiration for its creations. India is one of its favorite territories of exploration.
The house of Guerlain is certainly one of the oldest perfume houses to offer great fragrance successes, from Eau de Cologne Impériale in 1853 to La Petite Robe Noire in 2012! This success, which seems never to run dry, is of course due to the exceptional quality of the fragrances but also to the remarkable ability of the six official Guerlain perfumers to always surprise us with major olfactory discoveries, like the precious Shalimar which in 1925 brought oriental accords into women's fragrances.
When orange blossom becomes the star of Shalimar Souffle d'Oranger
When Thierry Wasser arrived at the much-coveted position of official perfumer of the house of Guerlain in the early 2010s, it was clear to him that he had to preserve at all costs the enormous olfactory heritage of his house while knowing how to make it evolve with the times. Thus, he protected the formula of Nahema from suspicions about the potential allergenic nature of Bulgarian rose by reformulating it as close as possible to its original, just as he protected the fragrance formulas of all the perfumes that have marked the history of the house.
So why did Thierry Wasser wish to offer variations on the splendid Shalimar? Simply out of a spirit of innovation, the same spirit that led each Guerlain perfumer to leave their mark on the history of perfumery. Thus Shalimar Parfum Initial offers a new light on the beautiful oriental, and the splendid Shalimar Souffle d'Oranger magnifies the overdose of citrus notes of the original bottle in order to create a fragrance as sunny and fresh as ever.
So Shalimar Souffle d'Oranger in no way betrays the splendid Shalimar that introduced oriental notes to women in the 1920s. It revives the myth through intense work around an orange blossom that Thierry Wasser adores and nurtures from its harvest to its bottling.
Shalimar Souffle d'Oranger, light in a fragrance
It was the oriental notes, later to be called the Guerlinade, that made Shalimar so talked about in the 1920s through the power of its vanilla sillage punctuated with tonka bean, civet and patchouli.
In this 2019 opus, Shalimar Souffle d'Oranger, we will of course find this signature depth of Shalimar, so attached is the perfumer to its heritage. However, it will not be the sensuality of the Guerlinade that takes center stage this time, but rather the work carried out by the perfumer around orange blossom, which appears, a rare and unprecedented thing for Guerlain, in all its facets and possible extractions. Let us recall that from orange blossom one can produce neroli flower absolute as well as orange blossom water, the fruit's zest yields the essence, and by using the twigs and leaves of the orange tree, we obtain petitgrain; we will indeed find all these elements in the splendid Shalimar Souffle d'Oranger.
Shalimar Souffle d'Oranger thus opens on a green citrus departure of bergamot, neroli and petitgrain. At the heart, neroli flower and jasmine offer their floral and sun-kissed opulence, which will continue into gentle sensualities of sandalwood, vanilla and orange blossom.